Lawmakers sounds good

On words related to governance, and by extension, to corruption.
During my travels around the web I have been impressed by the way US media use the word LAWMAKER to denote, in the broadest sense, their legislators and administrators.
I guess, under the Webster concept, it is direct. It is also descriptive and fairly specific, to the point that it covers those who make laws.
Synonyms can include: administrator, alderman, assemblyman, congressman, councilman, deputy, lawgiver, leader, member, parliamentarian, senator.
Not all lawmakers are elected. In the US Federal cabinet posts are appointed. These people are powerful lawmakers. There and elsewhere statutory laws or regulations are often created by civil servants.
This all becomes highly relevant in the area of corruption. We should be able to expect our lawmakers to be the most vigorous in obeying law. Alas, as we are finding, ‘it ain’t necessarily so.

Which leads us to:
Lawyers and Lawmakers
Tennessee House Majority Leader Kim McMillan Thursday defended her right to be a lawyer and a lawmaker. McMillan, D-Clarksville, has come under fire for representing a Bristol utility company before the Tennessee Regulatory Authority, the state body that governs utilities.
She serves as "of counsel" with the Nashville law firm, meaning she is a salaried employee and not a partner. She works in the firm's litigation section.
McMillan in her role as majority leader also sponsored the overall state budget, which includes funding for TRA. She also is sponsoring legislation that could expand the powers of the authority, give it seven more employees and increase its spending by $363,000. She is co-chair of a joint House-Senate committee trying to write tougher ethics legislation for the state.
An exemption for lawyers in the ethics reform bill was controversial. Former Sen. John Ford, D-Memphis, who was indicted in the Tennessee Waltz bribery scandal, criticized the exemption earlier this year as "patently unconstitutional," saying many of the lawyer legislators do consulting work.
Some have called for lawyers to choose either practicing their profession or being lawmakers, but it could be seen as discriminatory in a citizen legislature. Of the 132 legislature members, 26 are lawyers, according to state disclosure records.