random rants and references

"Wet Noodle"? Well, OK; perhaps "Belated Wet Noodle" is a better descriptor for the Governor's new edict requiring registration of lobbyists who want to influence his executive offices and departments. And that's being politely circumspect, at best. Let's start with some facts and then examine how Pennsylvania became the only state without a lobbyist-disclosure law.

From the LancasterOnline: "The Democratic governor's order, which applies to lobbying in state departments and agencies, is loosely based on the Senate's system. But it includes some new twists, such as requirements that lobbyists file their reports electronically and that all participants in lobbying 'coalitions' of three or more lobbyists register with the state Department of Administration. ..... The policy, an expansion of the Gov.'s Code of Conduct, contains no penalties for violations because it was established by an executive order, Rendell said.

The Senate policy provides for stripping violators of Senate lobbying privileges, although that has never happened in the three years it has been in effect, Crompton said."


Note that the Senate has an existing informal policy with some teeth, unlike the Governor's order. It's informal because the Senate adopted it as an immediate self- discipline action after the PA Supreme Court struck down the original Lobbyist-Disclosure law in 2002. So, we did have a law that was struck down in court, but the Governor did not get around to doing anything about it for his branch of government until now - almost 4 years later. Oh, and the disclosure data must be filed electronically into a data base that may not be available to the public for six months (election time?). Taking that long to issue a simple toothless 'executive order' seems a good qualification for a "belated wet noodle" action.

But that title may be too polite. Let's review the who's and how's of that court action and its aftermath. Start with this delightful article that considers Lobbyist regulation an exercise in absurdity: "Most pundits viewed Rendell's edict as either a political ploy or unenforceable decree only marginally better than nothing. Given the history in the only state in the nation without a lobbyist disclosure law, such reaction does not seem inappropriate."

The article recounts the history of the successful law suite by a lobbyist, Mr. Gmerek, to rescind the law on the basis that only the court ( and not the legislature) can regulate the actions of lawyers (including lawyers engaged as lobbyists). Mr. Gmerek obtained the services of a politically prominent lawyer, Mr. John Estay, to help win the case. With the case won and Rendell the new Governor, Mr. Estay immediately became chief of staff to the Governor in January 2003. Then, last July, Ms. Patty Welty, the governor's deputy secretary for legislative affairs, was hired by Mr. Gmerek as a senior lobbyist. If this is hard to follow, the article provides a nice summary:

"Rendell is demanding a state lobbyist disclosure law. His chief aide, Estey, successfully killed the previous state lobbyist disclosure law while working for Gmerek, who recently hired as a lobbyist another one of Rendell's top assistants, Welty.

The staffs of the governor's office and one of the state's major lobbyists appear virtually interchangeable. No wonder scant attention was paid to Rendell's election-year plea for lobbying reform."

The less politely circumspect might call this a revolving door policy coupled with a sleight of hand publicity ploy at election time. But I like the image of a belatedly swung wet noodle.

UPDATE : Corrected to reflect PA Supreme Court decision date in 2002, not 2000 as originally mis-typed.