He's a little late to the game, but Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine has called for the allocation of more money and more independence for the chronically underfunded and legislatively hamstrung State Ethics Commission.
Oxendine sent out a statement Friday urging that the commission "be established as an independent body with a funding mechanism which is free from political interference." That funding source could come from a beefed-up registration fee from lobbyists or a dedicated fee paid by candidates qualifying for state office or both, he suggested.
"It is unconscionable for our Georgia Ethics Commission to have to beg for money from the very people that they are trying to watch over," Oxendine said.
Ethics reform usually pops up as a campaign issue every time Georgia has a governor's race. In 2002, as I remember, Sonny Perdue made ethics reform one of the central issues in his underdog (and ultimately successful) campaign against incumbent Roy Barnes. Sonny swore he was gonna get some of them-there ethics for the good people of Georgia.
That was, however, before Perdue became the first governor in the state's history to be cited and fined (a total of $1,900) for an ethics law violation. It was also before Perdue's real estate attorney, Rep. Larry O'Neal, introduced a bill that was surreptitiously amended in a Senate committee and rushed through the House for final approval to give the governor his very own $100,000 tax exemption on an expensive real estate deal.
Yes, there's ethics, and then there's ethics. So it's only natural that the Ox would join candidates like Barnes and former secretary of state Karen Handel, among others, to urge stronger oversight of the behavior of elected officials. That's a good thing and we can all get behind it.
It is a little awkward, at the same time, for a candidate like Oxendine to be making demands for more authority for the State Ethics Commission. This is the same commission that launched an investigation several months ago into his receipt of $120,000 in contributions from insurance industry sources that fall under his regulatory control.
That money, which Oxendine returned after newspaper articles called attention to it, was funneled to the Oxendine campaign via a network of political action committees established in Alabama.
To hear Oxendine now urging more money and power for the Ethics Commission is a little like hearing Al Capone request additional funding for the FBI. But whatever.
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