State lawmakers lap up lobbyists' spending
Published on: 07/22/07

A family of four could eat for a week on what some lobbyists shelled out feeding House Majority Leader Jerry Keen on a single night during the 2007 General Assembly.

On Feb. 28, for example, three lobbyists chipped in $378 to cover dinner and drinks for Keen and his wife.

That's more than twice what the average American family spends on their weekly food bill, including groceries and the occasional night out at Applebee's.

With lobbyists footing the bill, Keen, a Republican from St. Simons Island, ate at some of the nicest restaurants in Atlanta, including the Blue Ridge Grill and Hal's in Buckhead.

The $5,158 spent on Keen was part of $931,000 lobbyists showered on lawmakers — or about $14,300 a day for the roughly 65 days they were in Atlanta, according to an AJC analysis of lobbyist spending.

The analysis of 6,300 expenditures from January to April also found lobbyists spent:

• $838,590 feeding lawmakers, from the doughnuts that rain down on the Capitol in the mornings to the wining and dining that takes place in the evenings at the nearby Georgia Railroad Freight Depot and other restaurants around town, including Antica Posta, Ecco, Ruth's Chris Steak House, Canoe and the Capital City Club.

• $23,000 on alcohol and finger food to stock hospitality suites, including those at the Baymont Inn & Suites, Landmark, Post Renaissance and other hotels, condos and apartments where lawmakers bunk while in town.

• $42,000 in tickets for most anything that required one: the Braves, the Thrashers, the Hawks; the zoo, the aquarium, the circus; Billy Joel, Sister Act, Jimmy Buffett; Monster Jam, World of Wheels, NASCAR. A handful of lawmakers received passes to the azalea-lined holes of the Masters, while 18 others got premium seats at the NCAA Final Four men's basketball championship at the Georgia Dome. Many of the events lawmakers attended were sell-outs.

• $33,700 in expenditures for food, theater tickets and other gifts also showered on lawmakers' wives. Lobbyists spent $16,700 on Valentine's Day alone, which included the cost of boxes of chocolates and meals throughout the day for legislators and their significant others.

• $32,800 for breakfasts, lunches, dinners and post-session parties on the final day of the session. That includes the tab for a raucous party for House lawmakers at The Spotted Dog pub in Midtown, where a lobbyist was arrested after a fight with another lobbyist.

Part of 'business'
This kind of buttering up is prohibited in 15 states seeking to distance lawmakers from lobbyists, according to State and Federal Communications, a private group that tracks state laws. Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina forbid lobbyists from giving lawmakers gifts of even nominal value.

Georgia lawmakers consistently have rejected efforts to curtail freebies from lobbyists. They defend the meals and other gifts as an integral part of their jobs. Part-time lawmakers point to the financial sacrifices they make serving the public to justify the handouts.

"One of the things that amazes me is people's criticism of us going to dinner or entertaining — as if that was something wrong," House Speaker Glenn Richardson (R-Hiram) said in an interview with the AJC during the session. "Having wine and dinner is what business is made of."

Public advocacy and government watchdog groups, however, say lobbyists with expense accounts and luxury suites get unfair access to lawmakers which, more often than not, tips the outcome of legislation in their favor.

"It may sound quaint, but the legislators are there to do the public's business, not their own," said Jim Kulstad, a lobbyist for Common Cause Georgia. "All too often I believe it is the public that ends up footing the bill. I do still firmly believe that tickets to the Final Four and tickets to the Daytona 500 influence legislators. And so do dinners if they are at the right place and often enough."

Caps on gifts derailed
This past session, lobbyists spent more on Keen than any other lawmaker — treating him to meals on 54 occasions, the AJC analysis found. More than half of the meals cost over $50, almost one-third more than $100.

Keen, whose clout can expedite or derail legislation, declined to be interviewed for this story. But his spokesman said he did not dispute the accuracy of the disclosure reports provided to his office by the AJC.

Among the lobbyists picking up the tabs were those with bills that had Keen's support, including legislation making it easier for AT&T to compete with cable TV providers.

Some lobbyists treating Keen pushed controversial measures that did not pass, including ones that would allow for an alternative cancer treatment center, Sunday alcohol sales and high-interest loans from payday lenders. Those bills remain in play through the next session.

In 2005, Georgia lawmakers scuttled a proposal by Gov. Sonny Perdue to limit the value of individual lobbyist gifts, including meals, to $50. Subsequent attempts to cap gifts, including one this session by House Democrats, have gone nowhere.

The chairman of a Senate committee that would handle such legislation took $1,300 in tickets to sporting events, including Thrashers hockey and Final Four basketball, the AJC analysis shows. Senate Ethics Chairman Renee Unterman (R-Buford) said she gives most of the tickets to constituents and interns. Even so, lobbyists were seeking to curry favor with Unterman, not her supporters.

Holding his thumb and index finger an inch apart, Richardson said: "There's this much time in a day. I extend the day by going out and meeting other people."

Had Perdue's measure to cap gifts passed, one-third of the $4,843 in expenditures made on Richardson's behalf during the session would have been prohibited, the AJC analysis shows.

"I know there's people who look and go, 'All they do is go out to dinner and wine and dine,'" Richardson said. "People want time with me."

State Rep. Rob Teilhet (D-Smyrna), who supports a cap on lobbyists' gifts, said part-time lawmakers may feel entitled to the freebies, especially given their $17,341 salaries. "I think there's a sense among legislators who oppose limits on gifts that there's a lot of sacrifice that's made personally and financially and that's a way to absorb some of that and get some of that back," Teilhet said.

The spenders
Of the 1,400 lobbyists registered to work under the Gold Dome, only about 400 spent money on lawmakers during the 2007 session, the AJC analysis found. Most of those represented corporate interests.

The well-financed lobbyists have a distinct advantage, said Teresa Nelson, a former ACLU lobbyist who now serves on the East Point City Council.

"They can take legislators to lunch or buy them dinner," she said. "Lobbyists for the nonprofits don't have that kind of money. And [lobbyists for] governments know their taxpayers don't want their money to be used to wine and dine legislators."

Senate Rules Committee Chairman Don Balfour (R-Snellville), who came up shy of Keen as the top recipient of lobbyist spending with $4,847, took tickets to eight Thrashers games as well as the ACC, SEC and Final Four basketball tournaments. He is clear why he is so popular.

"A lot of it has to do with access, sure," Balfour said. But he insists that access does not translate into votes. "If I think a bill's a bad bill, it ain't going anywhere. If I think it's a good bill, it's passing," said Balfour, whose committee must green-light bills before they can advance in the Senate.

Georgia laws requiring lobbyists to disclose expenditures give voters the information they need to decide if their elected officials are being unduly influenced, Balfour said. "In my mind, it's not about the money. It's about the disclosure," he said. "Let's disclose everything."

Raymon White, whose clients include the National Rifle Association and Philip Morris, said that he and many of his colleagues use their expense accounts in the spirit of friendship, not to garner votes. "There is nothing sinister or nefarious about it," White said. "Obviously, when you spend this much time with people you become friends. You know their families. You recognize their birthdays. That is like any other work place."

At least one of White's colleagues begs to differ.

"Government is completely different from business," said Common Cause Georgia lobbyist Kulstad. "The people who are elected to represent us are there to represent us. And not be about their personal business."

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