Lobbying ban proposal for former Minnesota legislators to resurface in 2025

Former state Rep. Pat Garofalo resigned from his House seat of two decades on July 14, 2024. Ten days later, he registered with the state Campaign Finance Board as a lobbyist for the Minnesota Grocers Association.

Garofalo, a Republican, represented Farmington in the Legislature for 10 terms before stepping aside and becoming president of the food industry trade group, representing more than 300 retail and wholesale manufacturers throughout the state.

In a statement, the former representative said he didn’t apply for the new position until after the legislative session ended May 19. He also said what he does there is unrelated to lobbying. “Our organization has a charitable foundation, a non-profit entity and a for profit entity. I registered as a lobbyist because a small part of our finances is related to a political action committee.”

His new job barely caused a shrug at the Capitol, where a part-time citizen Legislature means many legislators have jobs outside of political office. The ranks of lobbyists include more than a few former lawmakers. Sen. Matt Klein, DFL-Mendota Heights, wants to slow down the revolving door by creating a cooling off period of two years.

The senator said he was struck in early 2023 by the number of former legislators who showed up as lobbyists when the DFL took control of the Senate, the House and the governor’s office.

The bill he plans to introduce in January would prohibit former legislators from acting or registering as a lobbyist for two years after leaving office. The bill would impose a civil fine of $25,000 or the former legislator’s payment as a salary — whichever is less.

“This is just saying you’ve got to pause for two years,” Klein said. “I’m not saying you can’t make a living.”

He called it a “good governance philosophy” and said he’d be proud if the bill could get some traction.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, roughly half the states in the country have laws that restrict the speed of the revolving door. Even though the issue comes up every few years, Minnesota continues to allow the door to swing at full speed.

The Minnesota House of Representatives has a rule barring former members from registering as lobbyists for the first year after leaving office. But the rule has a giant loophole.

State Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board Executive Director Jeff Sigurdson said the rule applies to current House members, meaning once a member leaves the House, it no longer applies. Also, there is no penalty or enforcement mechanism and the board has no role in enforcing House rules. In recent years, Sigurdson discussed closing the loophole, but that went nowhere.

Longtime Sen. John Marty, DFL-Roseville, has many times introduced bills that would bar legislators from registering as lobbyists for several years after leaving office, but it’s been more than two decades since such bills have advanced. He said he expects to introduce a bill again himself in 2025.

As for Klein’s bill, Marty said he would support it. “I’ll take two years if we can get it,” he said. “Am I optimistic of it passing? No. Is there a chance? Yes.”

Both Marty and David Schultz, Hamline University professor of political science and legal studies, described the push for an end to the revolving door in the same fashion: Beating their heads against a wall.

In the 1990s, Schultz was the executive director of Common Cause Minnesota, the nonpartisan government watchdog organization.

“The public is very mistrusting of politicians,” Marty said. “I’m hoping it’s a great time for a change.”

Schultz recalled the last time a revolving door bill made progress in the late 1990s, when then-House Speaker Steve Sviggum, a Republican, sponsored a bill that passed the House on a bipartisan vote. The Senate, led by Majority Leader Roger Moe, a DFLer, didn’t take a vote on the proposal. Moe left the Legislature in 2003 and is now a business consultant and lobbyist.

“We’ve got a bad revolving door problem,” Schultz said. “I just don’t think the legislators have bought into ethics reform.”

When legislators quickly become lobbyists, they’re able to use inside information and relationships they built while in office to benefit the business and interest groups that can afford to pay for their services. That’s in contrast to the average person, who doesn’t have such connections or the money to pay for access, he said.

Effectiveness as a lobbyist is all about relationships, Schultz said. The revolving door in Minnesota is “at a point now where it’s totally normalized. The public is kind of indifferent to it,” he said.

Former DFL Sen. Jeff Hayden of Minneapolis, who is now a lobbyist, said flipping from a legislator with a vote on bills to a supplicant asking for votes is not as easy as it seems.

“It isn’t as transferable a skill as people think,” Hayden said, adding that there are effective former legislators who flopped as lobbyists in recent years.

Also, he said, it’s the elected officials who are responsible for their votes. Hayden said his friends who remain in office at the Capitol won’t vote for anything he pitches unless they see merit to it.