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When the Legislator is a Lobbyist

Legislators and lobbyists are often accused of getting too close, but usually they are not close enough to share the same skin. Not so in Maryland, where several state lawmakers also hold down positions as congressional lobbyists on Capitol Hill, according to a report this week in the Baltimore Sun. Take Heather R. Mizeur, for example. A Democratic member of the Maryland House of Delegates representing Montgomery County, she was also employed until recently as a government affairs adviser in the Washington, D.C., office of the law firm Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis. In her role as legislator, she helped push through a bill to establish a new fund supporting the emerging field of nanobiotechnology. In so doing, says the Sun, "she also succeeded in securing a potential funding source for companies she had registered to represent on Capitol Hill." Mizeur says she did nothing wrong and that she received clearance from the state legislature's ethics counsel to sponsor and vote on the legislation.

The Sun reports that the state legislature includes several lawmakers who are also federal lobbyists -- and whose work in Annapolis sometimes intersects with the clients they represent in Congress. "At least four other Maryland lawmakers are registered as lobbyists in Congress: Del. Sheila E. Hixson, chairwoman of the Ways and Means Committee and a lobbyist on manufacturing and defense issues; Del. Maggie L. McIntosh, chairwoman of the Environmental Matters Committee and who is registered to lobby in Washington for the Johns Hopkins University; Del. Gerron S. Levi, a lobbyist for the AFL-CIO; and Sen. Jim Rosapepe, who is a federal lobbyist for states on issues of tax fairness." Of those four, only Levi is a lawyer, a 1994 graduate of Howard University School of Law.

William G. Somerville, the General Assembly's ethics counsel, tells the Sun that nearly all members of Maryland's part-time legislature will have some appearance of a conflict of interest because of the need to supplement their incomes with outside employment. "He says the state's ethics rules are designed to provide disclosure and encourage lawmakers to participate in areas where they are knowledgeable, so that a farmer can participate in debates about agriculture and a doctor on health care issues, for example."

Still, something about legislators and lobbyists sharing one skin feels a little like the wolf who dressed up as a sheep.

Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on May 13, 2008 at 09:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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