Number of Registered Lobbyists Jumps to Record 3,245 in California
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CA lobbyists celebrate banner year |
The dramatic rise in lobbying activity is particularly notable when compared to historical figures. According to data from the Secretary of State's office, the state had just 1,237 registered lobbyists during the 2009-10 session. The current figure represents nearly a tripling of the lobbying workforce in just over a decade.
"The fact that the number of registered lobbyists has risen so high and outstrips the number of actual staffers that legislators have to help them with people's work shows how skewed our system has become," says Trent Lange, executive director of California Clean Money Campaign, an organization focused on reducing money's influence in politics.
Industry experts attribute the surge to multiple factors, including high turnover in the Legislature and what longtime lobbyist Chris Micheli describes as an "exodus of legislative staff" into advocacy roles. The increase also coincides with expanded regulatory activity, particularly in environmental policy. "Some of these regulatory bodies, like the Air Resources Board — the number of regulations that they're undertaking and their significance has been growing in recent years," Micheli notes.
The financial impact is equally striking. Lobbying expenditures reached nearly $420 million in just the first nine months of 2024, following $484 million spent in 2023 and $443 million in 2022. Major tech companies have contributed significantly to this spending, with Google notably conducting a summer lobbying campaign regarding news content compensation.
Jonathan Mehta Stein, executive director of California Common Cause, called the nearly $1 billion in lobbying expenditures "absolutely wild," adding that many in the capitol community "lose sight of how staggering it would be to their constituents if they knew how much money is spent to, in many cases, divert policy decisions away from the reason everyone originally went to Sacramento."
The surge places California's lobbying industry in a significant position globally, though still smaller than federal lobbying in Washington, D.C., which counts approximately 12,000 registered lobbyists, and the European Union's capital of Brussels, which reports 29,000 lobbyists.
As Sacramento grapples with this unprecedented growth in lobbying activity, questions remain about its impact on democratic representation and the ability of ordinary citizens to have their voices heard in the state capitol.
Number of Registered Lobbyists Jumps to Record 3,245 in California - Times of San Diego
California saw its biggest increase in registered lobbyists last session since at least 2011, when a change in the law caused the number to more than double.
There was a roughly 10% increase in the number of lobbyists who registered for the 2023-24 session compared to the previous one — for a record of 3,245 people, according to the Secretary of State’s office.
What’s behind the jump? Longtime lobbyist Chris Micheli sees it as the result of high turnover in the Legislature — leading to an “exodus of legislative staff” who went into advocacy.
In what was dubbed the Great Resignation of 2022, for example, 26 members opted out of seeking re-election, in addition to the seven who reached term limits.
Micheli said he has also seen a rise in state agency rule-making, which motivates those in support of or against regulations to lobby: “Some of these regulatory bodies, like the Air Resources Board — the number of regulations that they’re undertaking and their significance has been growing in recent years.”
Meanwhile, the number of legislative staff has shifted only slightly since the mid-1990s, according to data from the National Conference of State Legislatures. The staff count can impact how much time members have to write and research legislation. The increase in lobbyists means there’s now at least one lobbyist for every staff member, compared to two staffers per lobbyist back in 1995, the earliest data available from the Secretary of State’s office.
“The fact that the number of registered lobbyists has risen so high and outstrips the number of actual staffers that legislators have to help them with people’s work shows how skewed our system has become towards the interests of wealthy interests that also dominate campaign spending, rather than regular people,” emailed Trent Lange, executive director of California Clean Money Campaign — an advocacy group that aims to combat the influence of money on politics.
Lobbyists are required to register with the Secretary of State’s office, and report on their activities each quarter. That’s according to the state’s Political Reform Act, which passed in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal in 1974 in an effort to combat political corruption.
The law defines lobbyists as those who are paid to influence legislation or regulation through direct communication with lawmakers, outside of public comments. They can be hired as contractors by companies, or work to influence policy as an employee, although those who spend less than one-third of their time lobbying don’t have to register.
Lawmakers and those who work for state agencies legally must wait one year after leaving state jobs before working as lobbyists. Legislative staff do not have that requirement.
The recent jump in new lobbyists was the highest since 2011, when a law signed by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger went into effect requiring placement agents — financial officers who solicit investments from the state workers’ and teachers’ retirement funds — to register as lobbyists. The law nearly doubled the number of registered lobbyists, from 1,237 for the two-year session ending in 2010 to 2,353 in 2012.
The second highest bump came in the session that ended in 2020, with 257 more registered lobbyists compared to the session before, according to the Secretary of State’s office.
The rise in the number of lobbyists coincides with an uptick in money spent on lobbying, with industry and advocacy groups spending record amounts each year since 2022.
Spending to lobby California legislators hit nearly $420 million in just the first nine months of 2024, compared to $484 million in all of 2023 and $443 million in the entirety of 2022. Included in the recent boost: a summer lobbying blitz by Google to influence whether it would have to pay news outlets for publishing their content.
