Friday ended our first ever analyst challenge, and we here at LittleSis couldn’t be happier with the results. In just a few weeks, our analysts identified 450 former congressional-staffers-turned-healthcare-lobbyists! And we certainly could not have hit that number without the work of our contest winners: @ddwriter, @Priscilla and @Reed.Young. These three analysts went above and beyond and to reward them, their prizes are in the mail!
So what did we find? The trends the LittleSis database identified were pretty interesting.
- A large number of the lobbyists have previously worked for the Senate Finance Committee (where the current health care bill is stalled), the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and the Department of Health and Human Services.
- The governmental body with the greatest number of lobbyists pass through its doors? The House of Representatives. You heard right, we found 21 former members of Congress who have gone on to work for the health care industry.
- We found quite a few lobbyists leaving from the offices of the infamous “Gang of Six”. Max Baucus led the list with 12 staffers and Grassley is close behind with 10. McCain and Frist did OK for themselves as well.
- These folks are making heavy contributions to the Democrats: 45 lobbyists on our lists have made private donations to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Another 42 donated to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Perhaps not surprisingly, third place in this category went to the Blue Dog Political Action Committee.
By studying the connections between Congress, lobbyists, and money we were able to identify patterns that we know are no coincidence. Thanks to everyone who contributed to the list, got on a training call or followed this project. Check back often and soon for information on our next project. In the meantime, feel free to dig up dirt on a target of your own!