Republicans take over K Street

In some industry groups, the flow of contributions is even more lopsided. The pharmaceutical industry, which has lobbied successfully to keep price controls out of the new prescription drug bill, gave $26.9 million in the 2002 cycle, 75 percent to Republicans. Health professionals gave $42 million to candidates in 2002, 62 percent to Republicans. And oil and gas interests contributed more than 79 percent to Republicans.

This week, a report by Congress's General Accounting Office offered a reminder of energy-industry access to policymakers. The GAO released its final report on how the Bush administration defined its energy policy, including details on which interest groups had access to Vice President Cheney's energy task force - information the White House had refused to release. The report concludes that "non federal energy stakeholders," including petroleum, coal, nuclear, natural gas, and industry representatives and lobbyists, met regularly with the task force and provided "detailed policy recommendations."

The report stops short of saying they determined the policy, but the policy was weighted in favor of more energy production.

Another example of lobbyists' clout in Congress: a tax battle this fall over how to replace the "foreign sales corporation" subsidy, which was declared illegal by the World Trade Organization. House Ways and Means chairman William Thomas (R) of California, in proposing a $128 billion tax package, has released to colleagues a memo with the names of 179 corporations who have signed off in support of his plan.

Former GOP Sen. Bob Packwood of Oregon, who once chaired the Senate Finance Committee, says a good lobbyist "probably knows his subject better than anyone in town and knows how the law ought to be written. Once you were convinced that his position is the law you actually want, the best way to get thee is to have him write the law."

Democrats in power also worked closely with lobbyists, and benefited from close ties to K Street, but Republicans have a closer ideological fit with corporations that make the connection more powerful, Clemente says.

Until the mid-1990s, the K Street corridor, where Washington's top law firms and trade associations are located, was a largely Democratic domain. But the 1994 GOP takeover of the House changed that, especially after Republicans began suggesting - often not so subtly - that the big lobby shops and trade associations start hiring more Republicans or risk disappointments on Capitol Hill.

"Ninety percent of the new top hires are going to Republicans; it should be 100 percent," says Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, an antitax group. "It would be suicidal of them to go to a Democrat."

To encourage such a change of culture, Mr. Norquist and Tom DeLay of Texas, now House majority leader, launched what they call "the K Street Project" in 1995. They met regularly with lobbyists and business groups to discuss legislative strategy. They also circulated lists of lobbyists, noting ties and campaign contributions to Democrats.

Along the way, the tactics got rougher: In 1998, House Republicans held up a vote on intellectual property rights in a bid apparently timed to chasten the Electronics Industry Association for its plans to hire a Democrat as top lobbyist. The move drew a warning from the House ethics committee.

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