Democracy Rising Marks 1,000 Days Since The Pay Raise

From Tim Potts at DemocracyRisingPa:

Reality Check
1,000 - Days since the Pay Raise of 2005.
2 - Laws enacted to improve government integrity. See the cartoon.
0 - "Best-in-America" laws enacted. See the campaign.
See the full April edition of "Reality Check" on the web.

1,000 Days
It's been 1,000 days since the Pay Raise of 2005, and this could be the last time we mention it. But we have to observe how little state government has done to remove corruption and raise standards of public integrity.

This is especially poignant for those who remember the 1,000 days of President John F. Kennedy's Administration. At a time when the Soviet Union, America's Cold War adversary, had dramatically demonstrated superiority in missile technology, Kennedy announced our determination to "put a man on the moon and return him safely to earth" by the end of the 1960's. He created the Peace Corps and the Food for Peace program to prove that America could use peaceful means to compete with the Soviet Union for the hearts and minds of people in developing nations.

Kennedy also had his failings. The attempt to overthrow Cuba's Fidel Castro at the Bay of Pigs hurt America's image and strengthened Castro. He expanded America's disastrous involvement in Vietnam. While Kennedy sympathized with African-Americans' quest for equal rights, he did not lead the fight before his assassination as Lyndon Johnson did when he became President.

Back to PA. It's safe to say that voters have done more than their public officials to improve state government in the past 1,000 days. Beginning with the defeat of former Supreme Court Justice Russell Nigro that forced the repeal of the pay raise in 2005, voters turned out in higher numbers than expected to replace four legislative leaders and dozens of rank-and-file lawmakers a year later. In January 2007, 56 new lawmakers took office, replacing 24 who were defeated; 31 who retired rather than face the voters; and 1 who left for another job.

Before the 2008 elections, another 25 lawmakers are retiring, and two (potentially three) have been removed from the ballot because of flawed nominating petitions. So between November of 2006 and January of 2009, voters will replace at least 83 incumbents. That's one-third of the General Assembly, creating new opportunities for improving state government.

What has state government done? It ended our reign as the only state, for five years, that had no law to control lobbying. But our new law is weak and does not do what two-thirds of Pennsylvanians want: prohibit lobbyists from providing gifts, meals, travel and other inducements to public officials.

We have a new open records law for the first time in 50 years, but it too is weak. It allows the legislature and judiciary to police themselves, inviting corruption, and penalties for public officials who violate the law are just about meaningless.

Nothing that the legislature has done in 1,000 days gives PA bragging rights for the best that American representative democracy has to offer. Among many other things, there have been no improvements in:

* Changing our second-worst system for drawing legislative districts (see below)
Prohibiting lame-duck session, favored by 82 percent of PA voters
* Making elections accurate, reliable and verifiable as well as leveling the playing field for all candidates
* Auditing the legislature according to generally accepted auditing principles
Revising one of the weakest campaign funding laws in America
* Authorizing a Constitution convention to debate and decide reforms that lawmakers cannot force themselves to adopt

Nor has anything changed to prevent another Pay Raise of 2005. The General Assembly still can suspend the rules to adopt gut-and-replace laws, and they have refused to act on proposals for an independent body to study and recommend compensation for public officials. They are just biding their time.

Something Everyone Can Do
The competition of candidates and ideas is the heart of democracy, but PA's system for drawing legislative districts intentionally stifles competition. This year, the number of legislative districts with no competition in the primary is three to five times the number that do have competition. Unless third party candidates claw their way onto the ballot, half of the House seats and three-fourths of the Senate seats will have no competition in November.

It's just 84 days until June 23, the deadline for the House and Senate to improve how PA draws legislative districts. Make your voice heard now in newspapers, groceries, bars, beauty salons, civic groups, on radio - everywhere that creates a buzz lawmakers will hear.

Another decade of the worst - or the best - system is at stake.