With Money Flying Around, Lobbying Registrations Soar

Bill Allison at the Sunlight Foundation did some digging:

Lobbying firms and special interests have filed nearly 1,700 new registration forms so far in the first quarter of 2009, a review of lobbying disclosure forms available online at the Senate Office of Public Records shows. As the federal government pumps up spending and intervenes in the troubled financial markets, K Street firms appear to have had no shortage of new business....

Governments are also scrambling for a piece of the action: 134 state, municipal, county and local government entities--ranging from the Office of Policy Management of the state of Connecticut to the Duneland School System in Chesterton, Ind....

President Obama has tried to make Washington more hostile to lobbyists, but with all the money flying around these days, it looks like it's still a good time to be on K Street.