Healthcare Lobbyist Editing Challenge!!!

The list of congressional-staffers-turned-healthcare-lobbyists continues to grow: we’ve already identified over 140 lobbyists from the offices of people like Baucus, Grassley and Emanuel.

At the end of August, we'll be awarding our top three analysts with prizes that include LittleSis gear, books on the politics of health care, and more. Participants in the contest will also have a chance to be featured in the blog of Adam Clark Estes, associate editor of citizen journalism at the Huffington Post Investigative Fund.

Want to participate? Join the group or sign up for LittleSis today!

Here are a few easy ways to gain points and get closer to becoming the Lobbyist Editing Challenge victor.

1) Pick a state. Head over to maplight.org and find the list of congresspeople who represent the state of your choice. Use that list as a place to start your research. Pick a member and begin researching his or her former staffers. I chose to investigate former staffers from New York State Congressional members. You can find my list here.

2) Follow your reps. Consider checking out lobbyists who have worked for your members of Congress. Not sure who your reps are? Find them here.

3) Fill in profiles. We’ve identified quite a few former staffers who now lobby for the health care industry, but we haven’t had time to fill in everyone’s profile. This is a quick and easy way to help. Start by checking the profiles in the Huffington Post Watch List. Check out the staffers for each profile. If it doesn’t look like they are a health care lobbyist, we need your help! Head to OpenSecrets to find the healthcare companies they have lobbied for.

Finally, be sure to add new finds to the master list. Try one of these easy steps and you’ll be in the lead! If you have questions along the way, email erin [at] littlesis [dot] org.