Critics say the program which has helped prosecute just nine food-stamp cheats is corporate welfare.
Though revolving-door scandals are common in Texas, Smith s case showcases the extraordinary failures of the staff ethics rules that Governors Bush and Perry both adopted with fanfare. Bush first adopted his staff ethics policy in response to a scandal involving Smith s predecessor. As Bush s 1995 legislative director, Dan Shelley helped pass a law privatizing welfare services. As discussed below, the Shelley-inspired ethics rules did nothing to stop Smith from going straight from the Governor s Office to head Locke Liddell s lobby shop. Coincidentally, just days after Smith s job change, newly inaugurated Governor Rick Perry touted to the media his strict staff lobby rules, which turned out to be the old Bush rules.