Reports reflect Cargill’s diminished role
Lance Cargill, no longer in the speaker’s chair this year, received a small percentage of meals and other things of value from lobbyists during the first six months of 2008 compared with the same time period last year, reports show.
During the first six months of 2007 – the only year that Cargill served as House speaker – Cargill received received $2,063 in things of value from lobbyists. The legislative session runs from the first week of February through the last week of May.
This year, Cargill, who stepped down a week before the start of this year’s session because of personal tax problems, received $91 in gifts, according to lobbyist reports.
Though he kept his legislative seat, Cargill didn’t serve on any House committee and appeared mostly in the House chamber simply to cast a vote.
It was quite a change from a year ago when Cargill, R-Harrah, had lobbyists line up in an office building outside the state Capitol complex to meet with him over suggested contributions to his and other political action committees.
Lobbyists in the first six months of this year reported spending much less on House Speaker Chris Benge, R-Tulsa, than on Cargill a year ago. Lobbyists reported giving Benge, qho took over the House leadership duties on the first day of the session, $377 in gifts – or about 18 percent of what Cargill received a year ago.
Reports filed with the state Ethics Commission show lobbyists gave nearly three times more in gifts to Senate co-President Pro Tempore Glenn Coffee than Senate President Pro Tempore Mike Morgan, D-Stillwater. Reports show Coffee, R-Oklahoma City, received $1,478 in gifts and Morgan received $536.
A new rule that took effect Juy1 reduces from $300 to $100 the amount spent on gifts for legislators and elected officials by a “lobbyist principal” during a calendar year. Lobbyist principals are companies or associations that hire lobbyists and provide the money to buy meals and other gifts for legislators.
Lobbyists who have spent more than $100 on things of value to an elected official so far this year can’t spend any more on that official for the rest of the year.
The total spent on legislators by lobbyists is difficult to know for certain. Lobbyists don’t face a fine for not filing their reports by the Ethics Commission’s deadline, which for the first six months of this year was July 21. And for this reporting period lobbyists only had to disclose gifts after spending more than $50 on a state official or aide; from now on lobbyist are to disclose gifts after spending more than $10 on a state official or aide during a six-month period.
About 38 of the approximately 380 lobbyists had not filed their reports as of midnight Wednesday.
Most of the gifts were meals, ranging from less than $10 to dinners costing nearly $170. Lobbyists also gave legislators tickets to sporting events and concerts and took a couple lawmakers skeet shooting and out on the links for a game of golf.
- Michael McNutt, Capitol Bureau
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