Law, lobbying and consulting firms have announced the hiring of at least 15 of 61 House and Senate members who left politics or were defeated in 2008.

The new hires include Jim McCrery of Louisiana, who was the top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee before moving to Capitol Counsel LLC, where clients include Roche Holdings AG, the world’s biggest drugmaker by value. Gordon Smith, an Oregon Republican who sat on the Senate Finance Committee, joined the Covington & Burling LLP firm, which has advised the Investment Company Institute, the mutual-fund industry trade group.

New York Republican James Walsh, who retired in January after 20 years in Congress and joined the K&L Gates LLP law and lobbying firm, said companies have legitimate needs for experienced advisers.

‘Demagoguery Going On’

“There’s a lot of demagoguery going on,” said Walsh, 61, who spent 12 years in the House’s powerful “college of cardinals,” as appropriations subcommittee chairmen are known. “Politics is an honorable profession. This profession, consulting, can be also as long as you conduct yourself honorably.”

Ex-lawmakers are in demand even after Congress in 2007 passed legislation banning gifts and meals from lobbyists and barring senators from lobbying former colleagues for two years after leaving office. House members must wait one year.

Without direct lobbying, former officials still can help develop strategies for lobbying clients, said Rich Gold, head of the public policy and regulation practice group at Holland & Knight LLP.

Expertise for Clients

“Obviously they know a lot of current members,” Gold said. “They are able to explain in a pretty cogent way to our clients how an issue will move, with a degree of expertise and credibility.”

Lobbyists were paid a record $3.2 billion last year to influence federal government officials and lawmakers, up 14 percent from 2007, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington group that tracks special-interest spending. Disclosures for the first three months of 2009 are due April 20.

Influence-peddling income is likely to keep rising, as Congress and federal agencies pick winners and losers in the $787 billion stimulus package, a $3.9 trillion federal budget plan, the financial industry bailout, and proposals to revamp Wall Street regulation, curb greenhouse-gas emissions and expand health-care coverage.

Money Flowing

“We’ve got more money coming out of Washington than ever before,” the Sunlight Foundation’s Allison said. “This puts a premium on people who know the system.”

Walsh’s firm, K&L Gates, was paid $15 million for lobbying in 2008 by such companies as Pitney Bowes Inc., of Stamford, Connecticut, and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp., the largest U.S. railroad, based in Fort Worth, Texas.

“Pitney Bowes finds it helpful to work with individuals that have prior legislative experience,” said Matthew Broder, spokesman for the world’s largest maker of postal meters. “They typically have intimate knowledge of legislative issues, and understand the legislative processes that can help advance the U.S. mailing industry.”

McCrery, who helped oversee health-care policy from his position in the House, is a partner at Capitol Counsel, which got $6.7 million last year from a client roster that included Roche, of Basel, Switzerland, and London-based AstraZeneca PLC.

Smith, former ranking Republican on the Senate’s international trade subcommittee, is a senior adviser at Covington & Burling, where blue-chip clients include General Motors Corp. and Microsoft Corp.

Transportation Background

Bud Cramer, an Alabama Democrat who was on House appropriations subcommittees with purview over transportation and financial services, became chairman of Wexler & Walker Public Policy Associates.

The firm got $7.9 million last year from companies such as AMR Corp., the parent of American Airlines, which is seeking government permission for an alliance with British Airways Plc, and Visa Inc., which is fighting efforts to put new restrictions on credit-card rates and fees.

“In Congress, Bud quickly gained the confidence of his colleagues on the Hill and became a trusted adviser to House Democratic leaders, and we look forward to him doing the same for our clients,” founder Anne Wexler said in a release announcing Cramer’s hiring.

McCrery, Cramer and Smith didn’t return calls and e-mails seeking comment.

John Warner, who retired after 30 years in the Senate, rejoined Hogan & Hartson LLP, where he worked as a lawyer from 1961 to 1969. The firm, with clients such as Oakland, California-based Clorox Co. and Toyko-based Nissan Motor Co. Ltd., was paid $17.9 million for lobbying in 2008.

K Street Corridor

The path is well worn between Capitol Hill and K Street, the downtown Washington boulevard that is the lobbying industry’s symbolic center.

Former appropriations chairman Bob Livingston, a Louisiana Republican who left the House 10 years ago, leads a firm that was paid $9 million last year by such clients as Hamilton, Bermuda-based Accenture Ltd., and Redwood City, California-based Oracle Corp. Former Senate Majority Leaders George Mitchell, a Maine Democrat, and Bob Dole, a Kansas Republican, both registered as lobbyists.

“It is a natural progression, and it is not an unhealthy one,” said Jim Greenwood, 57, a Republican who represented a Pennsylvania House district until 2005 and now heads the Biotechnology Industry Association. “I know how lawmakers think, what they need to make good decisions, what’s counterproductive, and what’s reasonable to ask and what’s not reasonable.”

New Job

Jon Porter, a Nevada Republican who lost his 2008 bid for re-election after six years in the House, said his new job at the Akerman Senterfitt law and lobbying firm lets him put his experience to good use.

“As the legislation gets more complex and as it’s coming out as fast as it is, there is a role for folks to help provide consultation on how to chart a road map through the federal bureaucracy,” said Porter, 53, who sat on both the Budget and Ways & Means committees.

Lobbying continues to flourish in the face of perennial calls in Congress itself for tougher limits on politicians and aides who bounce between government and lobbying jobs.

“Would I like to see the revolving door slowed? Yes, I would,” said Senator Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat who helped write the 1995 law overhauling lobbying rules. “The appearance of an unfair advantage is real. The access is enhanced.”

Craig Holman, who lobbies for Public Citizen, a Washington- based advocacy group seeking stricter rules for lobbyists, said well-connected former lawmakers have unique advantages.

“Their knowledge of the preferences of various members, who is working in what area and what concerns them most, their networks, makes them exceedingly valuable,” Holman said. “That’s the type of knowledge and networks you just can’t get anywhere else.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan D. Salant in Washington at [email protected]