Rumors have it that a senate ethics bill (SB 396) offered by Senators Don Cheeks (R), Carol Jackson (D), Michael Meyer Von Bremen (D), Dan Lee (R), and Randy Hall (R) was nothing more than a blatant attempt at watering-down campaign disclosure requirements currently in Georgia law.

The original bill changed the electronic disclosure requirements of public officials to be that they "may" file electronically rather than the "shall" that is currently in the law. This would mean that for those elected officials/candidates who want to make sure that the public remains in the dark about who is helping finance their campaigns, they would be given the opportunity to go back to merely filing paper disclosures which are much more difficult to review and use to differentiate between the honest politician and the dishonest politician.

The committee substitute for SB 396 (which may have already passed out of committee at the time of this writing) re-words the bill to require that the campaigns file their "campaign contribution disclosure reports with the Secretary of State by electronic means or by filing the original document. How does an "or" slip in there for filing electronically? Why is there a "choice" of filing electronically?

PV Is Amazed: Well, that's just dandy. This seems to fly in the face of Governor Perdue's original plan to require that the disclosures be filed with the Ethics Commission, and that the disclosures continue to be filed electronically.

This legislation flies in the face of "open and honest government" that used to be demanded by the Republicans when they were not in power. But, apparently, it's back to business as usual at the capitol, regardless of the party in charge...with the exception that with the Republicans in charge, there is always a heartfelt prayer and a "God Bless you" right before they try to stick it to the public.