And the River Still Flows

The river of money following from "K" Street lobbyists to Capitol Hill that is.

excerpt from 

Mark Warner biggest recipient of lobbyist dough,

new disclosures show (so far)

Real Time Investigations with Bill Allison and Anupama Narayanswamy
— A Project of Sunlight Foundation

Posted by Anupama, August 14th, 2008 

Mark Warner, who's running for Virginia's open seat to the U.S. Senate and will serve as the keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, has received more than $206,000 from lobbyists since the beginning of the year, a Real Time Investigations analysis of recently released disclosure records show.

That makes Warner the top recipient of money contributed directly by lobbyists to congressional campaigns in 2008. Overall, Warner, the former Virginia governor who is seeking the seat now held by retiring Republican Sen. John Warner, has raised $18 million since he announced his candidacy in September 2007, according to Federal Election Commission records.

Real Time is releasing a list of the 20 congressional campaigns that have gotten the most contributions from individual lobbyists and a spreadsheet with all individual contributions from lobbyists to federal candidates in the first six months of 2008. Close on the heels of Warner's $206,000 are Sens. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and John Sununu, R-N.H.

In all, the new disclosures, required by the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007 (HLOGA), reveal that federally registered lobbyists have given federal candidates more than $10 million since the beginning of this year. That figure does not include the money contributed to candidates by political action committees (PACs) associated with or directed by lobbyists. It is based on available records released by the Senate Office of Public Records (SOPR) as of Aug. 8.