Tucker: Weakened Bill Still Represents “Gold Standard”

Apparently, Gov. Jindal’s highly-touted “gold standard” for ethics reform is something of a moving target. After the administration and legislature yesterday watered down Jindal’s signature ethics piece, House Speaker Jim Tucker assured legislators that the bill still represents a gold standard of some sort. Jindal, of course, is nowhere to be found for comment these days.

One particular compromise catches the eye.

Under one change, a person found to have failed to disclose or accurately disclose information would get a chance to correct the reports within a specified time period and not face a penalty.

Such a change could be significant - for instance, what if a campaign “forgets” to report a particularly controversial donation or expenditure shortly before election day, “remembering” just following the election to amend their report … after the votes are in? No harm, no foul, under this legislation.

In any case, it almost seems redundant to point out the connection between that part of the bill and Jindal’s own ethics woes.