SENATE RETIREMENTS COULD CLOSE REVOLVING DOOR FOR SOME LOBBYISTS

—Sunlight: “Four longtime senators recently announced their retirements from the Senate effective at the end of 2012. This could send ripples through K Street as a number of lobbyists will lose the chief contact they had to Capitol Hill, their former boss. Sens. Jon Kyl, Joe Lieberman, