We pushed, they panicked. Here’s how legislators protected their swamp and killed the Gift Ban on September 12th — but our efforts are inevitably draining it.
When you enter into the State Capital in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, you are suddenly cast into a shameless and shameful arena where money and power will lie and manipulate in order to maintain a power structure that works for big money special interests, and not for the people of Pennsylvania. This is exactly what happened last week, when our State Legislature actively fought against a Gift Ban bill that would make it illegal for lobbyists to bribe our 253 State Legislators with over $1.5 million a year in fancy meals, vacations, sports tickets, private jet flights, and more.
We marched 33 miles in three days from York to Harrisburg in anticipation of a historic day in the Capital on September 12th. For years, we have been forcing our legislators to deal with the Gift Ban and other corruption problems, and for the months leading up to September 12th, we had been telling our 203 State Representatives that we would be forcing a vote on the House floor that day. House Majority Leader Benninghoff had broken two promises to schedule a vote, so we decided to pursue a rare legislative maneuver to bypass Rep. Benninghoff and force a Gift Ban vote. This maneuver has not been successfully used since 1921. We learned last week just how hard it is to bypass the gatekeepers in Harrisburg.
Here is some of what we heard from legislators in both parties about what they’re leadership would do to them if they did the right thing and passed the Gift Ban:
Leadership will kick me off my committees
They will kill the one bill I’ve been trying to pass for the last decade
They will fire my staff
They will cut off my campaign funds and fund my opponent
They will destroy a project in my district
They will ruin my life and kill my career
We started September 12th by flyering all 203 State House offices with our intention to pass the Gift Ban that day. That morning before session, legislators panicked and held meetings where they discussed how to kill and bury the 33rd Gift Ban bill introduced in the last 21 years, all of which have died without a full House vote. Misinformation about the bill was spread and lies were told. We heard that some legislators were even being told that the bill is unconstitutional (it isn’t), and that passing a Gift Ban would be unpopular (it would be wildly popular).
Legislators hid from us as they entered the House floor through their secret entrance around noon, they hid from us as they exited clandestinely shortly after for recess, and then they hid from us again when they went back on the House floor around 2pm and then adjourned less than a half hour later. The only people we consistently saw throughout the day was the large Capitol Police presence, which our politicians hide behind because they are afraid of taking on their own corruption.
Our motion maker told us around 2:30 PM that there had been a deal cut with leadership, and they would figure out how to pass the Gift Ban by the end of the legislative week. Our champions had been bullied and intimidated all day, and this deal was the best they could do without committing complete political suicide. Leadership didn’t make the vote happen, and they ended their work week on Wednesday with 17 total votes, 20 campaign fundraisers, and zero Gift Ban votes. We don’t know how real that deal was and how serious the people who made it were about following through. It can be hard to know what happens in a building so saturated with lies and deception.
What we do know is this: Leadership in both parties, including House Majority Leader Benninghoff and House Minority Whip Harris, worked hard to kill the Gift Ban bill. They lied to and misinformed their members, and the implicit threats and absurd power that they hold over the rank and file members makes the vast majority of our legislators obsolete and powerless. Our Representatives do not represent us, they serve their party leaders and the special interests that fund them.
The entrenched corruption in Pennsylvania politics runs deep and it does damage to everything from our healthcare to our housing to our education. When bribery is legal and systemic, our public servants answer to private special interests, and we all suffer. The Gift Ban is actually a relatively small piece of the corruption eco-system in Harrisburg. We also need campaign finance reform, bans on side jobs and the revolving door, and we need to take on dark money political spending. An attack on any of these fronts of corruption is a direct threat to the corrupt foundations that prop up our unresponsive State Legislature.
Last week, we pushed them out of their comfort zone and shamed them, and we saw the empire strike back. We saw the active indifference, ignorance, and arrogance of a legislature willing to work overtime on behalf of corruption. Unlike far too many of our legislators, we are not afraid of lobbyists, corrupt legislators with too much power, or even the police that our elected officials hide behind to avoid our group of Pennsylvanians who are committed to nonviolence. We learned how much we can do and push with a few hundred people in MarchOnHarrisburg, and we look forward to being back in Harrisburg with a bigger group.
