McCormick
Jennifer McCormick, the Democratic candidate for Indiana governor, announced Tuesday afternoon that she would seek to ban gifts from lobbyists and implement other transparency measures aimed at improving trust in the state government.
With most of her plan focused on lobbyist reform, McCormick proposed a total ban on lobbyist gifts to members of the General Assembly and preventing registered lobbyists the ability to serve on political committees. She also supports increasing the dead period between when lawmakers leave office to when they can become lobbyists from one to three years.
Last year, State Affairs Indiana reported that lobbyists spent $1 million on gifts and entertainment for the state’s lawmakers. Lobbyist gifts are allowed under current state law but must be reported to the Indiana Lobbying Registration Commission.
“When you have one-party rule, there’s not a lot of appetite to police yourself,” McCormick told reporters Tuesday afternoon.
McCormick also seeks to move campaign finance reporting under the state election division—instead of with each county’s election boards—and standardize quarterly reporting during election and non-election years.
Several proposals would likely need to be approved by the legislature. Others, she said, may be able to be implemented through agencies and commissions.
McCormick said she would work across the aisle with the supermajority to get measures passed. She said Republican lawmakers should welcome proposals for more transparency and accountability.
“I question why individuals would not welcome a plan that is common sense and that would hold all of us, everyone, accountable to the same level of transparency and accountability,” McCormick said. “And we’re not extreme on this plan.”
Her plan was released in part in response to concerns she said she’d heard about state government transparency while traveling the state. She specifically mentioned the LEAP Lebanon Innovation District and the Mid-States Corridor expressway as two projects that spurred the most concerns.
Increased transparency and accountability across the board will improve residents’ trust wholesale, she said.
McCormick’s transparency plan also calls for a sexual harassment reporting system, which she said has been overdue. The mechanism, housed under the inspector general, would create a reporting process for complaints regarding state or local elected or appointed officials and lobbyists.
This component comes as Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett faces criticism over his office’s handling of sexual harassment allegations against a former top aide. McCormick said her policy measure is not directly inspired by the recent reporting, but rather by a collection of incidents and concerns.
“That is a topic of concern that so many of us are hearing about, but it’s overdue,” she said. “It’s just a matter of putting, again, systems in place to to help Hoosiers with that mechanism to feel safer and to be heard.”
