ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, January 20, 1996 TAG: 9601220024
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
HOUSE Majority Leader Dick Cranwell of Vinton did the right thing to withdraw as lead attorney in Trigon Blue Cross Blue Shield's high-stakes effort to convert itself into a for-profit insurance company.
Would he have done so had news media not exposed the munificent sum of $225,000 that Trigon paid him in the past two years, prompting sharp questions about his dual role as Trigon lawyer and legislator?
Assuredly not. Cranwell himself admits as much. He says he withdrew as lead attorney because the controversy threatened to distract from his legislative duties. Plus, as the Democrat will repeat until he's blue in the face, there was nothing illegal about the arrangement.
Cranwell had properly disclosed that Trigon was his client on a form filed with the House of Delegates. Therefore, under the state's conflict-of-interest law, he had fulfilled his legal obligation as a public official. In his mind, it seems, that should have precluded any questioning or criticism.
And perhaps it might have, if Cranwell - self-described ``country lawyer'' - were just your run-of-the-mill citizen-legislator. He isn't. He is arguably the General Assembly's most powerful member, inarguably its master of behind-the-scenes deal-making.
To suggest that these facts didn't figure into Trigon's decision to hire him - when the company has so much at stake before the assembly - seems a bit much to swallow. And it was too lawyerly by half for Cranwell to take refuge in the conflict-of-interest law that he helped write.
That law, as Cranwell well knows, lays down minimum standards for elected officials. It does not, cannot, cover all contingencies - including the influence a powerful lawmaker can bring to bear to benefit a client, while the lawmaker all the while follows the letter of the law.
Part-time legislators, as Cranwell points out, have to earn a living. They can't be expected to forego all business opportunities that may eventually coincide with public-policy matters. A conflict law can't be written to anticipate and encompass all possible circumstances, all murky areas. Its disclosure requirements are the best protection.
But the law is not a cover for public officials, and disclosure is not a substitute for good judgment. Especially as weak as it is, Virginia's conflict-of-interest statute is not a compass showing the way to preserve public trust. Nor are elected officials in a position to claim that, as long as they follow the law, public opinion be damned.
The Trigon affair is reminiscent of Cranwell's decision in 1993 to join other senior lawmakers in forming a mortgage-insurance company that smacked of influence peddling. Then, as now, Cranwell backed out only after the heat of public criticism was turned up. Then, as now, he argued his involvement was perfectly legal, which it almost certainly was.
Now, as then, Cranwell erred by at the very least fostering the appearance of cashing in not just his considerable legal skills but his General Assembly position. His retreat this week on Trigon was the right move, but doesn't redeem the initial wrong.
LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1996by CNB