NYPIRG: Lobbyist give 70,000x more than citizens

June 11, 2012 · by fair_admin

Times Union’s Capitol Confidential

6/11/12

Jimmy Vielkind

http://blog.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/135077/nypirg-lobbyist-give-70000x-more-than-citizens/

Lobbyist are pumping a lot of money into the state’s political scene, a report issued by the New York Public Interest Research Group finds.

For the year leading up to January 12, 2012, lobbying firms, their affiliated PACS and employees donated over $1.8 million to campaigns. That’s four percent of all money raised, according to NYPIRG’s Bill Mahoney, and means lobbyists donate at 70,000 the rate of an average citizen.

And those figures are just the direct contributions. As any lobbyist will tell you, the whole point is to, ahem, encourage your clients to contribute to candidates. Mahoney looks at this less-concrete practice of bundling and concludes the actual influence of lobbyists is “likely to be significantly greater than these staggering numbers indicate” because of it.

The top recipients of lobbyist money are Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, both Democrats. Taking third place are political committees controlled by the Senate Republicans and in fourth are committees pushing Assembly Democrats.

This report lands after a week of raised eyebrows over a gambling association funneling $2 million to a lobbying groupthat coordinated with Cuomo to support his agenda. It’s raised questions, Mahoney has said, about where the line between campaign spending and lobbying spending is drawn.

NYPIRG is pushing for stricter limits on how lobbyists can give in any upcoming campaign finance reforms.

Here’s the report:

NYPIRG Pay to Play Analysis