Asa The Lobbyist

g There was an interesting article in the Arkansas News Bureau a few days ago that didn't get a lot of attention. The article discussed what each gubernatorial candidate would do with the governor's Washington DC office. Attorney General Beebe talked about how his focus was about getting elected. But Asa Hutchinson's answer was quite different:

"Hutchinson said it is possible that he would hire a lobbying firm, keep the office intact, or have both lobbyists and state employees in Washington."

Isn't that sweet? Hutchinson, himself a DC lobbyist, would consider hiring a lobbying firm to work in the office. With the recent scandals involving Jack Abramoff and others, it seemed conventional wisdom was that we needed fewer lobbyists--not more of them.

Then again, no one has ever accused Asa of being free from special interest influence. He signed on to be a lobbyist the day after he left his job at the Department of Homeland Security.