By Peter Galuszka
An old adage in journalism has it that good stories just keep getting better.
And so it is with the saga of Jonnie Williams Sr. and the family of Robert F. McDonnell, the governor. First we learn, courtesy of The Washington Post, that the head of Star Scientific gave McDonnell’s daughter $15,000 worth of food for her Executive Mansion wedding in 2011 along with $100,000 worth of corporate jet rides for McDonnell and his staff.
Now we also learn that Williams paid for McDonnell to vacation at Smith Mountain Lake and loaned him a Land Cruiser and a $190,000 Ferrari.
There’s nothing illegal about any of this given Virginia’s toothless government accountability laws. Gifts have to be disclosed annually and the only problem seems to have been that McDonnell did not disclose the wedding meal because the gift was for his daughter even though he signed papers for the wedding celebration.
One reason why Virginia is so incredibly weak in regulating donations and gifts to public figures is another one of its conceits. There is an old saw that if one is elected to office he or she must be a gentleman or lady, after all they are Virginians. Presumably, this also means they are appropriately of English or Anglo Saxon ancestry.
There’s another reason as well, according to Gordon Witkin of the State Integrity Investigation Project that flunks Virginia for acountability.
In an interview I did with him for Style Weekly, he says that Virginia’s preference for loose regulation is based on its limited government, libertarian mind set that is more in keeping with attitudes in the Plains or Western states than the Northeast or Midwest. “It’s like in Wyoming where a state senator was asked why it was OK to make a right or left turn in a car without signaling. His response: “If you want to make a turn, it’s no one else’s damned business.”
That’s about the size of it among some of the most influence conservatives in the state, including gubernatorial hopeful Kenneth Cuccinelli, unless, of course the matter involves abortion in which case the state will add on all sorts of regulations.
Witkin’s group gave Virginia an “F” its recent survey. The Old Dominion was one of eight states to get the rating and was ranked 47th out of 50 stats. The ranking was based on awful scores in public access to information, executive and judicial accountability and budgetary, lobbying and ethics enforcement. “The systems and procedures in Virginia for accountability and procedure are weak,” says Witkin.
Denise Roth Barber, managing director of the National Institute on Money and State Politics, based in Helena MT, says that “Virginia is one of four states that have no limits on contributions. It is one of seven states with no limits on corporate giving.”
Virginia also allows unlimited gifts as long as they are disclosed annually. Florida, by contrast, forbids any gifts at all, including a free cup of coffee.
Virginia is also one of nine states that have no ethics commissions. The State Corporation Commission, which oversees business and sets electricity rates, is immune from the Freedom of Information Act.
Why so lax? One explanation is that years ago, the idea took somehow shape that Virginia’s politicians are gentlemen and ladies above the tackiness of graft. That would be in marked contrast to such sleazepots such as Illinois and New Jersey, which, curiously, received a “C” and a “B+” ranking for accountability the State Integrity survey. Witkin says that states such as these erect tighter rules after significant scandals.
This leads to a chicken or egg kind of problem. “I don’t think the level of public corruption in Virginia is high at all,” says political analyst Bob Holsworth, noting that the survey rated the toughness of laws not how crooked a state is. However, in light of the McDonnell wedding meal, ‘the gift issue is clearly a loophole that should be closed,” Holsworth adds. For starters, he says, gift disclosures should include immediate family members of the public official.
Sounds like a great place to start.
