Jon Lender: Joe Aresimowicz is latest House speaker to go through ‘revolving door’ into lobbying — as 6 of 7 speakers since 1989 have done
When House Speaker
A “revolving door” statute bars Aresimowicz for one year from lobbying his longtime legislative colleagues at the state government level, so he has not registered with the
But the
Five of the six people who preceded Aresimowicz as speaker, dating back to 1989, later became
The five, all
The only speaker since 1989 who didn’t become a lobbyist was
Now Aresimowicz makes it six out of seven.
Balducci, Amann and Sharkey currently have active registrations on file with the
Ritter, a partner at the prominent law and lobbying firm of
Donovan spent years as lobbyist for the
One former high-ranking House Republican,
Also, this past week, former
Major business clients
Aresimowicz did not seek reelection last year in his
Aresimowicz’s new employer,
The firm boasts a business-heavy roster of at least 75 current lobbying clients including: Eversource, which anticipates paying up to
Aresimowicz wasn’t a favorite of the business community during a legislative career of 16 years, the last four as speaker, in which he built a liberal record and generally sided with labor unions. For example, in 2019 his successful efforts to pass liberal initiatives — including a minimum wage hike, as well as family and medical leave mandates — helped to earn him only a 33% score from the
On top of that, Aresimowicz’s regular job outside the part-time legislature has been as education coordinator for a big state and municipal employees union, Council 4 of
Aresimowicz said in telephone interview Friday that he doesn’t think he’s turning his back on what he has stood for. “I always tried to listen to all sides ... to get what I believed was fair” as he brokered agreements on what would go into the final language of a bill, he said. Sometimes that meant breaking with the unions and liberals, he said, as when he supported a state budget bill that called for layoffs.
He said he can use the same approach of “getting to fair” in representing clients’ interests, once he starts actual lobbying in 2022 after the 12-month waiting period.
Asked how he would respond if somebody said he’s gone over to the “dark side” by representing private interests at the
He added: “If I entered into the world of labor relations ... and became a negotiator for management,” then “I think that criticism would be totally fair” because it would be such a drastic change of loyalties.
The ex-speaker is now acting on written advice he solicited from the
O’Dowd wrote that “[s]uch conduct at the municipal and/or federal level would not constitute ‘Lobbying’ ” and noted that the one-year ban is “limited to compensated attempts to influence legislative or administrative action at the state level in Connecticut.”
Aresimowicz said he also can help
One thing that won’t change, Aresimowicz said, is that he’ll continue in his role as the longstanding head coach of Berlin High School’s football team.
From
The issue of ex-legislators’ lobbying has drawn attention in states across the country, and also has arisen at the federal level. Several former members of Connecticut’s congressional delegation appear on a national ”Revolving Door” list published online by a good government group, the
Above the online list is this introduction: “Dick Armey.
Two former Democratic
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