HOW TO LIVE IN THE POLITICOSPHERE POST "FITZ-RYAN"

We are now officially and undeniably in a new era of public conduct. Actually, we've probably been in it for several years. The Ryan verdict is just the trumpet that announces it to the world. There's more. If slimeball Tristano is singing, look for the GOP Daniels legislative team to be perp-walking a bit in the near future.

If you're elected to something and you're thinking impure thoughts while walking past a mailbox, you're looking at conspiracy to commit mail fraud. If you do it twice and you have any friends, add a RICO count.

There are now two new rules of conduct:

1. The rules for the conduct of your office are whatever a federal prosecutor decides later that they might have been;

2. When in doubt, refer back to rule one.

Seriously, the effect of this is to impose what I'll Call a "Super-Ban" on personal gifts. We have gone from the time where your best contributors are the people wanting to do business with your office to a time when a prudent person might well view people wanting to do business with his or her office as prohibited sources. An understandable reaction to Fitz-Ryan would be to avoid taking anything, however nominal, from a contractor or potential contractor. In Illinois, I don't think that's necessary. It would be very difficult to run afoul of the feds if the official just stayed within bounds of the Illinois Ethics and Gift Ban provisions.

Yes, there is a difference between personal gifts and political contributions. The problem is the official doesn't know how the US District Attorney will treat the difference. How many people know what Ryan was really charged with? Most of them vaguely think it's about dead kids and sold CDL licenses. Only very indirectly. It's about profiting from choices that belong to the citizens.

Another reaction, already prevalent is to "bid everything". This has problems in it too. How do you establish a relationship with a vendor? How important is warranty work and compatibility of parts or software? Local legislative bodies have this reverence for bidding. It may be a way to avoid getting indicted but it is a not a great way to run an operation.

To all my friends who are elected officials I would counsel don't let the Federal Government run your office. Do two positive things: Check with your assigned attorney on what, if anything, should change and, soon, retrain your entire staff on the Illinois and parallel local Ethics and Gift Ban provisions. Make sure nobody skips the training. Prove you did it and make it annual.

Don't run scared. Run Smart.