Posted on 01/24/2006 10:15:25 AM PST by NormsRevenge
IN THE WAKE of the Abramoff, Cunningham and DeLay scandals, all eyes have turned to lobbying reform in D.C. And deservedly so. But Washington is just the beginning. In fact, the kind of lobbying that goes on in the nation's capital also exists — often more brazenly, more openly and with bigger dollar amounts — in every state capital in the country, including Sacramento.
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More money is spent lobbying in California than in any other state in the nation. The $212 million spent by California lobbyists in 2004 dwarfed the runner-up lobbying state, Texas, by $50 million and third-place New York by almost $70 million. ...
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.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, for example, who came to office purportedly to clean up a corrupt capital, keeps a coterie of high-paid consultants on his campaign payroll — consultants who also are paid by corporations that have sought and won favorable decisions from the administration. And often those favors were backed up by big campaign cash.
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This is not just a Republican disease. Former Gov. Gray Davis' top advisors, Gary South and Darius Anderson, represented corporate clients with business before the state that lavished campaign cash on Davis.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Too bad it's not the best government money can buy.
Ya know, somebody ought to create a document that describes a limited government. Maybe somebody even ought to try running a country with such a limited government, and that document could be its Constitution! Wouldn't that be great?
Nobody would follow it.
Chuckling.
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