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Knox rolls out proposed ethics, government reforms

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Knox on Thursday announced an ambitious and far-reaching package of proposed government reforms, calling for everything from limits on campaign contributions and reducing the size of the state legislature to cutting the discretionary spending grants infamously known as WAMs and requiring elected officials to resign when seeking higher office.

The proposals, unveiled during an online chat with supporters, a conference call with reporters and a new campaign Web video, amounted to one of the most comprehensive policy positions taken by any candidate for governor so far. And during a race in which Knox has drawn relatively little attention in the press and has been dismissed by some party insiders, they underscored what appears to be an increasing determination to run an policy-heavy campaign, albeit one he will fund substantially from his own fortune.

“Our campaign is going to be a campaign of issues,” Knox told pa2010.com Wednesday. “The reason I’m running for governor is different than some other people’s reasons. I’ve never held elected office. I’m not a career politician. I’m not trying to climb a political ladder. I’m not trying to work for any special interest group. I’m not in anyone’s pocket.

“I’m running because I want to use the power of government to make life better for families of Pennsylvania,” he added.

The policy proposals, which Knox said he had formulated in consultation with the good-government group Common Cause, are a mixed bag of government reform ideas, many of which have been floated and tried before, all of which have gone nowhere. He highlighted the need for limits on campaign contributions as especially important; Pennsylvania is one of the few states that have no such limits, creating what good-government advocates agree is a financial free-for-all in electoral politics. While he signaled some flexibility as to specific limits, he voiced support for simply adopting federal guidelines.

A push to reduce the size of the state’s legislature, the largest full-time lawmaking body in the country, is likely to be even more controversial among some in Harrisburg.

Some of the ideas would probably have to be approved directly by voters, and nearly all of them would require significant cooperation from state lawmakers. Knox, whose ability to work with lawmakers in Harrisburg has been questioned by opponents, skeptics and even some allies, acknowledged the steep challenges. But he took an adversarial tone against anyone who would stand in the way of such reforms, and suggested he could use the bully-pulpit of office to prod legislators in the right direction.

“People that don’t get on that bandwagon are going to be recognized as people who shouldn’t be voted for,” Knox said. “If you say to me that you’re against ethics, you’re for pay-to-play, people like that are going to lose their jobs in the next election. People who run against them are gonna use that against them.

“I know that the legislature might resist it,” he added. “But voters are going to have a say in this. If a governor reaches out to the voters and tells them to start sending letters to their legislators to start passing these reforms, it’s going to go a long way. Not to mention that there are some good people in the legislature who would like to see these things happen anyway.”

Since deciding to run for governor last year, Knox has run a somewhat unorthodox campaign, with only low-key fundraising and limited public relations offensives. Combined with numerous public polls that show him trailing a crowded pack of primary candidates, that has led many Democrats to be skeptical of his candidacy, despite the millions of dollars the wealthy Philadelphia businessman has vowed to spend (he spent about $11 million of his own money in a failed mayoral race in 2007).

But Knox has stuck to the strategy. He has persistently pushed the need for utility regulation reforms, collecting thousands of signatures for an online petition warning of dire consequences when electricity rate caps expire soon. He has also come out against expanding legal gaming to include table games. And through steadily increasing travels across the state and meetings with party insiders and local reporters, he has slowly but surely raised his public profile. His campaign said Thursday that it had built an e-mail list of over 800,000 registered Democrats over the last year.

Among other ideas Knox announced Thursday are proposals to:

•Call special sessions of the legislature to address government reform.

•Mandate ethics training for all government workers.

•Require state regulators to wait two years before going to work for industries they had regulated.

•Prohibit free meals and gifts to elected officials.

•Attack pay-to-play by barring big-money contributors from doing business with the state.

“It’s time to end business as usual in Harrisburg,” Knox said.

November 6, 2009 at 3:30 pm

--Dan Hirschhorn

Tags: Tom Knox