The Same Phone Call, Three Different Laws
I publish in three states now, and I write about lobbyists in all three, so I finally asked a question I should have asked a long time ago: what actually makes you a lobbyist? The answer depends on where you are standing when you pick up the phone. In South Carolina, you are a lobbyist the day somebody retains you to talk to an official, whether they pay you a dollar or a million. In Maryland, it depends on the money — $2,500 if you are in the room, $5,000 if you are on the phone. In New York, it depends on the money too, but the paperwork never stops. One very Democratic state, one very Republican state, and Maryland, which is a Democratic state in a strange, moderate way. Same job, three different laws, and the differences are bigger than you would think.
