Legislators Miffed With AG Lobbying

By Kleinheider Posted on April 2, 2009 at 2:58 pm

From the keyboard of Chas Sisk:

Led by Franklin Rep. Charles Sargent, the lead sponsor of a natural gas bill that the Attorney General’s office opposes, lawmakers questioned whether Cooper plans to start taking positions before the General Assembly.

In today’s hearing and in a hearing earlier this week, supporters of the bill have made it known that they think the Attorney General’s lobbying against the bill is a sharp departure from the legislature’s usual relationship with the AG, which rarely has gone before asking Cooper’s office for legal opinions on bills.

“I’ve been here 13 years, and I have never seen you get involved in legislation,” Sargent said. “Seems like now, is it your new position that you’re going to be lobbying up here? When did this change?”

Another, speaking on behalf of Lebanon Rep. Susan Lynn, who was absent, questioned why the AG needs to pay a policy adviser to deal with the legislature.

Cooper stood his ground, though.

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Tags: Attorney General, Bob Cooper, Charles Sargent, lobbying  

You Gotta Spend Money To Make Money

By Kleinheider Posted on December 20, 2008 at 10:50 pm

Ben Cunningham, however, would rather not have local government involved in the practice of lobbying state and federal governments:

This practice of using taxpayer money to get even more taxpayer money should be illegal but its not and many local TN govts spend lots of taxpayer money on lobbying. Hopefully this ridiculous practice will be outlawed soon in TN.

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Tags: federal government, governments lobbying governments, lobbying, local government