WASHINGTON, Jan. 24 (UPI) -- State legislatures are ahead of the U.S. Congress in instituting reforms on lobbyists, but were either pushed in that direction by the voters or scandals.
Lobbyists in 42 states spent some $1 billion in 2004 to convince state officials to consider their viewpoint on issues, the Center for Public Integrity says. In most capitals, the center said, there are five lobbyists for every legislator.
Attention has been on the U.S. Congress lately because of the influence-peddling scandal involving Jack Abramoff, who has pleaded guilty to a series of charges related to his lobbying business.
But scandals hit the state level, too, including a case in Tennessee in which four members of the state legislature faced bribery and corruption charges, The New York Times reported. Just as on the federal level, where there is no rush to reform lobbying rules, those kinds of incidents bring change and several state legislatures convene this year under tighter lobby rules.
Peggy Kerns of the National Conference of State Legislatures, told the Times, "States are doing this for two reasons. They want to be ethical institutions and they want the skeptical public to view them as ethical institutions.
