Lobbyist gift database updated
UPDATE: 2/5/10: Officials at the Ethics Commission pointed out that their downloadable data now includes the lobbyist names going back to 2006. In previous downloads of the data, that didn’t appear, so my apologies for not noticing that earlier this week. I’ve updated our database to reflect that additional information and added an option to download the entire data set.
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Over on the Your Right to Know page, there’s an update to the lobbyist gift database that includes reports from the second half of 2009.
Capitol Bureau reporter Michael McNutt had a recent story on the latest batch of reports from lobbyists, including details about the new limits on gift giving:
In two years, the amount reported being given to lawmakers has dropped by nearly two-thirds, records show.
The drop in gift-giving totals can be attributed to a law that went into effect July 1, 2008. It reduced the amount lobbyist employers can spend on individual lawmakers, state elected officials and state employees from $300 to $100 each calendar year.
In 2009, lobbyists reported spending about $74,839 on legislators, records show. In 2008, lobbyists reported spending about $159,650 on gifts to legislators; they reported spending about $208,000 on legislators in 2007.
New for this update is the addition of the names of the lobbyists who gave gifts. The Ethics Commission began collecting that information in the second half of 2009. Here’s the totals for the top 10 lobbyists who gave gifts, although for some reason, the University of Oklahoma didn’t list its lobbyist names:
Source: Oklahoma Ethics Commission
In his story, McNutt also notes that Oklahoma State University officials had not filed their reports for the second half of the year because of an oversight. They had still not filed as of today, so the update to our database does not include the latest OSU reports.
(Full Disclosure: My wife, Jennifer, who works for the House of Representatives, appears several times in the database under both her married name and maiden name, Mock.)
–Paul
Written by Paul Monies
Follow @pmonies
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