Former Rep. Drew Saunders gets to start lobbying six months after he leaves office instead of a year after stepping down, thanks to a change in the law that he pushed through.
Saunders lost in the May Democratic primary to Rep.-elect Nick Mackey. He resigned his Mecklenburg County seat on October 31 to take a $110,000-a-year job with Electricities, a non-profit umbrella group for municipal power companies. He said that job likely will include lobbying. The state ethics law requires that Saunders not lobby until six months after he leaves office, which would be May.
That's six months sooner than the original version of the ethics bill proposed in 2006. The cooling off period was shortened to six months thanks to a proposal pushed by, drumroll please, then-Rep. Drew Saunders. At the time, he complained that the ethics bill "treats legislators like dirt." This was around the same time that Saunders criticized the bill's ban on lobbyists giving gifts to legislators by saying: " Even the baby Jesus accepted gifts, and I don't think it corrupted him."
Saunders on Wednesday said he "certainly didn't anticipate" his new job when he proposed the shorter cooling off period. His criticism of the ethics bill arose from his human resources background, as he didn't think lawmakers should restrict how former legislators sustain themselves, he said.
"We were down there talking about jobs, jobs, jobs," Saunders said, "and then we're restricting people on how they make a living."
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Re: Rep. Saunders' work helps lobbyist Saunders
Geez I went to the website listed below and the picture of Saunders made me think I was looking at Jim Black. They could be brothers.