Can a female executive be trusted to separate her professional role from her home life? Is a political appointee automatically compromised because her husband is a lobbyist?

They're not abstract questions for Orlene Hawks, a new state agency head married to a Lansing lobbying firm partner. They also resonate for countless two-career couples and pose a test of commitment to gender equality.

The core issue: Does a woman -- or a man -- deserve an assumption of ethical decision-making? Should we believe a wall of professional integrity divides the bed?



Orlene Hawks: Experienced, qualified and presumably trustworthy. (Twitter photo)

This also arises in relationships between journalists and politicians, between married lawyers and in other industries.

A high-profile example is political commentator James Carville, a former aide to Bill and Hillary Clinton who married Mary Matalin in 1993. She worked for Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney while sharing closets, meals, affection and child-raising with Carville during part of that time.

And right now, presidential aide Kellyanne Conway is in her 18th year of marriage to attorney George Conway, a harsh and frequent Twitter critic of her boss.

In the situation of Orlene and Mike Hawks, questions arise a week after she became director of the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA). He's a regent at Eastern Michigan University and, more to the point, an owner of Governmental Consultant Services Inc.

Lasing correspondent Paul Egan writes in the Detroit Free Press that their roles are "raising concerns about potential conflicts of interest related to industries such as marijuana, where both spouses have responsibilities or client interests."

Those worries appear to surface when the reporter asks if they exist.

"On its face, it is concerning," said Craig Mauger, executive director of the Michigan Campaign Finance Network and an expert on ethics and disclosure rules for state officials. . . . If you were someone who wants something from LARA, do you think you would be more likely to go to the lobbying firm that is connected to the director of LARA?"

Egan also quotes Sen. Peter Lucido, R-Shelby Township, paraphrasing him as wondering "how she will handle conflicts with her husband's firm, if they arise."

"These are things that you've got to look at," Lucido said. "If there's an appearance of impropriety or a conflict of interest, then I think she has a duty to make it known."

Oh come on now.

It's two decades into the 21st Century and a newspaper still publishes the suggestion that influence-seekers "would be more likely to go to the lobbying firm" whose partner who sleeps with a state regulatory department head? Surprisingly, the "expert on ethics" who raises his eyebrows is 32, an age when he should be more accustomed to couples with professional integrity.

Roll this around in your mind for a minute: The presumption is that clients might expect Mike Hawks to lobby his marriage partner -- and that he'd do so.

Do these people think of her as "the little lady" or "wifey"?

Whatever they imagine, Orlene Hawks' previous role was director of the state Office of Children’s Ombudsman, an appointment made by Rick Snyder in 2013. Earlier she was a Michigan Department of Community Health manager.

In other words: Experienced, qualified and presumably trustworthy. Plus, she didn't hide her husband's job from the governor.

A voice of reason comes from Whitmer spokeswoman Tiffany Brown, who tells the Freep the governor is confident all cabinet members "will be ethically conscious, serve with integrity and are committed to putting Michigan residents first."

If Gretchen Whitmer is comfortable that her appointee can separate work and marriage, we should be too.