Former Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan appointed the director of UT’s Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Life to the Texas Ethics Commission on Dec. 31.
According to the Texas Ethics Commission, the organization enforces campaign and legislative rules and provides ethics trainings for state employees and members of the Texas Legislature. It also promotes transparency and issues advisory opinions on ethical questions in government.
Mark Strama served five terms in the Texas House of Representatives starting in 2005 before stepping away in 2013. He said the appointment allows him to re-engage with Texas politics and policymaking from a fresh perspective.
Strama said his priority as a commissioner is to rebuild public trust in elections and public institutions by serving as an impartial voice and continuing his work at the Strauss Institute.
“If you ask most people in Texas what they think of the Ethics Commission, they probably don’t think much because it operates, for the most part, below the radar,” Strama said. “If you ask them what they think about political ethics in Texas, they probably don’t feel great about it because people in general don’t feel great about politicians and politics.”
Transparency is critical to restoring public trust in Texas since campaign finance laws are more lax, Strama said. He said recent advancements by the commission, such as its improvement of digital tools for analyzing campaign finance data, have helped citizens hold public officials accountable.
“Given that we don’t have strict limits on donations in Texas, the next best thing we can do is make the flow of money into the political system transparent and subject to public scrutiny,” Strama said.
Strama said he wants to inspire more people to pursue a career in politics, particularly UT students. He said politics played a defining role in his development as a leader and he hopes to encourage students to embrace public service.
“There’s no job you can get coming right out of college where people would give you more responsibility than working on a campaign,” Strama said. “Campaigns are always understaffed, and if you show up, do the work and demonstrate that you have responsibility to get things done, you will get huge opportunities to have an impact.”
