\nOne of the most frequent topics that comes up in political\n\n \nHowever, there is one completely legal process by which we can\neliminate all gifts\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n \nYou be the judge:\n\nhttp:\/\/gareport.com\/blog\/2012\/07\/18\/its-legal-but-is-it-right\/<\/a>\n<\/p>\n \nThere is a reason that politicians have gone from what was once a\nrespected position to a position that is now the target of a number\nof jokes. People have come to expect that politicians are dirty and\nare actually surprised when they come across one that is not. One by\none and seat by seat voters have the ability to replace those\nelected officials that aren’t doing what we elected them to do and\nare taking advantage of the position that we put them in. I urge\neveryone to thoroughly research every race you cast a ballot for.\nLet our elected officials know that you too believe: Ethics Matter.\n<\/p>\n \n\n \n-jsq\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Received 2 October 2012 from David Staples. -jsq One of the most frequent topics that comes up in political conversation these days is ethics. On July 31st, Georgians overwhelmingly voted that there needs to be a cap on the amount of gifts our elected officials are allowed to accept. However, there are many of us […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[97,14,49,70,17,8,18,2,21,22,3],"tags":[8736,1542,8704,8721,8728,8707,8701,8708,8699,8711,8712,8700],"class_list":["post-434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-economy","category-elections","category-ethics","category-ga-psc","category-georgia","category-georgia-power","category-government","category-planning","category-politics","category-transparency","tag-activism","tag-david-staples","tag-economy","tag-elections","tag-ethics","tag-ga-psc","tag-georgia","tag-georgia-power","tag-government","tag-planning","tag-politics","tag-transparency"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-70","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"\/blog\/images\/6a0120a58214e4970b017d3c93ebe3970c-pi.jpg\")
<\/a>\nconversation these days is ethics. On July 31st, Georgians\noverwhelmingly voted that there needs to be a cap on the amount of\ngifts our elected officials are allowed to accept. However, there\nare many of us who believe that even a $100 per day cap is still too\nmuch\u2014that perhaps $0 is a better cap. After all, looking at\nthe Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission\nwebsite, one can see that while the $150 rounds of golf and several\nhundred dollar dinners for the official and their spouse may be\neliminated, there are many more of the smaller lunches, dinners, and\nvarious other goodies that would still be allowed. Would you be\nsurprised to hear that some Public Service Commissioners walk out of\ntheir office or a hearing at lunch time and say “I’m hungry, where’s\na lobbyist”?\n<\/p>\n\nthat doesn’t require further\nlegislation\u2014the voting booth. Every Georgia voter has a voice\nthis November 6th to help decide who we are going to put into the\nvarious offices around the state. If we decide that ethics do indeed\nmatter, then we should cast our vote for the candidate that best\nreflects those values\u2014without regard for the party letter\nbeside that candidate’s name. The choice is yours\u2014do you vote\nfor someone who has received $14,000 in gifts from lobbyists in just\ntheir last term and who accepted $10,000 in campaign contributions\njust two days before voting on the case those very contributors were\npresenting? Or is it time to oust some of these 18 year incumbents\nin favor of a fresh face in their seat?\n<\/p>\n
![](\"\/blog\/images\/6a0120a58214e4970b017d3c93ebe9970c-pi.jpg\")
<\/a>\n-David Staples is a seventh generation Georgian currently\n\nrunning for Public Service Commission.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n