Raleigh and Washington aren’t the only capitals where politicians are scrambling to get in front of the ethics reform train.
Tennessee’s legislature is meeting this week in a special session. It was called after four state legislators were caught up in an FBI bribery sting operation – called Tennessee Waltz.
As a long-ago politician was once quoted as saying in a similar situation, “boys, we’ve got to look like we’re doing something about this.”
In Tennessee, a bipartisan committee drew up a package of reforms. It includes new conflict-of-interest rules, an independent ethics commission and new reporting requirements for campaign donations and lobbyists’ spending.