There’s something about the original Dakota territory that results in Democratic politicians being married to lobbyists — and basically being unashamed about it.
Former North Dakota senators Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan were both married to lobbyists while in office (both men are now lobbyists). South Dakota Sen. Tom Daschle was married to a lobbyist while in office, and he is now a lobbyist. South Dakota Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin was married to a lobbyist while in office, and she is now a lobbyist.
And now John Lewis, the Democratic nominee for Montana’s House seat, is married to a lobbyist. Melissa Lewis was a federally registered lobbyist, and now she’s a registered lobbyist at the state level in Montana. John Lewis says she won’t stop lobbying if he’s elected, but instead “he will immediately check with the House Ethics Committee and develop the next steps for Melissa’s small business accordingly,” as reported by the Ravalli Republic.
Congressional ethics guidelines are famously weak. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., often has pushed policies that benefit the clients of his lobbyist wife. Here’s a look at Lewis’s clients, as reported by the Republic:
It’s not hard to see the potential conflicts of interest here: federal earmarks for localities, policies benefitting Cablevision, or so on.
Lewis, notably, is a former staffer for Sen. Max Baucus — a roaring hub of the K Street-Capitol Hill revolving door.
