Lobbying for dollars

By Gerard O'Brien, editor of the Montana Standard - 10/12/2005

It probably comes as no surprise that former staffers for Montana’s congressional delegation turned to the more lucrative business of lobbying for their former bosses — and making the big buck as well.

Thanks to the recently concluded three-part series of articles on lobbyists by the Standard State Bureau, it was pointed out that several staffers for Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., and Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., have left to form their own private lobbying firms.

Names such as Leo Giacometto, Mark Baker, Ron Marlenee are all familiar to those who follow Montana politics. There are many more, as well.

The lobbyist formula is simple: Work for a congressman for a few years, leave to start a private consulting firm, pick up a few large corporate clients, and have those clients donate money back to the senators’ campaigns.

As a reward, the lobbyists paid well to help push funding for pet projects of the congressmen and the corporate firms.

Gov. Brian Schweitzer has recognized the conflict of interest in all this. He’s declared he won’t employ registered lobbyists in state government.

But in Washinton, D.C., it’s the way the work gets done.

What is a bit surprising is the staggering amount of money involved, even for a sparsely populated state as Montana.

Montana cities and counties have spent nearly $4 million in lobbyist fees since 1998. Each year the annual dollar amount appears to double.

In return, Montana has received hundreds of millions of federal dollars for projects across the state. The university system in 2004 netted $166 million alone.

But it seems that there’s a huge amount of waste if individual cities and towns must employ specialists to lobby for them.

There are 47 states that have a central lobbyist for the entire state. Schweitzer has proposed such a cental office for Montana. If nothing else, it would be a more efficient way of working for the federal dollars, rather than employing expensive consulting firms for invidual causes.

And the idea that one is in politics only to jump to the private sector for lucrative dollars just shouldn’t sit well with any taxpayer. In truth, it’s the way the world works, but there ought to be a better, more ethical way of doing business.