The AJC has a good article on how much lobbyists spend on legislators in the Georgia General Assembly.
$931,000 lobbyists showered on lawmakers — or about $14,300 a day for the roughly 65 days they were in Atlanta.
The esteemed leader for the House, Glenn Richardson, is irked when people criticize about lobbyists spending money on legislators because "Having wine and dinner is what business is made of." Really now, Glenn.
Common Cause Georgia lobbyist Jim Kulstad says it best:
"The people who are elected to represent us are there to represent us. And not be about their personal business."
Our current US Senator, Saxby Chambliss, doesn't have a problem with lobbyists in the hen house, since his son is a lobbyist who represents clients that have business before his Senate committees.
Saxby said this on the Senate floor about his son's lobbying work:
while it gets very ticklish at times when people that he works with come to my office to lobby me, then he has to either stand out in the hall or go down the hall to the bathroom.
Saxby, there might just be a slight problem when you have to send a grown man to the bathroom when company comes over.
Kicking Saxby out of his seat in 2008 will be a good start at cleaning up from the top down ... but who's going to start the cleaning from the bottom up? Glenn Richardson has to go. He's creating his own fun-filled carnival under the Gold Dome.
Comments (3)
The amazing thing is how much lobbyist expenditures have gone up since Republicans gained full control of the state.
I thought they were philosophically in tune with business, ie doing the things business wanted intuitively without having to be lobbied. Apparently not. They are the masters of the corporate shakedown.
This should be illegal. Tim put it in the right context in his Outrage of the Week on Kudzu Vine. Votes for sale!
the LAST thing this should be is illegal...citizens dont have time (or often the desire) to go to the capitol and lobby their legislator, its a fact of life. joining a group like the NRA or planned parenthood and giving them money gives them a proxy voice. more members=more lobbyists=more represntation.
yes we can say lobbyists spend too much money on lawmakers they probably do, but to get rid of lobbyists would make democracy less attainable.