Really, if voters aren't going to require a "cooling off" period for elected and appointed officials to take before entering the lobbying profession, then they're going to get this kind of stuff. Large corporations can pay more for a government insider than government can, and they will, if they think the return is higher than the cost.
Gov. Butch Otter's top aide is going to work as a lobbyist for the company that owns Idaho Power Co., becoming the latest member of state government to skip directly to a private-sector lobbying post where he could be asking his former boss and colleagues for help.Jeff Malmen, Otter's chief of staff and one of the state's most influential Republicans, will be senior manager of government affairs for IdaCorp, the holding company for the utility. Malmen, a chief of staff for former Gov. Phil Batt and former finance director under former Gov. Dirk Kempthorne, had earned $120,000 annually under Otter — $15,000 more than the governor, the state's top elected official.
Idaho has no revolving-door laws that limit officials like Malmen from immediately going to work at private-sector jobs in which they could be asking for concessions from state government.
Malmen, who will likely start his new job in December, told The Associated Press that after IdaCorp approached him about taking the new position, he was careful to avoid conflicts while he's still a state employee. He said he's taking the job in part to have more time to spend with his family.
...
In the last 18 months, at least eight ex-lawmakers or staffers for Otter and former Govs. Dirk Kempthorne and Jim Risch became lobbyists. They include former House Majority Caucus Chairwoman Julie Ellsworth, R-Boise, who won a lobbying job on the recommendation of House Speaker Lawerence Denney, R-Midvale; former House Speaker Bruce Newcomb, R-Burley; and Lance Giles, Kempthorne's top adviser on his billion-dollar "Connecting Idaho" roads project. Giles went to work for the company that won the contract to oversee that highway work, Washington Group International.