Petersen State Sentinel: An Inconvenient Truth Dear Friends, Virginians and Citizens of Fairfax: The fourteen count indictment of our former Governor hit the State Capitol like a bomb blast on Tuesday. Notwithstanding your opinion on the merits, it is undisputed that the entire episode has been an unmitigated disaster for the Commonwealth, which has historically had a reputation for clean government. Could the Assembly have done anything about this? The Governor, like all state officials, is subject to state laws on gifts, disclosures and conflicts of interest. The legislature also has the power to investigate the Governor under Article VI of the Virginia Constitution, which also gives the power to remove him from office in extraordinary cases. Despite having this legal authority, the Assembly did nothing about this issue, even while the events were unfolding a hundred yards away from the State Capitol. Indeed, the only reason anyone learned about the gifts was the decision by the Governors chef in 2012 to blow the whistle on the $15,000 catering bill. On Wednesday, I spoke about the Assemblys failure to ask tough questions. Heres a video of my speech. There is no excuse to look the other way, when there are real questions being asked about public corruption. In 2014, we can attempt to make things right. There are numerous ethics bills pending in the Assembly, which make marginal improvements to the system. I have filed bills which would make dramatic changes, including my bills to cap gifts and contributions and make the Assembly subject to the Freedom of Information Act. In my thinking, we need a culture change in Richmond which makes the Capitol more open to outsiders and less lucrative to insiders. JCP Notes: I will have two town halls coming up: February 1st, at 9:00 a.m. in Fairfax with Delegate David Bulova and at 1:00 p.m. in Vienna with Delegate Mark Keam. Im blogging every day at oxroadsouth. You can reach us at 804-698-7534 or kathy@fairfaxsenator. Im in a new office on the third floor (Room 329), so please come down and visit. Its got a great view of Capitol Square. Let us know how we can represent you better. [ Note: to subscribe to the Petersen State Sentinel via email, follow this link- bit.ly/1bmN6iN ]
Posted on: Fri, 24 Jan 2014 18:47:18 +0000
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