Buried in a piece on Blanche Lincoln over on Arkansas Blog was this little nugget:

 records kept by the Sunlight Foundation, a watchdog group, show numerous lobbyist-organized fundraisers for Democrat Mike Ross. But apparently none of the lobbyists or PACs helping him crossed the disclosure threshold. There are no bundling reports filed by Ross or his leadership PAC for 2009.

Now, what Ross is doing isn’t really illegal, but it’s very unethical.  The law in question here is a bit of ethics legislation put into place in the wake of the Abramoff scandal.  The article explains its purpose, and its weakness:

One of the ideas behind the law, passed after the Jack Abramoff scandal, was to shed additional light on the influence of lobbyists who help raise campaign money. But critics say the disclosure rules allow a lot of lobbyist-related fundraising to go unreported.

Now what’s really sad about this is that I remember in the runnup to the 2006 elections, Ross was Mr. Ethics himself.  As I recall, he even turned down a bag of popcorn from the boy scouts to send a message on gifts.  Kind of funny to see that all peeled away now and revealed to be nothing but a bunch of postuering and hypocricy.  Again, what Ross is doing isn’t illegal, but it is unethical and embrassing to his state and district.  He managed to get off lightly this year, but neither this or any of his past antics will be forgotten.  After we’re done with Lincoln, we’ll be focusing in on him for 2012.

Tags: corruption, Mike Ross

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