As a newly registered state lobbyist, I’m slowly getting used to the fact that I am now a badge carrying member of a rather infamous group in society. Until now, I thought most people reserved their scrunched-nosed venom for lawyers (sorry, Shorty!). Today’s Globe had a thought provoking editorial on the ethics surrounding lobbying rules in Massachusetts. While I absolutely agree that lobbyists need to be held to a high ethical standard and limitations should be placed on being able to unscrupulously influence legislators and law-making, I also think that painting lobbyists as the only bad guys in this process, is completely one-sided. Elected officials have their own responsibilities to resist the temptations dangled in front of them from wealthy donors or constituencies and do the right thing. We only need to look at other recent Boston headlines to be reminded of that.
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