In the states: CC activists discover the joys of the task force - Common Cause

If recent experiences in Minnesota, Georgia, New Mexico, Kentucky, Virginia and Illinois are any indication, task forces can produce tough - and often successful - legislative reform proposals.

Whether brought together by state officials or CC leaders, task forces enable concerned citizens, government officials, state legislators and special interest lobbyists to work together on campaign finance, ethics, lobbyist disclosure, open meetings and other issues. In turn, proposals endorsed by such broad-based coalitions are likely to gain support from state lawmakers.

CC state leaders have played key roles on such panels. With experience carrying out money-and-politics studies, working to close campaign finance loopholes and making elected officials more accountable, they can raise issues and solutions others might not consider.

CC/MINNESOTA has worked for years to overhaul the state's 1974 campaign finance law. Last year former Executive Director Deb Nankivell, spurred by an eight-part series on campaign financing in the St. Paul Pioneer Press, organized the Campaign Finance Task Force, which included a state senator, a state House candidate, two industry lobbyists, several representatives of public interest groups and the author of the 1974 law. In its 16 meetings since last May, the group considered improvements to the state's public financing system, including a provision to provide seed money to candidates before the primary elections.

The result is a bill that lowers contribution limits for House candidates from $1,000 to $500 and for Senate candidates from $3,000 to $1,000; tightens restrictions on bundling; and makes unopposed candidates ineligible for public financing. The bill was introduced in both houses in January.

"The task force is an idea whose time has come," says CC/Minnesota Executive Director Joan Higinbothan. "With this bipartisan compromise and everyone working to get it passed, it could change the way people accomplish things."

In New Mexico continued inaction by the legislature prompted its leadership to create the Governmental Ethics Task Force to review lobbying, conflict-of-interest and campaign financing laws. CC/NEW MEXICO Executive Director Ruth Hoffman was appointed to the task force, which met for six months and held three public hearings.

Although Hoffman had worried that little could be accomplished with such a far-reaching agenda, the group ultimately proposed reforms for which CC/New Mexico has lobbied for 10 years. "We came out with a disclosure bill and that's a start," Hoffman says. "We were able to raise public - and even task force members' - awareness of the issues," she adds. The bill would increase disclosure of campaign contributions and lobbyists' expenditures and, for the first time, require legislators to submit personal financial statements.

Last year, in response to an FBI investigation of alleged corruption surrounding a bill to regulate horse racing, Kentucky Gov. Wallace Wilkinson created the Governmental Ethics Task Force and appointed 14 outgoing state legislators to serve on it. Their charge: to craft new ethics standards for state legislators. CC/KENTUCKY State Chair Richard Beliles was one of several lobbyists asked to testify at the task force meetings. "The legislators were very candid in their discussions of their experiences with lobbyists," says Beliles. "From this, I think we can get a strong disclosure bill to pass." Beliles would like to see the reporting threshold for lobbying expenditures reduced from $300 to $50, as well as a provision barring legislators from lobbying their former colleagues for two years after they leave office. The legislature will consider such legislation in a February special session called by the governor.

Illinois's Task Force on Access to Open Government worked for two years to draft legislation that would strengthen the state's open meetings and freedom of information (FOI) laws. The result, says member and CC/ILLINOIS State Board Vice Chair Robert Waters, was "a lousy bill with language that tried to make everyone happy." It failed in the Senate.

The main task force disbanded after the defeat, but six members later resurrected the process. They produced a proposal to specify reasons for closing public meetings, require public officials to post an agenda 48 hours prior to a meeting and strengthen FOI laws. A state senator - and chair of the former task force - will introduce the bill this spring.

CC/VIRGINIA members and CC Chairman Edward S. Cabot testified last year before a governor-appointed citizens' commission created to review the state's campaign and lobbying laws. A report issued in December detailed 37 recommendations - "everything we could want in a reform bill," says CC/Virginia Executive Director Julie Lapham. "The commission wanted to [know] how the people felt about problems at the local level. And they got an earful," she says.

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