Lobbying

"It is a shocking day: The only thing that is clear to me is that pay-to-play is rampant in Ohio," said Catherine Turcer of the government watchdog group, Common Cause Ohio. "Utility money is the grease of the machine of the Statehouse."

Lobbyists in Nebraska raked in more cash than ever last year and more people joined their ranks to try to influence public officials, according to a new report. Lobbyists collected $19.4 million in gross earnings in 2019, according to Common Cause Nebraska. The government watchdog group said the total is a record, up from $17.8 million in 2018. Jack Gould, the group’s issues chairman, said lobbyists are getting more involved in campaign

The ranks of Washington’s policy experts and influencers run deep, but these are the players who stand out for delivering results for their clients in the halls of Congress and the administration. Grassroots: Karen Hobert Flynn and Aaron Scherb, Common Cause

“Almost every jurisdiction I can think of is grappling at some level with how much is covered and at what threshold,” Beth Rotman, the director of the Money in Politics and Ethics program at Common Cause, a government reform group, said of social media and grass-roots mobilization. She called the dilemma the “million-dollar question” for ethics officials. “At a certain smaller threshold, these activities are not the same as paid lobbyists,” Ms. Rotman said. “The challenge becomes how we as a democracy track this when it becomes more than small dollar.”

MSNBC starts a four-part series called American Swamp this Sunday. It will look at President Trump's finances, money in politics, how lobbyists influence legislation, and what we can do about it. The series feature some of our favorite people, including Shelia Krumholz at OpenSecrets.org, and students at North Carolina A&T talking about gerrymandering. Tune in.

The revolving door is an age-old problem in Washington but the scope and volume of the conflicts in the current administration - starting with the president himself – is unprecedented and lends new urgency to legislative reforms pending in Congress. The “Executive Branch Conflict of Interest Act”(HR 599/S 156) would curb many of these abuses by mandating recusal periods, prohibiting employer bonuses to those leaving to take government positions, tightening lobbying rules and lengthening “cooling off” periods. Presidential conflicts of interest measures have also been introduced in both the House (HR 1481) and Senate (S 882). Provisions from these bills are also included in a sweeping set of reforms in the “For the People Act” (HR 1/S 949), which passed the House earlier this year.