Orientation for California’s 38 Assembly freshmen began almost immediately after the November 6 election—with sessions at the Capitol introducing them to the intricacies of drafting legislation, participating in floor debates and dodging the myriad ethical pitfalls that can derail a career.

And almost immediately the newly-minted lawmakers took off on field trips with lobbyists to learn the real-world application of those skills.  

The Los Angeles Times reported that the day after the election, more than a dozen  incoming Assembly members were guests in AT&T’s luxury suite at Sacramento’s Sleep Train Arena, where they joined the company’s top local executive to watch the Kings edge the hapless Detroit Pistons. There, they learned a valuable lesson; it’s really easy to sidestep the $420 annual limit on gifts from constituents. The lawmakers don’t have to report the value of their tickets because the gathering was hosted by the Democratic Party.

The next day, a group of freshmen were hosted by the California Dental Association. The group has spent $7.2 million on lobbying efforts since 2003, including the distribution of $1.1 million to 195 recipients in 2012, according to the National Institute on Money in State Politics. The state Democratic Party received the largest contribution, $397,500. The Republican Party got $5,000.

Many of the field trips are out-of-state and out of the country.

Only one freshman, Reggie Jones-Sawyer of Los Angeles, was among the 15 lawmakers who flew to Maui for a five-day conference at the Fairmont Kea Lani organized by the Independent Voter Project (IVP). The IVP, a self-proclaimed “non-profit, non-partisan, non-political (501(c)(4) organization,” was characterized by RL Miller at DailyKos.com as “a smokescreen for corporate interests.” He suggested it be renamed “the Corporate Voters Project, or perhaps the Feudal Voters Project, for encouraging voters to aid corporations far more wealthy than them.”

According to the Times, Jones-Sawyer learned a lot. “There were some things I didn't know—such as how businesses really need help to flourish here in California.”

Another group of about 10 legislators, sponsored by the Pacific Policy Research Foundation, were scheduled to follow them to Maui.

Other lawmakers, including state senators, are traveling this month to Brazil, China, Australia and New Zealand while the Legislature is in recess. The two-week trip to Brazil is sponsored by the California Foundation on the Environment and the Economy, a nonprofit whose bankrollers include Chevron, PG&E, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and Southern California Edison. P.J. Johnson, a spokesman for the foundation, told the Sacramento Bee that “these are very much working trips.”

Critics say the excursions, in and out of the state, are inappropriate private gatherings of powerful interest groups and the people who are supposed to be regulating them.

–Ken Broder

To Learn More:

New California Legislators Get a Warm Welcome—from Lobbyists (by Patrick McGreevy, Los Angeles Times)

Freshman Orientation Underway for New California Legislators (by Patrick McGreevy, Los Angeles Times)

After Election, State Lawmakers and Interest Groups Travel in Tandem (by Laurel Rosenhall and Jim Sanders, Sacramento Bee)