Sans Stevens, Lobbyists Down a Sugar Daddy

Hard times fall on careers that hinged on access to Ted
By Gabriel Winant,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 22, 2008 8:42 AM CST
Sans Stevens, Lobbyists Down a Sugar Daddy
Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, rides the elevator after speaking on the Senate floor on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Nov. 20, 2008.    (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Some Alaskans make a living off of oil piped from the Arctic. Others, for years, have made it off of federal money, piped from DC by former Sen. Ted Stevens. But with Uncle Ted's downfall, lobbyists who traded on their access to him face disaster, the New York Times reports. “For those of us long on the dole, the coming reality will take some getting used to,” says one.

Stevens maintained positions of such power for so long in the Senate that insider status meant a leg up for would-be lobbyists. “When somebody who had his ear said something would happen, it usually happened. You could really trade on it. It was the coin of the realm,” says a political scientist.
(More Ted Stevens stories.)

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