Ethics, elections and accusations: preventing frivolous, unfounded ethics complaints, especially during election season, helps keep politics out of the process.

• Author: Kerns, Peggy
• Position: ETHICS

Hard at work on his reelection, a legislator gets hit with an accusation of an ethics violation. It's just weeks before the election. Fair fight or dirty politics?

During the election cycle, state ethics commissions are often faced with this question. Commissions are protective of their role of oversight of ethics laws, so are especially vigilant about keeping politics out of the complaint process.

They take a variety of approaches, including 11 states that impose blackout or cut-off dates or other restrictions on the filing of ethics complaints during the election cycle. These states are Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

The Power of Accusations

Because a filed complaint entails at least a preliminary investigation, proponents of such laws say accusations of an ethical violation, if unfounded and frivolous, can destroy a campaign, especially when it comes too late to defend against it.

Critics, however, question whether bans or restrictions are the right response. Do the bans assume all complaints filed during an election are politically driven? Shouldn't justified complaints be part of the political debate during a campaign?

Alaska, in 1998, was one of the first states to pass legislation "to prevent the politicization of the ethics process," says Joyce Anderson, former administrator of the Alaska Select Committee on Legislative Ethics. The law prohibits filing an ethics complaint against a legislator or legislative employee running for state office within 45 days of a primary election through general election.

In general, the bans vary mostly in their time frames. In Oklahoma, the Ethics Commission bans filing complaints from the first day the Election Board accepts declarations of candidacy until after the General Election. The commission itself, however, may initiate and investigate complaints. Georgia begins its ban 30 days before the election, South Carolina's ban begins 50 days before, and in West Virginia it's 60 days. Utah bans filing complaints as well, but only against candidates who have an opponent.

File but Don't Disclose

Texas does not have a specific blackout date, but the state Ethics Commission may consider "the timing of the complaint with respect to the date of any pending election in which the respondent is a candidate or is involved with a candidacy" in deciding if it is frivolous. If the complaint is found to be unwarranted and brought...