North Dakotans for Public Integrity, a local nonpartisan group will be filing an anti-corruption amendment to the Secretary of State’s office today. If approved and with enough signatures, voters will have the opportunity to solidify rules and create mechanisms to hold politicians accountable and increase transparency for the public. In some instances, politicians have refused to act. It is time voters take the lead, after all, they are the boss.
The amendment would produce a number of safeguards regarding a politician’s behavior in office, campaign donations and lobbyist gifts, and create an ethics commission. After years of out-right defeating similar proposals in the Legislature, the 2017 session took small steps in adding some transparency. These changes followed the overwhelming 2016 voter passage of a requirement that legislators need to live in the district they represent. Here is the thing, there is little for enforcement of these rules. This is where an independent ethics commission is needed.
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(Tyler Axness is a talk show host on the Mighty 790 KFGO in Fargo-Moorhead. His program, “Afternoons Live,” can be heard weekdays from 2 – 4 p.m. Axness is also the creator and writer of @
NDxPlains
, a blog dedicated to transparency and accountability in North Dakota politics. Follow Tyler on Twitter @TylerAxness.)
