Our favorite ex-Wall Street plutocrat has suffered a bit of bad publicity lately. His vanity project public advocacy group, Campaign for Vermont, recently released another TV ad that was so predictably empty of content that it raised the ire of the usually phlegmatic Terri Hallenbeck:

Titled “Voices for Change,” the ad features Campaign for Vermont Co-Founder Bruce Lisman and a string of unidentified other people calling for change.

“We can make Vermont more affordable,” one says.

“Create more jobs,” adds another.

“And help families be more secure,” chimes in another.

… No one calls for brighter colors or cuter puppies or offers to teach the world to sing in harmony, but you get the drift.

Ooooh, burn!

Well, after that, I imagine that Lisman and his “brain trust” (Jason Gibbs, Shawn Shouldice, et al) realized they had to put a little meat in that empty bun, STAT. So he’s taken a plausibly bold step on a substantive policy issue.

And, shockingly enough, I agree with him on this one.

Lisman is promising a big push for ethics reform in state government. In the 20154 legislative session, CFV will begin its first State House lobbying effort with ethics reform as its #1 issue. Peter Hirschfeld in the paywall-protected Mitchell Family Organ:

Lisman… wants elected officials to have to disclose information about their personal finances, as well as any interests in which they have a financial stake.

Lisman is also calling for an independent, “quasi-judicial ethics commission” to regulate and monitor officials held in the public trust.

He’s right. Our ethics laws are laughable.

It’s not the most urgent problem facing Vermont, but it’s an issue worth addressing. Especially in this dawning age of one-party rule in Vermont. Usually, when one party dominates the political scene, it gets lazy and corrupt. See: Massachusetts during the Tom Finneran/Billy Bulger era, when rampant corruption and featherbedding opened the door to justified criticism of liberal politics and public-sector unions. And also opened the door to a string of unimpressive Republican governors. (Weld, Cellucci, Swift, and cough Romney.) Not to mention the abortive political career of Scott “Centerfold” Brown.

I don’t want to see that happen in Vermont, and ethics reform would help prevent it.

The bigger news, however, isn’t Lisman’s issue of choice; It’s that CFV will establish a significant lobbying presence under the Golden Dome*. To date, although Lisman has spent close to a million bucks on CFV, he’s had a “surprisingly low profile in Montpelier,” as Hirschfeld puts it. And if CFV has moved the political meter so much as a millimeter, I haven’t seen any sign of it.  

*Speaking of which, the Dome itself is badly overdue for a re-gildng. Maybe Bruce could dig around in his sofa cushions and pay for a new layer of gold plate? There’d be some nice symbolism and synergy at work, don’tcha think?

But if he puts his Bear Stearns fortune behind a State House lobbying effort, he could start to move the dial. He could certainly be far more influential than, say, Lenore Broughton. And I suspect that his big ethics push is just a media-friendly foot in the door. It’s a feel-good issue, and one where he can probably win either way. Serious ethics reforms are, frankly, a longshot; but the Legislature may well disgorge a watered-down version that will allow Lisman to declare victory and move on to other issues.

Like, oh, education reform (union-bashing and for-profit “schools of choice”), public-sector pension reform (let’s kill those defined-benefit plans!), and tax reform (create a more “business-friendly” climate by cutting corporate and capital-gains rates). Bruce Lisman isn’t spending a million bucks and counting to incrementally change Vermont’s ethics law; he’s doing it to make Vermont a more fiscally conservative place.  

The political media love to speculate about Lisman as a gubernatorial candidate. I don’t. I’ll say it again: Bruce Lisman will never be Governor of Vermont, and I seriously doubt he’ll ever run. Independent candidacies are the longest of long shots, he’s getting up there in years, and he lacks the dynamism or charisma needed to launch a one-man movement à la Arnold Schwarzenegger* or Jesse Ventura. (Or even Angus King.) I see him as a much smarter version of Lenore Broughton: A person with the resources to make a huge difference in Vermont, but with the intelligence to productively channel his efforts.  

*Technically, Ah-nuld was a Republican, but first and foremost he was Ah-nuld.

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p.s. The Hirschfeld article contained a stunningly apropos blooper regarding Our Governor, who is not a fan of tighter ethics rules:

As for mandatory financial disclosures, [the governor’s general counsel Sarah] London said Shumlin “has felt that the voluntary system we have has worked for our small state.”

“But he’s always willing to discus other options when they’re put forward,” London said last week.

I’m they meant “discuss,” but I like “discus” better. Because Shumlin is “always willing to discus” other people’s ideas. He’s also willing to shot put them, javelin them, and catapult them as far away as possible. Just watch him tie Tim Ashe’s tax plan in the ejector seat and push the big red button.