Integrity center chides Jindal on claims

• By MICHELLE MILLHOLLON
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Nov 14, 2008 - Page: 1A - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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The Center for Public Integrity on Thursday chided Gov. Bobby Jindal for touting the state’s new financial disclosure law as “the strongest in the nation.”

Jindal told MSNBC earlier this week that “Louisiana is now on the top of the list according to the Center for Public Integrity.”

For months, the governor has held up the center as a glowing reviewer of the ethics laws he pushed in February.

He’s mentioned the center often and in high profile settings. The organization pops up in his official biography, during interviews with the national media, in a speech to the Legislature and in his writings.

Just two weeks ago, he bragged that “The Center for Public Integrity has also recently indicated that Louisiana’s new conflict of interest laws are the best in the country.”

However, in a blog entitled “Governor Bobby Jindal Spins the Center’s Work,” the center accused Jindal of exaggeration.

“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,” the investigative journalism organization wrote on its Web site.

Sarah Laskow, a staff writer for the center, said the organization looked at Louisiana’s new laws but did not compare them to the laws in other states.

She said the center last compared ethics laws across the country in 2006.

Since then, several states have tweaked their ethics laws, including Washington, which already had among the best ethics laws in the nation, Laskow said.

Louisiana’s new financial disclosure law received 99 out of 100 possible points on a survey by the center in February. In a previous survey, the state garnered 43 points.

The new law expands financial disclosure requirements for public officials. Thousands of officials now must detail their finances.

The center said it never characterized the new law as “the strongest law in the nation” or the “first in the country” despite what Jindal said.