HARRISBURG – Minimal, “unavoidable” campaign activity by a senator or staffer during work hours would be allowable under a proposed Senate ethics rule.

Senate leaders formally introduced the resolution this week as a response to a Capitol landscape changed by the ongoing “Bonusgate” corruption investigation and to keep senators and their employees from doing political and campaign work on public time.

Two dozen current and former House lawmakers and aides face charges in the Bonusgate probe into illegal campaign activity on public time conducted for the past three years by state Attorney General Tom Corbett.

The Senate resolution surfaced during a week when former House Minority Leader Mike Veon, D-Beaver, and three former aides went on trial in Dauphin County Court for allegedly diverting state employees and resources for campaign purposes.

A hearing is planned the first week of February on the ethics resolution, which requires a Senate vote to take effect.

The resolution in broad terms forbids campaign activity on Senate work time and using Senate equipment for campaign work and bars employees from serving on a campaign committee of a senator or Senate candidate.

However, it cites several examples where minimal campaign activity would not be considered a rule violation because of unavoidable circumstances during Senate work time.

These include cases where a senator or staffer responds to a question from a news reporter or constituent and a campaign-related question pops up, a routine conversation veers onto a political topic, where a senator’s campaign staff asks for scheduling advice to avoid a time conflict or an unsolicited call comes on a personal cell phone.

One political activist thinks the scheduling advice exception could lead to problems.

Campaign scheduling issues take up a lot of time and such an exception could open the door to other campaign-related discussions, said Tim Potts, founder of Carlisle-based Democracy Rising.

Any ban should take a common-sense approach, said Barry Kauffman, director of Pennsylvania Common Cause. “If it (a situation) is beyond a person’s control, there should be a safety valve,” he said.

The resolution would allow employees to engage in campaign activities on their own time, but they would be barred from using sick leave, family and medical leave and parental leave for that purpose.

Read the full Scranton Times article here

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