Jonathan Mehta Stein, executive director of the good governmental advocacy group California Common Cause, labeled it “absolutely wild” that nearly $1 billion was spent on lobbying last session. “Sometimes people in the capitol community,” he said, “lose sight of how staggering it would be to their constituents if they knew how much money is spent to, in many cases, divert policy decisions away from the reason everyone originally went to Sacramento, which is to serve the public interest without fear or favor.”
Jeremia Kimelman contributed to this story.
CalMatters is a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how California’s state Capitol works and why it matters.
To support the commitment of the state of California to operate under the highest ethical standards, the FPPC has created the below list of all lobbying firms and lobbyist employers registered to lobby the Governor and other executive branch agencies, and all lobbyists employed by those lobbying firms and lobbyist employers This list is meant to increase transparency and the public's accessibility to information. The data below was provided by the Secretary of State's office for the 2021 filing year and will be updated with the most recent data as it is provided by the Secretary of State's office. For the most up to date information on lobbyist activity, visit the Secretary of State's CalAccess website: CalAcess Lobbying Activity.
California State Capitol. (Photo: Kevin Sanders for California Globe)
How does California’s number compare to other large jurisdictions?
By Chris Micheli, December 26, 2024 6:40 pm
In California, there are over 3,200 registered lobbyists with the state. Note that in most large cities in California there are also registration and reporting requirements for those engaged in local government lobbying (i.e., city councils and boards of supervisors).
How does California’s number compare to other large jurisdictions? Official accounts peg the number of lobbyists in Washington, DC at 12,000 (those lobbying the US Congress and federal executive branch) and 29,000 in Brussels, Belgium (those lobbying the EU Parliament), which is up from 25,000 in 2020.
How have the number of registered lobbyists grown in Sacramento in lobbying the legislative and executive branches? Based upon data from the California Secretary of State’s Office obtained by Sameea Kamal of CalMatters, the following chart tracks those registrations by 2-year Legislative Session and compares the number year-over-year and from 25 years ago:
| Legislative Session | Number of Registered Lobbyists | Change from Prior Session | Change from 2009-10 Session |
| 1999-2000 | 1,270 | n/a | n/a |
| 2001-02 | 1,273 | +3 | +3 |
| 2003-04 | 1,246 | -27 | -24 |
| 2005-06 | 1,244 | -2 | -26 |
| 2007-08 | 1,253 | +9 | -17 |
| 2009-10 | 1,237 | -16 | -33 |
| 2011-12 | 2,353 | +1,116 | +1,083 |
| 2013-14 | 2,406 | +53 | +1,136 |
| 2015-16 | 2,491 | +85 | +1.221 |
| 2017-18 | 2,583 | +92 | +1,313 |
| 2019-20 | 2,840 | +257 | +1,570 |
| 2021-22 | 2,950 | +110 | +1,680 |
| 2023-24 | 3,245 | +295 | +1,975 |
The number of registered lobbyists jumped about fifteen years ago because of a new category that was added by statute to the definition of a lobbyist: “placement agents” (those who work with public pension funds on investment opportunities). Otherwise, the number has grown by about 100 each session over the past quarter century.
And, for the dozen years after the 1999-200 Session, the total number was stagnant at just over 1,200 registered lobbyists (and, in 3 of those sessions, the number actually declined slightly). While the number of registered lobbyists has grown by 1,975 over the past 25 years, more than half of those registrations are attributable to the addition of placement agents. Even taking those registrations out of the total figure, the number of registered lobbyists has still grown over 65% during the past quarter century.
Chris Micheli is an attorney and lobbyist with Snodgrass & Micheli, LLC, as well as an Adjunct Professor at McGeorge School of Law.
Campaign & Lobbying :: California Secretary of State
Political Reform Division
Lobbying Registration Renewal for the 2025-2026 Legislative Session is taking place November 1 - December 31, 2024. For more information, including how to file by email, read the renewal notice.
Lobbyist Photo Submission Form
The Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) has updated the Statement of Organization (Form 410) to accommodate new requirements to include the names of those authorized to obtain the bank records and email addresses of the committee's treasurer, assistant treasurer, and principal officer(s).
The Political Reform Division administers provisions of California's Political Reform Act, including the law's most fundamental purpose of ensuring that "receipts and expenditures in election campaigns should be fully and truthfully disclosed in order that the voters may be fully informed and the activities of lobbyists should be regulated" and "their finances disclosed..." (Gov. Code § 81002)
The Political Reform Act was adopted as a statewide initiative (Proposition 9) by an overwhelming vote of the electorate in 1974. The law requires detailed disclosure of the role of money in California politics. This includes the disclosure of contributions and expenditures in connection with campaigns supporting or opposing state and local candidates and ballot measures as well as the disclosure of expenditures made in connection with lobbying the State Legislature and attempting to influence administrative decisions of state government. Electronic data received by the California Secretary of State is published on the California Automated Lobbying and Campaign Contribution Electronic Search System (CAL-ACCESS) website. CAL-ACCESS is the state’s campaign and lobbying information system where candidates, political committees, and lobbyists file detailed financial disclosures.
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