column: Limiting the corrupting influence of money in politics

​During my 8 years as a State Senator and Representative for our area, I took on the political establishment, the engrained special interests, and high-paid lobbyists to shake up a broken system. While it didn’t always make me the most popular legislator in Augusta, someone needed to stand up and do what was right over what was easy.
 
I worked every single day to reduce the corrupting influence of money in our politics and specifically, where that money was coming from that sought to pad their bottom line through policy change.
 
My crowning legislative achievement was introducing and passing a comprehensive campaign finance and ethics reform package in my final term in the Senate. It took many years of educating, prodding, and begging my colleagues to finally make it happen. It’s something the public has been wanting for quite some time, but was opposed by those with any semblance of power. People with power tend to want to hold onto that power by the same means that put them there. That usually means keeping a pay-for-play system in place that benefits them.
 
The package that ultimately became law included banning lobbyist contributions to sitting lawmakers and candidates, ending the use of PACs (political action committees) as private slush funds, ensure enforcement of ethics rules around legislator-led caucus PACs, and shutting the revolving door of lawmakers becoming lobbyists by banning lobbyist activity for a full year after legislative service ends. In total, I was able to shepherd four campaign finance and ethics reforms bills across the finish line, representing some of the biggest victories on this front in recent memory.
 
Our policymakers, as with our elections, should not be dictated by those who write the biggest checks. While we’ve made monumental progress on this front, there is always more work to do. 

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