THREAD: For the past few months, I’ve worked w/ @theadvocatebr and @propublica to track the 99 #lalege members who have left office since 2010. We found that more than a third have *continued* to exert influence over Louisiana's legislature. Here's how:
theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/ne…
theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/ne…
2/ Of these past lawmakers, 35 became lobbyists, gov consultants, state agency workers, state board members or legislative advocates for business. Past #lalege reps can leverage their service into much higher-paying roles in the private sector or in the upper ranks of government
3/ Louisiana ethics laws technically force legislators to sit out for 2 yrs before becoming lobbyists. BUT, loopholes allow them to lobby other branches of gov during the 2 yr period, or to become “consultants” rather than lobbyists
4/ Past legislators have repeatedly returned to #lalege to lobby for nursing homes. Former House Speaker Jim Tucker is now CEO of a nursing home nonprofit, Past Sen. Joe McPherson is the administrator of one. Both testified against nursing home bills this year.
5/ Then there’s former state Sen. Sherri Buffington, who carried lots of nursing home bills as a legislator. She’s now a lobbyist for a Shreveport health system that includes a nursing home, too.
6/ It’s not just nursing homes and lobbyists, though. This happens with state agency heads, too. Troy Hebert carried bills that were lenient toward the alcohol industry when he was in the legislature. Then he became the state’s top regulator of that industry
7/ It goes even deeper. Nick Gautreaux was a friend to the horse racing industry in the legislature. He’s now a lobbyist for quarter horse breeders -- an industry he specifically helped with a bill that prescribed how many days race tracks had to run quarter horses
8/ During my interviews for this story, many people told me they saw nothing wrong with the legislature churning out lobbyists and state agency heads. “If the general public were smart, they would elect a lobbyist as a legislator,” Gautreaux said.
9/ Read my story, though, & you’ll see how this phenomenon affects the way Louisiana operates. 1 example: the nursing home trio of former legislators helped to repeatedly kill bills that would discourage institutionalizing elderly & disabled ppl (-30-) theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/ne…
