Jud Malone, president of Columbia Tomorrow, a local group supportive of General Growth Properties’ downtown redevelopment plan, filed the complaint March 26 with the General Assembly’s Joint Committee on Legislative Ethics. In his complaint, he cited e-mails from 2007 and 2008 in which Bobo, a Columbia Democrat, endorsed candidates in CA elections using her official state e-mail.Then, over at Free Market, I saw Bill Santos' post that has a letter that Bobo sent from her state account pertaining to the CA election in question.
In his complaint, Malone cited ethics rules against using the legislature’s e-mail system for non-public purposes and to influence campaigns.
Bobo claims ignorance of the ethics rule.
This is the second time in recent memory that Bobo has claimed ignorance as a political excuse for her actions. Earlier in the year, Bobo claimed that she cast a vote for a bill that she thought was a different bill. She then used that as an excuse to revisit the vote and conveniently change it after politics dictated a vote change.
At the same time, there are worse things than this. Sure, this is unethical. But an email is not the end of the world unless it is only the tip of an iceburg that we are yet to know. Honestly, I doubt that is the case.
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The point is that Delegate Bobo used an e-mail account, provided to her at taxpayer expense, to use her position as a delegate to influence an election. All of this is so wrong and so unethical. Then, when caught, Bobo, a lawyer with 30 years' experience, claims ignorance. As a lawyer, she should understand appearances of impropriety. Mimimally, that is what we have here. Delegate Bobo knew better. She really did.
ReplyDeleteI agree that what Del. Bobo did is unethical and her excuse is pretty darned pathetic. Of course she knew better. That isn't an issue of ignorance. Anyone who takes that problem to its logical conclusion would say what she did is wrong. I think there are probably more important things that we could take Del. Bobo to task on other than this, though.
ReplyDeleteInteresting that Malone is complaining about the same thing that Bobo did for him when he ran for CA board.
ReplyDeleteanon 11:49, do have a copy of that email from Bobo endorsing Malone? That would surely add an interesting twist to this story.
ReplyDeleteWhat? How would that add a twist???? That would only add more evidence to Bobo's inappropriate use of her delegate e-mail address.
ReplyDeleteDon't have a copy of it. And the twist it adds is uncovering Malone's hypocrisy.
ReplyDeleteBobo has said she would not have done it if she thought it was wrong and now that the rules have been cleared up she will not use her state e-mial for such purposes again.
This is a lot of ado over nothing.
Anon, don't try and turn this into something it is not. This is not about Malone vs. Bobo or anti-development vs. pro-development or whatever. This is about the unethical use of an e-mail address.
ReplyDeleteThere really is no defense of what Bobo did. It was clear that she was wrong, even if there were not a stated ethics rule against the practice.
ReplyDeleteThere are certainly worse things to do than this, but Bobo's excuse is lame.