Lawmakers are painted into a corner on ethics

Apparently, the ethics initiative circulating the state in search of signatures right now is about as unifying as oil and water.

It's creating an interesting division. Current state lawmakers and politicians seem to oppose it, while former lawmakers and politicians seem to support it.

This offers an interesting view into human behavior and what it means to hold power.

No doubt, critics of the Legislature would look at this and say the sooner we turn current lawmakers into former lawmakers, the sooner we could get them to support tougher ethics laws. That may indeed be an argument current lawmakers have trouble countering.

On Monday last week, Utah's Republican Party issued a statement saying it officially opposes the initiative, a 21-page measure that would impose tough new standards on lawmakers and set up an independent ethics commission to "administer, implement and apply" it.

This, party chairman Dave Hansen said, does not mean the GOP opposes meaningful ethics reforms. He didn't happen to mention why the party, which has ruled supreme in Utah for decades and can do virtually anything it sets its mind to, hadn't managed to enact much along those lines.

That is the corner in which the initiative manages to paint current lawmakers. The initiative itself begins with a lament:

"Over the years, concerned legislators have sponsored bill after bill to strengthen Utah's laws on legislative ethics. All but cosmetic gestures towards reform have withered and died. … A citizens' commission formed by the governor to study and make recommendations for ethics reforms had the subject stricken from its agenda as a result of pressure from legislative leaders. If we, the people, are ever to get comprehensive and meaningful ethics reform, we will have to write and pass the law ourselves."

Monday's GOP announcement (Democrats have yet to weigh in on the subject) was followed by a Tuesday news conference involving 35 former state lawmakers from both major parties. They support the initiative, and they offered an explanation as to why current lawmakers don't (and why they never passed anything like it when they held power).

"Nobody who has ever had power gave it up willingly. Period," said Karen Shepherd, who served both in the Legislature and Congress.