Ethics Outbreak

In a General Assembly not exactly known for moral rectitude: an outbreak of ethics. Majority Leader Gordon Fox, who has a large ethics fine in his past, is proposing a constitutional amendment - to be approved by voters - that would restore Ethics Commission oversight of legislators after a controversial state Supreme Court ruling last summer stripped much of it away.

Representative Peter Kilmartin, meanwhile, has introduced "pay-to-play" legislation that would ban corporations with state contracts worth $5,000 or more from donating to the officials who awarded the contracts or to candidates running for the applicable office.

Welcome developments and, of course, rife with politics. Fox is building a campaign for the the soon-to-be-vacant post of Speaker of the House. And Kilmartin is gearing up for a run for state attorney general.