August 17, 2005

Tre Target

State House Minority Leader Tre Hargett, R-Bartlett, will resign from the state legislature next month and become a lobbyist for Pfizer. Here is the Tennessean story.

Hargett, who will oversee lobbying for Pfizer in Tennessee and Alabama, is getting a lot of criticism, especially as Hargett has backed the so-called "revolving door" bill that would mandate a one-year delay between being a lawmaker and lobbying the legislature.

Of course, some of the outrage is coming from Democrats, who control the state House and have always managed to scuttle such lobbing reform legislation in the past. Rep. Ulysses Jones, a Memphis Democrat, is quoted in The Tennessean today calling Hargett "very hypocritical" given that Hargett's GOP legislators pushed a "revolving-door" bill that would prevent legislators from jumping into lobbyist jobs straight from elected office.

Perhps Hargett's decision to become a lobbyist and immediately start lobbying the Tennessee legislature is a bit hypocritical, but it also gives the GOP the best chance it has had in years to pass the revolving-door bill, a much-needed ethics rules reform. The Tennessee GOP can use Hargett's Democratic critics' faux outrage to demand that they back real lobbying reform legislation, including the revolving-door provision.

If Rep. Jones truly thinks Hargett is wrong to jump from the legislature immediately to lobbying it, well, nothing is stopping Rep. Jones and his fellow Democrats from sponsoring a revolving-door bill - like this one that they failed to back last year - and passing it next session. They could even make it retroactive to prevent Hargett from directly lobbying the Tennessee legislature until September 2006.

On the other hand, if Rep. Jones and other legislators who are criticizing Hargett today don't push hard to pass a revolving-door bill in the next legislative session, it is they who are the worst hypocrites in this story.

A Key Ommission
Today's Tennessean story works hard to push the impression that Hargett's move to become a Pfizer lobbyist might be an ethical breach, but the actual evidence for that is fairly thin. Yeah, Hargett first inquired about the job opening while the legislature was in session. And yeah, he has received campaign contributions from Pfizer. That's all very thin smoke.

The thicker smoke may be that Hargett sat on three committees that considered legislation that impacted Pfizer, apparently while knowing he might apply for the Pfizer job.

But there may not be any real fire there.

According to the paper, that legislation negatively impacted Pfizer. The paper omits to mention how Hargett voted on the legislation - which, by the way, passed. How Hargett voted would seem to be a key fact here. I suspect he voted for the legislation, which of course would undermine the story's attempt to paint Hargett's job switch as an ethical scandal.

UPDATE: Hargett didn't vote for the legislation, but he didn't vote against it either. The legislation The Tennessean is referring to was House Bill 1410 and Senate Bill 1360, known as the Tennessee Affordable Drug Act of 2005. It passed the House on May 24 on a vote of 93-0, with six members not voting. According to the House journal for that day, Hargett did not vote. (The House journal for May 24, 2005, is a 121-page PDF file.)

UPDATE: State Rep. Stacey Campbell reflects on Hargett's job switch and notes the irony of Rep. Ulysses Jones calling Hargett a hippocrite:

Do I wish he had waited one year after stepping down to take the job ? Yes. Do we need to pass a revolving door bill? Yes. The good side is that Tre' always supported this bill and maybe now it will have more bi-partisan support. Sure many Dems are already calling us hippocrates, but the funny part is these are the exact same people who were the ones that killed the bill that would have stopped it last year (Ulysses Jones).Where were they when it counted?