Ethics Reform: Weekend Catch-Up Edition

Well, it looks like there were several interesting stories in the local news about ethics over the weekend.

I would have blogged them, but I was in beautiful Grant Park, Chicago for the Lollapooloza Festival. (Quick synopsis - Best Stageshow: The Flaming Lips - Best Performance: The Hold Steady - Best Band I Had Never Heard Of: Panic! at the Disco - Best Cover: Britney's 'Toxic' by Nickel Creek - Surprise of the Festival: Perry Farrell doing children's songs, and Kanye West is as good as he says he is)

The Oshkosh Northwestern covered Julie Pung-Leshke's inability to answer 6 questions for the League of Women Voter's here (my press release, which is mentioned is here):

Winnebago County Democrats are criticizing 54th Assembly Republican candidate Julie Pung Leschke for not responding to a series of issues-based, ethics and campaign reform questions distributed around the state and co-sponsored by the League of Women Voters. Pung Leschke noted on her election Web site she is a member of the organization.

"She's been running for the State Assembly for almost seven months and voters still don't know where she stands on nearly every important issue in this race," said Jef Hall, chairman of the Winnebago County Democratic Party in a statement.

But Pung Leschke said the only reason she hasn't replied is because she is a first-time candidate swamped with surveys and knocking on doors.

"I have surveys piled up a mile high," Pung Leschke said.
...
Pung Leschke said it's "just a matter of time" before she responds.

How much time? Sorry, but that doesn't hold water for several reasons. One, she did fill out some surveys, ones she must have felt were more important than the League of Women Voters. And, should she win, as a Legislator in Madison, she will need to be a great multi-tasker and able to make sure she communicates with her constituents as well as does all of the duties and study of an informed Representative. If she cannot find time to answer 6 yes/no questions as a candidate, what will she do as an elected official?

The Northwestern then followed up with an editorial on Sunday:

That recent survey of state candidates for office on Wisconsin political reform issues should have been a no-brainer of the first degree.

Politics 101 teaches that candidates answer surveys because it's free advertising for their positions. Some politicians aren't going to get a passing grade, however. Assembly District 54 Assembly candidates Julie Pung Leschke and Larry Didlo didn't reply to the "Fall 2006 Government Ethics Voter Guide Questionnaire."

District 53 state Rep. Carol Owens, R-town of Nekimi, said she would refuse to reply.

What's up here? Why did these three people avoid giving answers? Is this an indicator of how they will act if elected to the 2007-'09 term in the state Assembly?
...
Frankly, the refusal to answer survey questions surprises this editorial board. Pung Leshke strongly advocated greater accountability when she was a Winnebago County supervisors. Owens should know by now how to fill out a survey. Didlo has asked for voter trust in past campaigns.

If these three candidates are as smart as they want people to think they are, they each will find a way to finish that survey.

But voters shouldn't let them off the hook. Voters should make sure that the six questions on the survey become the most common questions these candidates must answer.

The bottom line here is that constituents are entitled to know where political candidates stand when the issue is a statewide survey prepared by non-partisan interests.

With few reasonable exceptions, candidates who don't answer six survey questions probably shouldn't be in office in the first place.

I agree...