You may have heard a little bit about Jill Chambers's Ethics Problems from the television, a newspaper, the mail or even a friend. Here's an explanation with a timeline, some charts and 3rd party links that explains what happened.

Nov 7, 2006: Chambers re-elected

Jill Chambers is re-elected with 59% of the vote, winning by 999 votes.

Dec 31, 2006: Last pre-session disclosure due

Jill Chambers raises $6,238 between Oct 25th and Dec 31st after she wins her re-election and files her final 2006 report on January 7th, 2007. (See first attachment)

Jan 5, 2007: Big fundraiser

Jill Chambers holds a pre-session fundraiser dominated by doctors from Resurgens, a group of affiliated ambulatory surgical centers that favor repeal of Georgia's Certificate of Need law. Here are the contributions:

Notice that Jill Chambers raised $11,500 just on this one day from one group of companies and its employees, more than she raised in total between Oct 25, 2006 and Dec 31, 2006. Why would she wait to have her fundraiser until January 5, 2007? It is because the General Assembly session kicked off less than a week later and this period in between Dec 31 and the start of the session is a ritual fundraising time for legislators to accept large contributions that they will not have to disclose until after the session ends, in this case on the June 30th report which Jill filed on July 5, 2007 (see second attachment).

Feb 1, 2007: Legislation introduced

Jill Chambers introduces HB 263 which would outright repeal Georgia's Certificate of Need requirement. Georgia's Chamber of Commerce is opposed to an outright appeal, here is a letter Chamber President George Israel wrote to state Senators opposing even a partial repeal. And Georgia's hospitals, including Emory University, also oppose any repeal of CON. Emory is part of the Georgia Alliance of Community Hospitals, and is also one of the biggest employers in the district.

Feb 19, 2007: Mother's illness

So why did Jill Chambers all of a sudden sponsor Certificate of Need repeal? Keep in mind that as of the session, no one knows about Jill's $11,500 in contributions from Resurgens because it isn't disclosed until June 30. Nelson Mullins Gold Dome Report informs us that on Feb 19th, Chambers tells a sad story about her mother's illness. According to Chambers's testimony to a special house committee that was reviewing potential changes to CON:

Rep. Chambers noted that her interest in the issue of Certificate of Need ("CON") generated from the experience that her mother had at a hospital while needing an emergency hysterectomy. Rep. Chambers provided a lot of detail in the poor care and complications which her mother experienced and described the CON process as costly and convoluted. Her Bill's goal is to provide patients choice with their providers. She asked fellow Legislators to put the patients' interests first and help ensure cost, service and access to care. She also questioned why government needed involvement in a business's decision to make an investment in a new program or facility.

Stay tuned. Chambers sad story is soon to disappear when later questioned about why she was doing it. The answer should be clear to anyone reading that Chambers's interest in CON reform springs from the thousands of dollars in campaign cash that she received from for-profit clinics that would benefit from its removal.

Sep 19, 2008: Ethics Complaint

Chambers is hit with a state ethics complaint when constituent Jeremy Alan Tanner notices that something doesn't add up on her reports. (see third attachment) The Dunwoody Crier on Sep 30, 2008 reports about the complaint in an article titled Chambers slapped with state ethics complaint.

Oct 8, 2008: Bizarre confrontation

The latest twist and turn in the saga as the Dunwoody Crier reports on Chambers confronting Tanner about his complaint. Chambers shows up at Tanner's house taking pictures and making some pretty bizarre claims about what could happen to someone that files an ethics complaint, including that they could lose their house and that they could be in serious legal trouble.

Oct 19, 2008: Changes her story

Now Jill Chambers has changed her story about why she sponsored the CON bill. In an interview with Dick Pettys of Insider Advantage, gone is the story about her mother's surgery that she told to the CON committee in the State House. Now Chambers says that she didn't even expect her bill to pass and that it was an issue that she'd been interested in for years.

Chambers says she’d been interested in CON for several years and introduced the bill as a vehicle to provide more options in the debate. “I never thought my bill would pass because it took it further than anything else.”

So the question you've got to ask yourself is: why would Jill Chambers take thousands of dollars in affiliated corporate money, sponsor a bill that would greatly benefit those corporations which is opposed by Emory University, one of the largest employers in District 81, then tell a committee that her mother's illness prompted her interest in the subject, then later retract that story and say she was introducing a bill that she didn't even expect to pass?