When it comes to political and personal ethics in Connecticut government there is dumb and then there is dumber.
Paul Silvester, Joe Ganim, Phil Giordano and John Rowland all screwed up to varying degrees and ended up in prison. They would all be the first to admit — except it appears for Ganim and Giordano — that what they did was dumb. But there is a whole new class of dumber that has emerged in the second graduating class of Connecticut leaders who find themselves on the wrong side of the law.
Former State Sen. Ernie Newton of Bridgeport is at the head of this class for taking bribes at the same time the entire state was focused on the investigation into Rowland. If ever there was a time to straighten up and fly right, wouldn’t that have been it?
State Sen. Lou DeLuca — the one time minority leader of the Senate — is one of the legislators who marched into Rowland’s office in the late spring of 2004 to tell him he did not have the votes to survive an impeachment trial.
Before DeLuca arranged a meeting for himself in the equivalent of Joe Ganim’s diner, to bring in some muscle to settle a family dispute, you would think his Goldwater moment with Rowland would have flashed through his mind and stopped him.
Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez is the latest Connecticut politician who has either let his newspaper subscription lapse, or for some other reason has just failed to get the latest ethics memo. His home improvement case is a remarkable parallel to Rowland’s — the only difference being decorating taste.
We all learn from our mistakes, but Newton, DeLuca and Perez all failed to learn from the mistakes of others.
Sycophant Fever
Certain types of corruption are probably unstoppable. If an individual decides he is going to cross the line and start charging for his public service, there’s nothing any one, or any set of procedures, can do to stop it.
There’s another kind of corruption, best typified currently by DeLuca and Perez that might be stopped if politicians were willing to take daily advice on ethics.
Politicians are surrounded by staff. There’s the staff that actually carries out orders and run things while the politicians take credit, there’s the image staff and there are others who deliver messages, test the waters and look for next big move or winning issue.
Recent Connecticut history suggests there is a need for a new staff position for political office holders: The personal ethics assistant. This job would go to a trusted aide whose job would be to follow the office holder around in his public and his personal life and make sure the boss never crosses the line.
An ethics assistant would carry the politician’s money and credit cards and make sure every meal was paid for, every gift returned, every home improvement project properly permitted and paid for — half when the contract is signed and half upon completion — by a contractor from another town or state and within 30 days.
Politics and the fundraising that goes with it, is a highly social endeavor and more often than not it is the fertile ground from which springs corruption. The longer politicians stay in the game the harder it is for them to separate friendship from political partnership. Ironically, the non-political partners usually have no problem with the distinction.
Personal ethics assistants would not stop every player from going bad, but in some cases an aide dedicated to keeping a politician from crossing the line by saying “no” might save a few careers and spare taxpayers the cost of government corruption.
Dean Pagani is a former gubernatorial advisor. He is V.P. of Public Affairs for Cashman and Katz Integrated Communications in Glastonbury.
