Revolving Door Lobbying

Timothy M. LaPira, Herschel F. Thomas III

In recent decades Washington has seen an alarming rise in the number of "revolving door lobbyists" - politicians and officials cashing in on their government experience to become influence peddlers on K Street. These lobbyists, popular wisdom suggests, sell access to the highest bidder. Revolving Door Lobbying tells a different, more nuanced story. As an insider interviewed in the book observes, where the general public has the "impression that lobbyists actually gets things done, I would say 90 percent of what lobbyists do is prevent harm to their client from the government." Drawing on extensive new data on lobbyists' biographies and interviews with dozens of experts, authors Timothy M. LaPira and Herschel F. Thomas establish the facts of the revolving door phenomenon - facts that suggest that, contrary to widespread assumptions about insider access, special interests hire these...