Pa. should guard against the power of lobbying money

THE LEGEND OF LOBBYING

is that it began in a Washington, D.C., hotel when people would wait for Ulysses S. Grant, pressing the president for political favors.

The reality is Grant wasn’t even born yet when the first paid lobbyist was hired in America. It was 1792, three years after the U.S. Constitution went into effect, and William Hull’s job was to push lawmakers for more money for Virginia’s revolutionary veterans.

By the 1860s, we had moved on from the simple prodding of Hull to something closer to the lobbyists of today. Samuel Cutler Ward liked the good life. His first wife was granddaughter of America’s first multimillionaire; his second wife was a friend of Empress Eugenie of France. He enjoyed the good life and used it to swing lawmakers to his causes with lavish dinners and entertainment.

Today, however, lobbyists paying for things can be discouraged. Well, it can be in some places, but Pennsylvania is still one of just a handful of states that doesn’t ban gifts to its government officials. Bribery? On paper, that’s illegal, but call a trip to Europe or a rodeo getaway in Wyoming — both actual incidents — a gift, and it’s fine.

State campaign finance rules also don’t discourage what can be given or when, meaning it’s fine for a lobbyist to back up a truckload of cash to a legislator who might be considering a bill to benefit the lobbyist’s clients. Sometimes, more subtly, it is about access via fundraisers like golf outings and dinners.

Spotlight PA did an analysis of which industries pony up the most. Far and away, the biggest donors to individual politicians and the House and Senate campaign committees were in K-12 education.

State Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward, R-Hempfield, received the most, $1.45 million, as an individual. That was just behind the $1.9 million that went to the entire Senate Republican Campaign Committee. The House Republican Campaign Committee got $3.5 million.

On the other side of the aisle, education was still the largest donor but in much smaller numbers. The House Democratic Campaign Committee got $476,000, with the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee getting $149,000. House Majority Leader Rep. Matt Bradford, D-Montgomery, picked up $196,000, while Speaker of the House Rep. Joanna McClinton, D-Philadelphia, received $175,850.

Other high donation areas included transportation, the second-largest industry in terms of individual donations. Lobbyists gave $469,500 to Gov. Josh Shapiro and $485,750 to Ward. Energy was the second-largest donor to GOP campaign committees and a significant donor across bipartisan lines to legislative leaders and the governor. Gaming was another major contributor.

All of these are consistent areas of debate. The K-12 funding is a perennial budget stumbling block. Transportation projects are on a never-ending loop. Energy is one of the state’s biggest industries, and the growth in gaming over the past two decades is almost unstoppable.

The intersection of money and law is an invitation to misuse. It is ridiculous that Pennsylvania has built so few fences into the system to prevent ethical violations, other than an apparent sunny optimism that elected officials and the people currying favor will simply do the right thing.

If that is what we rely upon, it’s worth noting that Samuel Cutler Ward, known as the “King of the Lobby” in his day, also was convicted of bribery in 1875.