Investigative Journalism in the Public Interest

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POLITICS: Governor Bobby Jindal Spins the Center’s Work

By Sarah Laskow | November 13, 2008, 11:33 am

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal name-checked the Center for Public Integrity when touting his gubernatorial accomplishments on MSNBC Tuesday, but he didn’t get our assessment of his state’s new ethics package quite right. And while we love the publicity, we feel compelled to set the record straight.

“We’ve revamped ethics. Louisiana is now on the top of the list, according to the Center for Public Integrity,” Jindal told anchor David Shuster.

While Louisiana’s new law, which will not take effect until 2009, is on par with other tough ethics laws across the country, the Center has never said that Louisiana ethics law is “on top of the list.” It’s good – don’t get us wrong – but, sorry, Guv, we can’t give you the top ranking. Here’s why:

The Center’s States of Disclosure project systematically ranked disclosure laws for state legislatures in 1999, 2004, 2005, and 2006. In these reports, our team evaluated every state’s laws in order to compare them accurately. In 2008 the Center re-scored Louisiana’s new ethics law when Jindal’s substantial reform package made the changes a newsworthy event. The law certainly scored better on our survey than its predecessor, which ranked a dismal 44th. But other states have passed ethics reform since 2006, and since we didn’t reevaluate every state’s law, our report was careful to say that Louisiana’s law was only among the best.

That means that it’s not “the strongest law in the nation” (Jindal to his state legislature, March 9), “ranked… number one by the Center for Public Integrity.” (Jindal to the Southwest Daily News, March 20) or “first in the country” (Jindal in The Wall Street Journal, August 29). Again, it’s a good, strong law, Guv, and we sure appreciate you name-dropping our humble little shop. We just hope you can settle for being one of the best, just not necessarily the very, very best.

UPDATE: You comment; we listen. Here’s the original story.

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Comments

Posted by: JedClampet on November 13, 2008, 9:44 pm

Already running for President - 2012.
Posted by: Jindal 2012 Blogger on November 14, 2008, 10:37 am

I say nothing wrong with a little spin to promote your State. Louisiana needs all the good pub it can get. Why didn’t you list the 99 out of 100 (survey results) in your post....you only mentioned they were 44th.

“Louisiana’s new financial disclosure law received 99 out of 100 possible points on a survey by the center in February.” ...that from 2theadvocate.com

Explain how a state can get a 99% and not be on “the top of the list?” Do you give every state a 99? Doubt it.

Maybe you’re doing a little spin yourself???
Posted by: geauxtigers on November 14, 2008, 11:12 am

Earlier this year you had a story congratulating Louisiana for their accomplishments. Why can’t I find a link to that story now?

It is not older than other stories on your site.

To fairly compare what Gov. Jindal is saying to what you said would require you posting your actual words at the time.

Please correct this situation so a fair assessment can be made.
Posted by: Jindal 2012 Blogger on November 14, 2008, 8:53 pm

I’d say Jindal has Louisiana doing pretty good. Maybe this is what Jindal is referring to when he says they are tops:

http://www.bettergov.org/IntegrityIndex/Louisiana.aspx

“*To score each state’s conflict of interest laws, the BGA relied on the Center for Public Integrity’s ranking of state conflict of interest laws. That ranking has not been updated since 2006. According, Louisiana’s recent sweeping changes to its conflict of interest laws are not reflected in this edition of the Index. If Louisiana’s recent changes were scored its’ overall ranking would rise to number 1 and number 1 in conflict of interest laws.”

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