In the introspective days following the case of former state Sen. Lou DeLuca, there was lots of talk at the Capitol about the need to establish a system that would allow the House and Senate to investigate and — if necessary — punish their own members for unacceptable behavior.
Unless I missed the news release (and I don’t believe I have), nothing ever really came of that idea.
In the time since, one legislator has been accused of having campaign finance documents falsified, another has admitted to double dipping between public funds and political action committee funds and a third is the subject of a police investigation into the death of a woman who froze to death in Rocky Hill. Oh, and the double dipper had also been accused earlier of having an improper relationship that may have led to a conflict of interest with a lobbyist for the Connecticut State University system.
Don’t blame the fact that you completely missed live coverage of the special committees of inquiry in any of these cases on the decline of the news media. In fact there have been no legislative committees of inquiry into any of these matters, because it would seem, the political leadership of the state has no problem with any of this behavior.
Only in the case of state Rep. James O’Rourke has the legislature itself taken action to discipline one of its own. It was reported in early May that police were seeking to charge O’Rourke with criminally negligent homicide in connection with the death of the woman who froze to death. It was hard for the House leadership to ignore that the words “state representative” and “criminally negligent homicide” were being used in the same sentence so he was stripped of his title of deputy speaker. Ouch!
When DeLuca faced expulsion he and his supporters often claimed that he was being unfairly treated because he is a Republican. They were wrong, but under the current circumstances the partisan argument has added credibility.
The state House and Senate are controlled overwhelmingly by the Democratic Party. It just so happens that all three of the biggest ethics cases — post DeLuca — involve Democrats. It leaves one to wonder how document falsification, double dipping (also known as stealing) and O’Rourke’s case would be handled if the shoe were on a Republican foot.
I predict they would be handled exactly the same way, because the bottom line is that incumbents protect each other until the public forces them to do otherwise. Neither Democrats nor Republicans were jumping at the opportunity to stand in judgment of DeLuca. They formed an investigatory committee only after they realized DeLuca’s guilty plea to a conspiracy to threaten charge would not be enough for the news media and the public.
You would think Republican legislators would seize on these ethics cases as a way to loosen Democratic control. That won’t happen because Republicans know their own members are one bad judgment away from being in the same position.
After 10 years of high-profile corruption cases, no one has learned a lesson about what it means to be a public servant in Connecticut. Our political leaders promise ethics, but only because they view it as necessary.
Dean Pagani is a former gubernatorial advisor. He is vice president of public affairs for Cashman and Katz Integrated Communications in Glastonbury.
Reader response:
“Gov. Rell needs for the voters of CT to write to all the elected officials and tell them exactly what they want for the State. If the people do not start taking an active hand with these officials, nothing is going to change until the middleclass (the taxpayers) has disapeared. Then with no funds coming in they may understand that the people they worked for no longer existed. It would be their turn to just disapear. Slide down the road to oblivion.” — Bonnie
