State Rep. Billy Mitchell (D-Stone Mountain) visited the Louisiana Legislature last week on behalf of a lending company trying to kill a bill to cap interest rates on payday loans.

That's Mitchell's other job. He's vice president of government relations for Community Loans of America Inc., one of the largest car title and payday lending companies in the nation.

Payday lenders provide short-term, high-interest loans for people with poor credit.

The practice is illegal in Georgia.

Mitchell insists he's not a lobbyist. Nor, Mitchell said, did he go to Louisiana to urge lawmakers to stop the anti-payday industry bill.

"That's not what I do," Mitchell said. "My role is closer to community relations and creating goodwill."

However, the author of the legislation, Louisiana state Rep. Rickey Hardy (D-Lafayette), said Mitchell told him that the bill, if enacted into law, "would hurt the little man."

Mitchell adamantly denies saying that.

Georgia law does not prohibit legislators from lobbying other state legislatures on bills that might affect the companies they work for.

But some ethics-in-government advocates say they shouldn't do it.

"I think it's inappropriate for anyone elected to public office in Georgia to be lobbying, period," said Bill Bozarth, executive director of watchdog group Georgia Common Cause. "It may not be against the law, but it raises far too many questions about where his loyalty lies when he [Mitchell] votes."

In March 2007, Mitchell voted for a bill to legalize payday lending in Georgia.

The bill failed.

Three months later, Community Loans of America hired him. Mitchell says there was no connection between his vote and the job offer. Mitchell's 2007 campaign financial disclosures show no contributions from the company. Mitchell said he has never accepted campaign contributions from a payday lender.

In December, Mitchell registered with the Virginia Legislature as a lobbyist with CLA. He said he was advised to do so by contract lobbyists representing the company in that state, even though he has not visited the Virginia state Capitol in Richmond and has no plans to do so.

Mitchell is not listed as a registered lobbyist on the Louisiana Board of Ethics Web site. Mitchell said he didn't think he had to register.

In Louisiana, unregistered lobbyists attempting to influence elected officials can be fined up to $10,000 and permanently barred from lobbying in that state.

Mitchell said he was asked by his company's president to visit lobbyists for CLA at the Louisiana state Capitol in Baton Rouge. Mitchell said one of his new job duties will be to travel to other states to hire lobbyists to represent the company. It was a one-day trip, Mitchell said.

Mitchell acknowledges he met Hardy and gave him two business cards: one from his company and another from the state of Georgia identifying him as a state representative.

"I did not try to influence him. I did not tell him what to do," Mitchell said. "There was absolutely no lobbying by me whatsoever."

Mitchell said Hardy was the only Louisiana lawmaker he spoke with.

Mitchell said he spoke to Hardy "for no more than five minutes," and he described their exchange as a friendly conversation between two men in similar political positions.

Hardy recalled seeing Mitchell on two occasions: once outside the House chamber and a second time after a committee meeting where Hardy's bill was scheduled for a hearing. The hearing was postponed.

At the first meeting, Hardy recalled Mitchell saying, "'You're going to hurt a lot of customers with this bill.' " Hardy's response: "I told him it won't hurt customers, it'll hurt your industry."

Rodney Braxton, a Louisiana-based lobbyist for CLA, said he was present for part of that discussion. He said he only heard Mitchell and Hardy talk about a former Georgia legislator they both knew.

"If he was just here as an employee of Community Loans to provide information, if asked, that's not lobbying," Braxton said. "People do that all the time."

Jim Brandt, president of the Louisiana Public Affairs Council, a nonprofit organization advocating government reform, said that's true in instances when an expert is invited to testify in a committee about a bill.

But Brandt said he didn't think that would apply in this case.

"He's marketing himself as someone who would have more influence," Brandt said, "as opposed to an employee simply serving in the capacity of government relations."