Lobbyist, lawmakers hobnob days before Legislature convenes

By James Salzer

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

On the Thursday before the start of the 2010 legislative session, new House Speaker David Ralston held a campaign fund-raiser at a Midtown high-rise and many of the big names at the Capitol showed up.

They weren’t politicians. They were the people who lobby and write the checks that elect congressmen, governors and state lawmakers.

Ralston collected $2,000 from AFLAC, $4,600 from title lending giant Roy Aycox, $1,000 from Comcast Cable and $1,000 from General Electric. He received checks ranging from $500 to $2,400 each from the lobbyists for bankers, booze dealers, oil, chiropractors, hospitals, Realtors, doctors, pharmacists and the nursing industry.

In all, Ralston accepted about $90,000 in contributions that day, on his way to raising $131,000 in less than two weeks before the start of the 2010 legislative session, according to recently filed campaign disclosures. His counterpart in the Senate, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, collected $145,000 in the same period.

State law bans legislators and statewide officials such as Ralston and Cagle from raising money during legislative sessions. So, many of them schedule fund-raisers the week before the session, collecting checks from the same people who will soon be in the halls of the Capitol, hoping to influence legislation or secure state funding.

That system wouldn’t change under ethics legislation being considered following the scandal that brought down House Speaker Glenn Richardson and made Ralston the chamber’s leader. Richardson quit in December after his ex-wife accused him of having an affair with a lobbyist.

The proposed ethics legislation also wouldn’t change the system that allows House and Senate leaders, who often run unopposed for re-election, to collect big checks and then dole the money out to other lawmakers in need of financial help to win another term.

Ralston said he doesn’t think campaign finance laws need to change. And he said he sees nothing wrong with raising money right before the session.

“I don’t think there is anything inappropriate about it at all,” Ralston said. “People don’t want to go to fund-raisers at Christmas or New Year’s.

“It’s appropriate that we suspend [fund-raising] during the session. You have to draw the line somewhere.”

Cagle spokeswoman Jaillene Hunter said the lieutenant governor supports the current system but would back increased reporting so the public would more quickly see who is contributing to campaigns.

Bill Bozarth, executive director of Common Cause Georgia, a nonpartisan group lobbying for stronger ethics laws, called the January fund-raising “disappointing” considering the Richardson scandal.

“It’s disappointing ... that the new regime is operating with the same playbook as the old regime,” Bozarth said.

The General Assembly banned fund-raising during legislative sessions in 1990 in the same bill that put caps on how much money individuals, companies or political action committees can give candidates.

The idea was to stop what Ralston says goes on too often in Washington, D.C., where congressmen can vote on legislation during the day and attend fund-raisers at night.

The limits on how much people can give have changed several times since 1990. But the ban on collecting money during the session merely shifted fund-raising to the week before legislative sessions. The same lobbyists and special interests are invited to attend.

Just before the session this year, for instance, lawmakers collected big money from hospital interests, who have fought Gov. Sonny Perdue over his proposal to tax hospital revenue. The proposal seemed dead in the General Assembly until Perdue threatened to cut Medicaid reimbursements to doctors and eliminate a key sales tax exemption for nonprofit hospitals instead.

Lawmakers collected checks from telephone and cable companies battling it out over legislation to end subsidies to rural phone companies. And they received campaign money from companies such as C.W. Matthews Co., the state’s biggest highway contractor, and the Corrections Corp. of America, which was paid about $58 million in fiscal 2009 to house state prisoners.

Former longtime lawmakers Charlie Watts and Wayne Garner, who lobby for community bankers, estimated they received 50 to 60 invitations for January fund-raisers from lawmakers and other candidates.

One of the groups Watts represents, the Community Bankers of Georgia, sent out checks to more than 70 lawmakers and other candidates at the beginning of January. The checks were relatively small, mostly in the $250 to $500 range.

While ethics activists say contributions buy access, Watts questions how much the checks mean in an era when retaining office often requires a massive fund-raising effort by lawmakers.

But John Thomas, a longtime lobbyist who represents pawnbrokers, cigarette makers, solid waste interests and a leading gun rights group, said he’s seen an increase in pre-session fund-raisers the past seven or eight years.

Campaign finance records show Thomas contributed $750 to Ralston on Jan. 7, the date of Ralston’s pre-session fund-raiser. But Thomas said he doesn’t remember if he attended the event or just sent a check.

Thomas attends fewer fund-raisers than many top lobbyists.

“I never want the appearance of impropriety,” he said. “I won’t discuss legislation during a fund-raiser.”

Ralston said he planned his January fund-raiser last fall, before the Richardson scandal broke and before he became speaker.

“We had more people show up than we thought would show up,” Ralston said. “Several people came and gave contributions. I don’t really keep up with who they are. I suppose most of them were friends.”

Rep. Kathy Ashe (D-Atlanta) said following the Richardson scandal, she hoped Ralston and his leadership team would take a different attitude toward campaign fund-raising and ethics.

“I thought we were going to see a change. I really believed we were going to see a change. But we haven’t seen a change,” Ashe said. “It’s the same old, same old. As long as we’re unwilling to pass an ethics bill that has some meaning, it’s going to keep going the way it’s been.”

Key leaders, key figures

Raising money just before the legislative session has a long tradition in Georgia. Below are the figures for what key leaders raised from Jan. 1 to Jan. 10, the day before the start of the 2010 session.

$131,300: House Speaker David Ralston (R-Blue Ridge)

$145,650: Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle (Senate president)

$46,000: House Speaker Pro-Tem Jan Jones (R-Milton)

$52,365: House Majority Whip Edward Lindsey (R-Atlanta)

$10,322: House Minority Leader DuBose Porter (D-Dublin)*

$42,375: Senate President Pro-Tem Tommie Williams (R-Lyons)

$38,650: Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock)

$2,879: Senate Minority Leader Robert Brown (D-Macon)

* Porter is running for governor. Figure includes what he raised in his gubernatorial and state legislative accounts

Source: Campaign reports