They were lawmakers. Should they wait to lobby?

03/19/2007

BY RACHEL E. STASSEN-BERGER
Pioneer Press


Lawmakers at the Minnesota Capitol are taking a run at making sure legislators can't leave their elected jobs and immediately begin lobbying the colleagues they left behind.

"We should not be here for a job interview. We should be here for the citizens of the state," said Rep. Steve Sviggum, R-Kenyon. Sviggum was behind a move to ban House members from lobbying for one year after they leave the people's house.

Sen. John Marty, DFL-Roseville, is pushing a measure to ban lawmakers, constitutional officers, commissioners and other high state officials from becoming lobbyists for one year after they leave office. That measure is wending its way through Senate committees.

Sviggum, Marty and others have backed similar proposals before that went nowhere at the Capitol. But there's a sign the move may have more weight this session.

This year, the House passed a rule — not a law — that its members cannot register as lobbyists for a year after leaving office.

Marty said he thinks his proposal stands a "reasonable chance" of becoming law.

A host of new members joined the Legislature this year, and, Marty said, they "think this is something that we just ought to do."

But there are some in the Legislature who think measures that require a cooling-off period for lawmakers appear to be cleaning up government without actually doing much.

"I'm not sure what problem this bill is trying to solve," said Sen. Chris Gerlach, R-Apple Valley, who added that he has mixed feelings about the measure. "Maybe there is a public perception it's trying to get at; maybe to try to boost ratings of the people's view of the Legislature."

Minnesota, like about half the states, has no law banning current public officials from becoming lobbyists.

According to one report a few years ago, 50 Minnesota lawmakers had ended up becoming lobbyists after they left office. The Center for Public Integrity report compared lists of legislators to lobbyists who registered in 2003, 2004 and 2005. Only Florida and Texas had more lawmakers-turned-lobbyists during that period.

According to a Pioneer Press analysis, 18 lawmakers who held office between 2002 and 2006 have since registered as lobbyists. One has since terminated his registration.

The list of current lobbyists includes all three living former Senate majority leaders and two former House and Senate tax committee chairmen.

Former House Tax Committee Chairman Phil Krinkie, who lost his House seat in November, is now president of the Taxpayers League of Minnesota. And, since February, he's also been the league's designated lobbyist.

He sees nothing wrong with that. He said that, like many lawmakers, he gained knowledge and expertise in the Legislature that he's now using.

"What's wrong with someone who has that knowledge and that experience continuing to work in the process on the other side of the table?" asked Krinkie, a Republican who represented the Lino Lakes area for 16 years.

But former Sen. Gary Laidig, a Stillwater Republican, said he can see some merit in making ex-lawmakers wait before they can become lobbyists.

After he lost his seat in a 2000 primary election, someone quickly approached him about becoming a lobbyist. He declined.

"I would be embarrassed to come up here," he said. He waited about a year before returning to the Capitol as a lobbyist.

"There has to be some period of time that you are divorced from the legislative process," he said.

That's because former lawmakers have an extra helping of the key lobbyist currency — access.

"It's a different kind of relationship we have with former colleagues than with the typical person who is coming here to influence the Legislature," Marty said. "They've picked up certain access."

But Krinkie and others say ex-lawmakers may have an easier time getting Capitol doors open, but that doesn't mean they have an easy time getting their measures passed.

"If I am peddling something that he doesn't want to buy, he may have a harder time saying no, but he's going to still say no," Krinkie said.

And lawmakers — extra access and all — might not make very good lobbyists, said Sen. Dan Larson, DFL-Bloomington. He was a lobbyist before he came to the Legislature.

"One of the jokes in the lobbying community … is, oftentimes, the least-effective lobbyists are members right after they leave the Legislature," Larson said.