Buying influence at the Capitol

Minnesota Public Radio has crunched the lobbying numbers for the recently completed state legislative session. The nut: 467 groups spent more than $1,000 attempting to influence legislation for a total of $7.8 million. Looked at another way, that’s $38,806 per legislator. More than $100,000 was spent by 14 organizations.

At the top of the heap is the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, which paid $509,777 to press its agenda at the Capitol. Rounding out the top five spenders: the Minnesota Business Partnership ($333,579), the Minnesota Transportation Alliance ($323,486), MyWireless ($291,75) and Enbridge Energy Association ($252,718).

One surprise in the top ten: the Marijuana Policy Project, which spent a gaudy $187,524 seeking to legalize medical marijuana. In 2007 the Senate passed the group’s favored bill, but it never came up for a vote in the House this year.

As Polinaut points out, only one group in the top ten (Minnesotans Against Fraud and Higher Insurance) spent less than they did in 2007 — despite it being a non-budget year, which typically means interest groups spend less money on lobbying.