Lobbying Factoids

Before we have a bit of fun with the lobbyists, there is a timely warning from Ron Paul Republican Congressman from Texas

SEARCHING FOR A NEW DIRECTION
Dealing with lobbying scandals while ignoring the scandal of unconstitutional runaway government will solve nothing. If people truly believe that reform is the solution, through regulating lobbyists and increasing congressional reporting requirements, the real problem will be ignored and never identified. This reform only makes things worse.

• Of the states, California lays claim to the lions share of ‘lobby’ money spending; $212 million in 2004.


• Texas comes in second at around $160 million.


• New York tally is around $140 million


• Minnesota was the only other state to reach the $50-million mark.

Sacramento numbers
Most of the 1,000 lobbyists working the state capital traffic in more than information.
Of the $250 million that, by conservative estimates, is contributed to California state campaigns during a gubernatorial election cycle, the bulk comes from corporations, professional associations, unions and other interest groups that employ lobbyists in the state. The most highly paid hired guns in Sacramento have two silver bullets: access to vast amounts of campaign cash and connections to people — such as the governor or Assembly speaker — who are even more powerful than the legislator being lobbied.
In Capitol parlance, that's often called ‘strategic services’ (rather than lobbying)
Sacramento's scandal-in-waiting

Washington DC
spending by the Washington lobbying industry topped $2 billion in 2004.
There are about 37,000 registered lobbyists in the District.
Washington firms providing "lobbying, political consulting, or public relations consulting," earned about $900 million (the D.C. economy as a whole brought in $76 billion that year).
Recent polling shows that 81 percent of Americans believe the current lobbying scandal to be "business as usual" in Washington

Many states are well ahead of Washington in putting lobbying related anti corruption laws in place. These are often designed to eliminate privately financed junkets, require the disclosure of spending on lobbying, ban gift-giving by private interests and curb the hiring of lawmakers' relatives as an under-the-table kickback scheme.

• 37 states require some detailed information on each lobbyist's expenses, while the federal government does not.


• 24 states have independent ethics commissions, some including members of the public or retired judges, to investigate and enforce lobbying rules.


• Congress writes and enforces its own code of conduct.


• Lobbyists and their allied interests spent nearly $1 billion in 2004 in the 42 states that required detailed reporting, according to figures compiled by the Center for Public Integrity.


• In most capitals, lobbyists outnumber lawmakers by an average of five to one.


• Albany leads the nation, with 3,842 registered lobbyists, or 18 for every elected legislator.


• Colorado, Florida, Illinois and Ohio, there are at least 10 lobbyists for each lawmaker.


• Only two states, Maine and New Hampshire, have more elected officials than lobbyists.

Georgia lawmakers have begun operating under new ethics guidelines signed into law last year by Gov. Sonny Perdue.
In Florida, there are new laws banning gifts from lobbyists and requiring extensive reports on lobbyists' spending, rules the Legislature enacted after revelations that three lawmakers flew to a golf outing on a corporate jet owned by a company seeking slot machine licenses.
Last year Florida enacted one of the strictest set of lobbying rules in the country, including an outright ban on gifts and travel from lobbyists or their employers and a new system of reporting lobbying expenditures.