The Post profiles Williams & Connolly’s Robert Barnett today. To list Barnett as a signifier of Washington connectedness is like calling the sun a symbol of heat. This is good for his clients, who pay him $975 an hour, but Barnett’s virtual monopoly on the specialty of helping public figures cash in — on power […]
Day: March 7, 2010
Limiting lobbyists’ text messages
Here’s a story about lawmakers receiving text messages from lobbyists and potential legislation banning the practice. “Anybody can send us a letter. Anybody can send us an e-mail, but a text message is something you can only receive if you have somebody’s phone number, and that is a differential access,” [Assembly Speaker John] Pérez said.
One lawmaker’s approach to lobbyist gifts of food and drink
Alaska State Rep. Bob Buch describes his experiences with lobbyists’ gifts of food and drink in this Anchorage Daily News piece. On my very first day in the Legislature, nearly four years ago, I went to the Baranof Coffee Shop in Juneau with one of my staff members to get a bite to eat for […]