"What's In a Name?"

Politico reports on the practice of former Members of Congress giving campaign contributions, and engaging in other perfectly legal advisory roles, and not in fact lobbying. The article focuses on two former Representatives, Bud Cramer (D-AL) and Jim McCrery (R-LA). They have both entered the private sector and plan on registering as lobbyists as soon as their cooling off period is complete, which bans them from directly lobbying former colleagues. They are busy "advising clients with interests before Congress while donating tens of thousands of dollars from their old campaign war chests to candidates."

"As long as they don't technically lobby, it's legal for them to advise clients — and to make political donations under the less-limiting rules applied to members of Congress.. But lobbyists and legislative aides say the campaign giving is a sure effort by former lawmakers to stay involved in policymaking while they’re officially on the sidelines."

Campaign finance law allows former congressional candidates to give unlimited amounts of money to party committees. "Other lobbyists say the ability to give unlimited sums of money to political committees gives ex-lawmakers a serious advantage over run-of-the-mill lobbyists." In the end, as in other cases, it is easy to be just as influential as a registered lobbyist without actually registering.

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