Printer-Friendly Pages print  Email This Article to a Friend email  Share share

All Updates

Update: Lobbyist Disclosures

Date: 09/09/2010

Updated 2:30 pm, September 9

The nonpartisan Virginia Public Access Project has posted the lobbying disclosure reports for 30 more companies and trade associations that had representation in Richmond from May 2009 - April 2010.

VPAP now has the top 55 of the 885 clients that registered lobbyists in 2009-10.

View Top 55 Spenders

Note: With lobbyist spending, apples-apples comparisons can be difficult. Lobbyist disclosure laws are general in nature and therefore, in practice, lobbyists report expenditures in different ways.

Unlike most states, Virginia places few restrictions on the interaction between registered lobbyists and officials from executive and legislative branches. Once a year, lobbyists are required to disclose their activities and itemize certain types of expenses.

List of Bills: Many lobbyist provide general statements of their activities, while some provide a list of bills, including their client's position on each.

Entertainment Expenses: Lobbyists are required to itemize any entertainment expense greater than $50. If the per-person cost is greater than $50, lobbyists also are required to disclose the name of the executive or legislative officials present.

Gifts: Lobbyists are required to disclose items valued at more than $50 to executive and legislative officials.

Compensation: The way lobbyist disclose compensation varies widely. Some report the total amount of their salary or total amount they were paid, while others pro-rate their salary or fees based on percentage of time spent lobbying.

During 2009-10, a total of 885 clients had registered lobbyists. It may be several weeks before VPAP adds to its listing. The Secretary of the Commonwealth is preparing to ship the documents to an outside vendor for scanning. The records will be unavailable during the scanning process. Last year, the scanning process took until mid-October.


Updated 7:45 am, August 31

The nonpartisan Virginia Public Access Project has posted the lobbying disclosure reports for the Top 25 spenders during a 12-month period ending in April.

View Top 25 Spenders

Unlike most states, Virginia places few restrictions on the interaction between registered lobbyists and officials from executive and legislative branches. Once a year, lobbyists are required to disclose their activities and itemize certain types of expenses.Many lobbyist provide general statements of their activities, while others provide a list of bills, including their client's position on each.Lobbyists also are required to disclose how much they spent. The VPAP data includes a summary, plus details on entertainment expenses, gifts and lobbyist compensation.

During 2009-10, a total of 885 clients had registered lobbyists. VPAP will continue to key clients into its database as long as the records are available from the Secretary of the Commonwealth. (The Secretary's office is getting the records together to ship to a vendor for scanning. The records will be unavailable during the scanning process. Last year, the scanning process took until mid-October.)With lobbyist spending, apples-apples comparisons can be difficult. Lobbyist disclosure laws are general in nature and therefore, in practice, lobbyists report expenditures in different ways.

Updated 8/27/2010

The Secretary of the Commonwealth has released a preliminary list of the companies, trade associations and interest groups that spent the most in lobbying from May 2009 to April 2010:

1.  Altria                                                    $320,240.89
2.  Northern Virginia Technology Council     $311,942.79
3.  Verizon                                                 $277,426.15
4.  Virginia Association of Health Plans        $246,461.06
5.  Dominion Resources, Inc.                      $193,668.03
6.  Virginia Automobile Dealers Association  $146,149.45
7.  Americans for Prosperity                        $129,750.00
8.  Sentara Healthcare                                 $125,297.32
9.  Metro Washington Airports Authority      $122,170.93
10. Virginia Sheriffs' Association                  $117,380.84
11. Va Assn of Realtors                               $115,665.00
12. Fairfax County Board of Supervisors      $115,613.93
13. Va Education Assn                                $114,717.23
14. Citigroup Management Corp.                  $112,208.18
15. State Farm Mutual Auto Insurance Co.    $108,721.80
16. Medical Society of Va                            $107,445.00
17. Virginia School Boards Association          $104,427.23
18. Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co            $102,120.11
19. Allegheny Energy, Inc.                           $101,491.82
20. Va Chamber of Commerce                     $101,224.00

The disclosures were due July 1. The Secretary of the Commonwealth is still processing the disclosures and will not have them available in .pdf form public view for several months.

With the SOC's assistance, VPAP is obtaining paper copies and will provide details of the top spenders next week.

With lobbyist spending, apples-apples comparisons can be difficult. Lobbyist disclosure laws are general in nature and therefore, in practice, lobbyists report expenditures in different ways.