Louisiana legislators have obviously decided they don’t want to have to worry much about whether they are performing ethically. They also want fewer rules when it comes to receiving campaign contributions.

The best evidence about both of those issues can be found in House Bills 160 and 674, both ethics measures, and in HB 693, a 100-page bill dealing with campaign contributions.

HB 674 passed the House unanimously and is awaiting a hearing in the Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee. HB 160 is awaiting a final vote in the House.

The Public  Affairs Research Council said legislators should strengthen, not undermine the state’s ethics and disclosure laws.

“That’s the wrong message to send in a state riddled with Louisiana’s long and sordid political history, particularly when polls show public trust in government is at historic lows,” the non-profit research agency said.

The Advocate in an editorial said, “There’s more packed into this bill — from changes to when officials can accept privately paid travel to what amount they can accept as gifts — so you would expect it to have sparked spirited debate on the House floor. Yet not a single Republican or Democrat raised any questions.”

The newspaper said government watchdog groups worry that if the bill passes, future investigations could be shut down before they even get off the ground.

Rep. Beau Beaullieu, R-New Iberia, author of HB 674 and chairman of the House and Governmental Affairs Committee, said legislators from both parties are frustrated with the ethics board, which has been accused of harassing public officials and lacking transparency.

Rep. Kellee Dickerson, R-Denham Springs, is sponsor of HB 160 that would give the subject of an ethics complaint the ability to know the identity of the person leveling the accusations, which is currently confidential.

The Advocate reported that Dickerson was the subject of an ethics board investigation that found she improperly hired a teacher for a contract job while she was a Livingston Parish School Board member. Her bill is awaiting final action in the House.

Members of the Board of Ethics in a May 12 letter to legislators said, “House Bill 160 proposes to remove the confidential nature of complaints, which will have a drastic chilling effect on the filing of formal complaints.

The ethics administrator said, “The opportunity to face your accuser comes once the board files public charges.”

PAR said of the HB 674 ethics changes, “The measure clearly aims to make it harder for the ethics board and its administrative staff to bring charges against officials. Are lawmakers trying to make it nearly impossible, though?”

The research agency said HB 693, the 100-page campaign finance bill, is “a similar vast redesign of the laws governing the spending and disclosure of the money candidates, political parties and others raise for politicking.”

The agency said that makes it harder to investigate possible campaign finance violations. The bill is awaiting a final vote in the House.

The Advocate in an ethics editorial said the campaign finance bill would make numerous changes to campaign finance laws, including eliminating the requirement that money spent to promote or defeat tax propositions or other elections that don’t involve candidates be disclosed.

“The state seems to go through cycles where rampant corruption gives way to good government reforms prompted by public outcry,” the newspaper said. “Then, politicians, weary of the constraints placed upon them, push to weaken ethics rules, hoping the public will have forgotten why they were needed in the first place.”

The Illuminator reported one of the unusual aspects of this sudden rush to change the state’s ethics laws. It is the fact that Stephen Gele´, an attorney representing Gov. Jeff Landry in his negotiations with the ethics board over his 2023 case, helped to draft the legislation.

Although the proposed changes will only affect future ethics cases and not Landry’s, it’s still an unusual situation to have Landry’s attorney involved.

If Landry’s case ever surfaces, don’t look for any possible penalties. The Legislature last year made changes to the ethics board that give the governor more control over appointing its members.

Landry took office on Jan. 8, 2024, and legislators have given him an unbelievable number of new powers. And the odds are the power grab won’t stop until he leaves office.

Jim Beam, the retired editor of the American Press, has covered people and politics for more than six decades. Contact him at 337-515-8871 or jim.beam.press@gmail.com.

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