Governor proposes ethics package

ATLANTA - Governor Perdue proposed an ethics package Thursday that would bar legislators from seeking favorable treatment for prisoners. <br> <br> The package also would ban candidate-to-candidate transfers of political contributions. <br> <br> Perdue says lawmakers can make the proposals tougher if they want but says he will fight any attempts to weaken them. <br> <br> He called his ideas ``common-sense, understandable proposals.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Legislative influence-peddling for convicts was a major issue in the campaign last year. Perdue himself was forced to acknowledge that while a lawmaker, he had communicated with the state Board of Pardons and Paroles about prisoners. <br> <br> However, he insisted he merely passed along letters written to him by relatives of inmates and made no recommendations about how specific prisoners should be handled. <br> <br> That would continue to be permitted under the proposed legislation, but it would be a violation of law for lawmakers to appear before prison agencies or communicate with them to seek action for a prisoner. <br> <br> The package will be introduced first in the Republican-led Senate.

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