Scott Mooneyham

RALEIGH— Anyone who believes that the large sums of money infecting political campaigns these days don’t cause real harm to real people hasn’t been paying attention to the pay-to-play scandals involving public pension funds around the country.

Pension fund scandals in New York, New Mexico and Connecticut have sent pension fund officials and the investment managers with whom they do business to prison. Meanwhile, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo continues conducting a nationwide investigation into pension fund investments, political donations by investment firms and the potential for kickbacks.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is finally considering rules intended to clean up the mess.

What needs to stop is the very obvious conflict of interest when public pension fund managers take thousands of dollars in political contributions from executives at investment firms and then hand out contracts worth hundreds of thousands of dollar to the same firms to manage pension fund money.

In North Carolina, former State Treasurer Richard Moore perfected the craft.

Moore, during his tenure, expanded the amount of pension fund dollars going to venture capital firms and hedge funds, increasing his pool of likely donors.

And he was rewarded. In 2007, employees at 40 of the 90 firms investing North Carolina pension money had donated to Moore’s campaign.

Now, you might conclude that the system does work. After all, Moore lost the governor’s race, perhaps in part because of public reports about his penchant for relying on venture capitalists’ donations.

Pension fund managers in New York and Connecticut were tossed from office for their misdeeds, and, in the case of one, tossed in the clink.

But the focus shouldn’t be on state treasurers or comptrollers. It shouldn't be on high-powered financiers in their office towers in Manhattan and Boston.

It should be on state pensioners and taxpayers.

Moore, then and now, would say that none of this campaign money influenced his decisions about where and how to invest pension fund money.

The same can’t be said for former Connecticut Treasurer Paul Silvester, convicted in a kickback scheme.

Cuomo’s wide-ranging investigation suggests that other investing decisions across the country aren’t being made based on gaining the best returns for pensioners. Rather, some are about the best results for politicians and their cronies.

The resulting harm to real people is lower cost-of-living increases for public-sector pensioners and higher taxpayer contributions to public pension funds to keep them solvent.

In her first year in office, State Treasurer Janet Cowell has pushed for reforms including public financing for treasurer’s campaigns. She’s instituted a one-year prohibition against doing business with former treasurer’s office officials who leave for the private sector.

But she also continues taking donations from investment firm managers, including one that has come under Cuomo’s scrutiny.

Cowell would be wise to jump ahead of any SEC rule and follow New York’s example by refusing to do business with those contributing to her campaign.

Scott Mooneyham is a columnist with the Capitol Press Association.