It’s so hard to tell the difference between criminal bribery and legal campaign contributions. They look pretty much the same. That’s the problem!

We need to strongly reform campaign finance rules to create a system where the difference between bribery and normal contributions is a big bright line, not a fuzzy gray area.

For many years Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke was clearly the most successful and professional legislator in our state. Not coincidentally, she was also the most powerful. We don’t know yet if she has broken any laws.

But that’s the problem … blatant corruption looks strikingly similar to business-as-usual. This is why we must finally change our system to represent people and not corporations. If she had reported those checks she received, and the donors had not gotten caught, then it’s just business as usual.

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Let’s visit a typical public hearing on a bill. Members of the public and advocates testify based on their concerns and beliefs. Interested businesses, state agencies and government contractors are also sharing their opinions. It all looks good on the surface.

Then decisions get made that are baffling to the outside observer; public testimony is ignored, and the contractors  and influential corporations get what they wanted.

What happened? Under the surface well-funded lobbyists and company representatives have given huge contributions to the chairs, vice-chairs and voting members as needed. Some of these contributions are legal, some are not, and many are in a gray area in between.

This includes maxed-out donations, often bundled through family members and staff. It also includes paid luxury travel expenses, wining and dining, and favors that are hard to track or quantify. Visits to Las Vegas are sprinkled with free gambling chips, totally unreported. New cars and scholarships for the kids quietly materialize, and no one sees them.

The public, testifying in good faith, is unaware of this and cannot possibly compete with such influence. Over and over we hear “How could they go against the public input?” These donations, both legal and otherwise, overshadow public input. And here we are with a system where incumbents never lose, the public always loses, and corruption is rampant.

The major steps needed have been clear for years: a strong public campaign financing system; radically lower contribution limits; no donations from those who have business in front of the Legislature that year; no donations during sessions; and term limits. Some will argue against each of these, but the result will be nothing changes.

When I was a state senator, a colleague travelled to Las Vegas for a quick two-day trip during a very important part of the legislative schedule. I was so naïve, I wondered why he would do that? Leave on Friday, back on Sunday, and at work on Monday chairing a committee.

Later I learned that stacks of gambling chips are often donated to legislators at the casinos. No reporting, no tax, no way to trace them. He travelled for some important “business” and the hidden influencers got their way.

Everyone acted as if this was normal, because under current rules, it is normal. Perhaps we will never stop such shady business, but we can demand some integrity from our legislators and make such corruption unacceptable. Clean election financing would go a long way.

Some say public campaign financing is too expensive. I’d ask, what is the cost of the system we now have? Political decisions are made based on obscene levels of “donations” and the public interest comes last, if it’s considered at all. The public loses and the public pays for it all through wasteful spending and failure to address real needs. It does not have to be this way.

Lobbyists have their purpose. They can advocate for their clients, and educate the legislators about the issues their clients face. All well and good. But remove the over-arching influence of money so that the public concerns are on a level playing field with the lobbyists concerns.

It’s not rocket science … many places have cleaned up their election finance system and the sky didn’t fall. The only ones opposed to drastic reform are the lobbyists, their clients and the legislators who make a career of playing this self-serving game.

Let’s make corruption the exception, not the rule, by stopping this pay-to-play perversion of our democracy.