RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe is putting together a new ethics commission and asking it to come up with concrete proposals on how to improve Virginia’s image in the wake of a former governor’s corruption conviction.
“Our ethics laws have no teeth,” McAuliffe said Thursday at a Capitol news conference.
The governor said the new commission would be looking at several items, including gift rules for lawmakers, campaign finance regulations, and conflict-of-interest rules involving other state commissions.
The Associated Press reported earlier this month that the Virginia tobacco commission has given $21 million to an economic development group and a telephone cooperative run by family members of the commission’s chairman, Republican Del. Terry Kilgore.
McAuliffe said the new commission, which will be led by former Democratic U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher and former GOP Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, to come up with interim recommendations by December on ethics rules, notably related to gifts lawmakers can accept, and present other recommendations at a later date.
State legislative leaders pledged to make ethics reform a top priority of the 2015 General Assembly session following the conviction of former Gov. Bob McDonnell.
McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, were convicted of doing favors for wealthy vitamin executive Jonnie Williams in exchange for more than $165,000 in gifts and loans they acknowledged taking. During the trial, Bob McDonnell spent five days on the stand stating that he didn’t substantively break Virginia law.
Earlier this year during the legislative session, lawmakers from both parties agreed on a set of reforms that put a $250 cap on some types of gifts they can receive and tightened the disclosure requirements to require the identity of a public official’s individual creditors. But lawmakers did not put any caps on non-tangible gifts such as meals, trips and entertainment. Lawmakers can still accept those items in unlimited amounts, something McAuliffe said he doesn’t support.
At the news conference, Bolling was critical of the General Assembly’s efforts earlier this year.
“The truth is, they only did enough to say they had done something,” Bolling said.
House Speaker William J. Howell Senate Republican Leader Thomas K. Norment issued a statement saying they welcome the commission but noted that the responsibility to change Virginia’s ethics laws “rests the General Assembly.”
The commission also will review legislative and congressional redistricting, and the state’s term limits for governors. Virginia is the only state that doesn’t allow governor’s to serve consecutive terms. McAuliffe said he was not seeking to change the law so he could seek a second consecutive term.
