Lobbyist fees Hit New Records in New Hampshire
Democrats have been in charge of all branches of New Hampshire state government for just over a year now, and it hasn’t taken them long to show the state why they haven’t been entrusted with this type of majority in over 100 years.
The latest fiasco is this story about the growing influences of lobbyists in the state.
Fees paid to lobbyists in New Hampshire soared to an all-time high last year, according to an analysis by The Telegraph of Nashua.
The $9.6 million paid to lobbyists in 2007 was a 78 percent increase over the previous record of $5.4 million set in 2005.
Just a modest little jump, eh? 78%? Spending has risen across the board in New Hampshire in the last year. This is not a coincidence, and senate Republican leader Ted Gastas doesn’t think so either.
Senate Republican Leader Ted Gatsas, of Manchester, attributes the spike in lobbying fees to the fact that Democrats took control of the entire Legislature in 2006.
“When Democrats took over, you saw a lot of corporations worried about where this would take them,” he said.
From this Nashua Telegraph article, here are the highest paid lobbyists and their best paying customers:
Sheehan, Phinney Capital Group $1,011,470 Cigna, Verizon, pharmaceuticals
Dupont Group $857,291 Loudon speedway, insurance, energy
Demers Group $844,451 Credit cards, gaming; trial lawyers
Devine, Millimet, et al $676,355 Telcom, gaming, energy
Rath, Young, Pignatelli $631,281 PSNH, Anthem, health care
Bianco law firm $524,747 Payday loans, health care, real estate
Gallagher, Callahan, Gartrell $524,139 NH Bankers, insurance, energy
Maura Weston $385,774 Cingular, health care, cable TV
Bouley Associates $364,225 Gaming, billboards, Teamsters
Orr and Reno $342,989 Domestic insurers, NH Fire Chiefs
Big government, nanny state, tax and spend, liberals coupled with special interest groups now emboldened to spend even more money (78% more in one year) is a recipe for the fiscal disaster that looms over New Hampshire.
But have no fear, there is legislation in the senate to reform the lobbyists laws in New Hampshire ( which is ranked 48th in the nation for it’s lobbyist laws), there is only one problem:
The only changes lawmakers are considering to lobbying laws would weaken them. The state Senate is considering a House-passed bill that reduces reporting to four times a year and eliminates the requirement that lobbyists disclose campaign contributions.
America's Watchtower 
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Keating Five (or Keating Five Scandal) refers to a Congressional scandal related to the collapse of MOST of the Savings and Loan institutions in the United States in the late 1980s.
In 1989, the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association of Irvine, Calif., collapsed. Lincoln’s chairman, Charles H. Keating Jr., was faulted for the thrift’s failure……. Some regulators noted the danger and pushed for more oversight, but Congress refused.. five Senators (Dennis DeConcini ,Alan Cranston ,John Glenn ,Don Riegle and John McCain ) who had received some $300,000 from Keating in the 1980s as political contributions. They later met twice with regulators who were investigating American Continental Corp., in an attempt to end the investigation. (In 1990, they would be rebuked to various degrees by the Senate Ethics Committee .) . a series of investigations by the California government, the United States Department of Justice, and the Senate Ethics Committee. The ethics committee’s investigation focused on five senators who became known as the Keating Five.After months of testimony revealed that all five senators acted improperly to differing degrees,The committee recommended censure for Cranston and criticized the other four for “questionable conduct.”…..
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I’m not voting for Juan McAmnesty either. I suppose this barely related comment was supposed to show me that McCain is no different than the others. I would care, but McCain doesn’t have my vote anyway.
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