Government transparency in Delaware is broken

Recently, I introduced three bills not just because they are important on their own but also because I believe strongly in good government and transparency. For a number of years, in multiple surveys and studies, Delaware’s grades for good government and transparency have consistently been a D or an F. Also, according to multiple polls, Americans’ faith in government and electoral politics is at an all-time low. We cannot just talk the talk. We must walk the walk and institute laws in these areas to work towards better government and electoral processes.

Once per year in non-election years and several times per year in election years, candidates for public office — including elected officials — submit campaign finance reports detailing contributions and expenditures. I’ve introduced House Bill 292 requires that all such reports be reviewed by the Department of Elections, or DOE, for any violations of campaign finance rules. Currently, a candidate submits a campaign finance report and it immediately appears on the DOE public website after undergoing only a few high-level system checks. Per HB 292, reports would appear on the website immediately but the would show in “Submitted But Not Reviewed” status.

Then, the report would be reviewed by DOE employees. If no violations or suspicious patterns of contributions or expenditures are found, the report status is updated to “Reviewed and Final.” If issues are found, the DOE works with the candidate to rectify the situation and submit an amended report. If violations are found that are not simply mistakes, the DOE refers the case to the Attorney General’s office. It is unfathomable to me that candidates’ reports currently undergo no “eyes-on” scrutiny.

I’ve also introduced HB 291 which does three things. First, it requires that candidates’ campaign finance reports include the names of donors’ employers and the donors’ job titles. This is already required in 38 other states and at the federal level. These two pieces of information will be retained by the DOE “behind the scenes.” The information will not appear on campaign finance reports or be subject to FOIA requests. Donors’ employers and job titles raise a flag for the DOE regarding possible campaign finance violations. (See the information below about the infamous Tigani case.)

Second, HB 291 requires that when a candidate unintentionally accepts more money from an individual or entity than they are allowed, they must return that surplus money to the donor. It prohibits such candidates from donating the surplus money to a charitable organization (which they may currently do) so they cannot make such those donations public and gain “political mileage” from them. Third, HB 291 requires the DOE to maintain a specific telephone number and area on their website through which individuals may report suspected campaign finance violations.

These three parts of HB 291 came from a 2013 report written by E. Normal Veasey. At the time, he was a Special Deputy Attorney General. Later, he served as the Chief Justice of the Delaware Supreme Court. Veasy served as Independent Council in a case in which the owner of NKS Distributors, Christopher J. Tigani, plead guilty to violating federal and state campaign finance and tax laws and was sentenced to two years in prison. Tigani had been giving money to his employees to donate to certain candidates for public office — known as “passthrough donations.”

In the 107-page report, Veasy included various recommendations on how to improve campaign finance laws in Delaware. Unfortunately, hardly any of those recommendations have been instituted since the report was issued eleven years ago. It is not just me — and other legislators including Republicans who have signed onto my bill — who know we need HB 291. It is also a former Special Deputy Attorney General and former Chief Justice of the Delaware Supreme Court who served as Independent Council for the most notorious case of campaign finance rules in Delaware history.

Finally, I’ve introduced HB 319 to address nepotism in state government, having worked with the Delaware Department of Human Resources, or DHR, on this effort. DHR recently instituted a much more restrictive nepotism policy than their previous one, but it does not apply to all state employees including the judiciary, executive, and legislative branches. HB 319 mandates that these branches of governments and other state agencies must draft and implement nepotism policies that are at least as restrictive as the new DHR policy. Otherwise, the DHR policy applies to those governmental branches and state agencies.

I hope that my colleagues in Dover will support all three of these important bills.

Eric Morrison is state representative for the 27th District which includes parts of Newark, Bear and Middletown.