[ Report Home | Previous Page | Next Page ] Austin’s Oldest Profession: Texas’ Top Lobby Clients & Those Who Service Them 2002 Edition I. Lobby Facts

• Texas’ state lobby ranks No. 2 in the nation after California. The most recent data available show that in 2000 California had 2,324 registered lobby clients and Texas had 2,119. Florida ranked a distant third with 1,665 registered lobby clients.

 
• Over the past seven years, special interests have paid lobbyists a total of between $552 million and $1.3 billion to influence Texas officials (the exact amount is unknown since Texas lobbyists report their incomes in ranges (such as “$50,000 to $99,999”).

 
• Special interests paid Texas lobbyists up to $230 million during 2001—up 33 percent from what they spent in 1995 (this report analyzes $211 million in lobby expenditures reported at the close of the legislative session in July 2001).

Top Lobby Clients

• Southwestern Bell’s parent, SBC Corp., the 800-pound gorilla of Texas’ lobby, spent up to $7 million on 96 lobbyists in 2001.

 
• The 14 biggest lobby clients in Texas had maximum lobby expenditures of more than $1 million apiece in 2001. The up to $25 million that these mega-clients spent on 409 lobby contracts accounted for 11 percent of the state’s total lobby expenditures.

 
• The Energy & Natural Resources sector led the state in lobby expenditures, spending up to $36 million—or 17 percent of the Texas total. It was followed by: Ideological & Single-Issue clients (13 percent); Communications & Electronics (13 percent); Health (11 percent); and Miscellaneous Business clients (10 percent).

Top Lobbyists

• Shattering the glass ceiling, Baker Botts lobbyists Pam Giblin reported a maximum annual income in excess of $2 million. This revolving-door lobbyist is a former Texas Air Control Board general counsel who now represents polluters.

 
• 38 lobbyists reported 2001 lobby incomes in excess of $1 million. With an average of 28 clients apiece, these hired guns collectively billed their clients up to $52 million, pocketing one out of every four Texas lobby dollars. After Giblin, the next biggest lobbyists were John Erskine, Jr., Neal “Buddy” Jones, Christie Goodman and Randall Erben.

 
• Texas lobbyists reported 17 mega-contracts worth unspecified amounts of “more than $200,000.” While lobbyists listed lobby firms as the “client” for most of these contracts, they reported specific clients for six unlimited contracts benefiting: the Associated General Contractors, Brownsville Public Utilities Board, Swisher International, the Texas Association of Realtors, Texas Electric Cooperatives and the Texas Trial Lawyers Association.