When an elected official uses his or her position to channel government work to a company in which friends, business associates or family members have a financial interest, it’s a government contract that is not going to a local business that may be more or equally worthy of the revenue and potential profits and employees.

When elected officials accept campaign contributions from a lobbyist, who then uses that contribution as leverage to gain access to those public officials’ influence over legislation and government money, someone with an equally valid interest in that legislation or funding — but who hasn’t bought their way into the public officials’ favor — loses out.

And if that lobbyist doesn’t have to report his campaign contributions to the state panel that oversees the ethical conduct of public officials, the citizens lose out because they have no idea who their competition is for access, no idea if or how that access is being exploited, and no protection against such unethical conduct. Again, the public loses out.

When financial disclosure statements from political........

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