Money in Politics: Lobbyists

Part of the "culture of corruption" is the undue influence of big money in politics. Despite fits and starts of reform, special interest money dominates the political system -- and it's those with the biggest wallets that benefit.

The scope of big money influence isn't even known to the public, because in many cases it's not reported. For example, Democracy North Carolina just released a report about the role of lobbyists in North Carolina, while the legislature considers reform legislation. Lobbyists donated some $450,000 to state legislators, but their fundraising goes undisclosed. As Democracy North Carolina reports:

As the General Assembly grapples with whether to regulate the fund-raising activities of lobbyists, a new study finds that the house parties and other events hosted by lobbyists for legislators are rarely disclosed on campaign finance reports.

In a search of over 200,000 records covering contributions and expenditures from January 2004 to April 2006, researchers found only 11 cases of legislative candidates acknowledging the liquor, food, invitation letters, and other forms of in-kind donations that lobbyists provide to help fund-raising events. The goods and services come from lobbyists for pork producers, billboards, state lottery proponents and opponents, and education groups - but the total listed is only $5,005.

"The public gets hardly any information about how lobbyists move money into the political system in North Carolina," said Bob Hall of Democracy North Carolina, a watchdog group that monitors campaign finance reports.

"Political observers know that lobbyists are hosting an increasing number of fund-raising events for legislators, caucus committees, and executive branch politicians. But you don't see the lobbyists' spending for those events listed, even though state law says such in-kind donations should be disclosed on the beneficiaries' campaign finance report."

Hall also said a proposed restriction on lobbyists giving more than a total of $4,000 per election to all legislative and Council of State candidates would have, by itself, "a small impact on their clout and even less impact on the money chase that dominates North Carolina politics today."

Less than half the registered lobbyists in 2003-2004 made a donation to a state candidate or party over $100 during that period, Democracy North Carolina found. The top 10 donor-lobbyists gave a total of about $200,000 to legislative candidates, while the next 251 gave $250,000.