Lobbyist Lott takes advantage of old Senate campaign cash

Thursday April 24, 6:45 PM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Trent Lott had nearly $1.3 million in political donations left over when he quit the Senate to become a lobbyist. Now the former majority leader is doling it out to lawmakers who hold sway over his clients.

It's perfectly legal, and Lott is hardly the first to distribute unused campaign cash to former colleagues.

But his giving is drawing attention thanks to the magnitude of his campaign account and the high-profile matters he has been hired to promote, including the proposed Delta-Northwest airline merger and Northrop Grumman's contested $35 billion Air Force tanker contract.

"The purpose of it really is to benefit Trent Lott's personal lobbying business at this point. There is no other benefit at all," said Craig Holman, who lobbies for tighter campaign finance rules for Public Citizen.

Under congressional rules, campaign committees for former lawmakers — including those who retire, die or lose elections — are allowed to use leftover money for a variety of purposes so long as it is not spent for personal benefit. Lott says he's just supporting like-minded Republicans.

More than 40 former members of Congress who are registered as lobbyists still have open campaign accounts or political action committees, some of them more than a decade after leaving office, according to a review of campaign finance records by The Associated Press.

Most of them, however, carry relatively small balances — often less than $50,000 — and report little financial activity. The accounts typically exhaust the leftover cash with contributions and operating expenses as donations dry up.

Holman and others who closely follow Washington lobbying, such as the Center for Responsive Politics, say Lott's stockpile is the largest they can remember, and they say his ability to use it the way he does represents a loophole in campaign finance law that should be closed.

Congress passed legislation last year prohibiting former senators from personally lobbying members of Congress for two years after they leave office. Lott retired just days before the new rule went into effect and is subject to a previous one-year ban.

http://finance.myway.com/jsp/nw/nwdt...&date=20080424