With CRP data, Sunlight Maps Baucus's Health Care Lobbying Network

As chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Max Baucus is playing a key role in determining the shape, size, and cost of health care reform. The Montana Democrat's influence may be even keener as a result of the lobbyist web that flows from his office.

According to OpenSecrets's data summarized in a Sunlight Foundation blog post yesterday, five former Baucus aides are presently lobbying on behalf of 27 different organizations with big stakes in the health care debate. These ex-staffers, either as in-house lobbyists or as part of private firms, are serving a comprehensive roster of tier-one insurers, pharmaceutical manufacturers and business advocacy groups such as Humana, Wal-Mart and Procter & Gamble. We've also profiled nearly two-dozen Baucus staffers that have gone through the "revolving door," which ranks his office as the No. 7 slot on the most action between service in Congress and the lucrative private sector.

Among these, his former chief of staff, David Castagnetti, who took a spin through the revolving door when he became a lobbyist, has strong connections to Capitol Hill, including another stint as a staffer to Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.). Castagnetti's firm, Mehlman Vogel Castagnetti, has already made $2.6 million this year. Castagnetti is personally lobbying in service of several health care players, including AstraZeneca, America's Health Insurance Plans and Merck & Company. Among Castagnetti's clients is also the Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), a trade association that has already shelled out $7 million in lobbying expenses this year and $154.2 million since 1998. Only five companies, unions, or other organizations have spent more during that span.

Baucus's clout extends beyond K Street, too. Another former top aide, Jim Messina, now serves as President Obama's deputy chief of staff. Yet even this connection has not ensured agreement between Baucus--who has served in the Senate for 31 years--and the White House on health care. President Obama supports a "public option" for health insurance, while Baucus has not publicly endorsed that proposal. He has voiced support for a "co-op" plan sponsored by other centrist Senate Democrats, and he delayed the release of a full proposal until later this summer.

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http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2009/06/sunlight-maps-baucuss-health-c.html