Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 7, 1994 TAG: 9401070161
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
House Majority Leader Richard Cranwell, D-Roanoke County, and Del. Alson Smith, D-Winchester, questioned whether the reforms are needed.
"You can't write laws to cover everything there is to cover and keep someone honest," said Smith, who is retiring next week after 20 years in the General Assembly.
Smith and Cranwell, members of a legislative panel considering the reforms, both mentioned the controversy over their investment with three other Democratic legislators in International Guaranty Insurance Corp. All but Smith quit the company's board after critics said their investment was improper because insurance is regulated by the State Corporation Commission, whose members are appointed by the assembly.
Cranwell said he did nothing illegal by investing in the company, but news reports made him look bad while he was in the middle of a re-election campaign.
"For two or three weeks, it was as if I was Darth Vader," he said. Cranwell is sponsoring a bill to limit the number of legislators who can sit on boards of companies regulated by the state.
Two other legislators who invested in the company, Sen. Hunter Andrews, D-Hampton, and Del. Alan Diamonstein, D-Newport News, also are on the ethics reform panel. The fifth, Del. Lewis Parker, D-Mecklenburg, lost his re-election bid.
Major reforms being considered by the panel would cap campaign contributions, bar state officials from taking speaking fees and require disclosure of lobbying of executive-branch members. Currently, lobbyists must only report what they spend to influence legislators.
Retired lawyer Urchie Ellis told the panel the state also should give people more incentive to vote by holding state elections in the same year as federal ones or even charging people who do not vote a $40 tax.
"I don't care much for your gimmick. It doesn't sound like, to me, it would work very well," Cranwell said.
Smith said successful business people and lawyers will not enter politics if disclosure and campaign finance laws get too strict.
Cranwell said the proposal to require lobbyists to disclose contacts with executive-branch members would be costly to businesses and require more state workers to handle the paperwork.
The panel plans to meet again to finish writing legislation for the assembly session that begins Wednesday.
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1994
by CNB