Video: How To Keep Legislators Out Of Trouble?

I sat down with Robert Harms for a couple BEK TV segments to discuss, from the perspective of a lobbyist, how new legislators can guard against becoming the pawns of lobbyists and special interests.

I’ve know Robert Harms for as long as I’ve been in professional politics. He was on my board of directors when we operated as the North Dakota Taxpayers Association.

He was Governor Ed Schafer’s and Governor John Hoeven’s general counsel and a lobbyist. But he’s also been a conservative activist, an organizer for the TEA Party movement in North Dakota, and a former Chairman of the North Dakota Republican Party.

Currently he is running for the State Senate in District 2, but for the following conversation on BEK-TV, I wanted to avoid that specific discussion and set the stage for developing a strategy to educate and train new legislators from falling under the control of special interest groups and lobbyist. So who better to ask than a long-time lobbyist trying to become a new legislator?

With all the possible unethical behavior being discovered and reported lately, this is a discussion that needs to happen for all current and legislators.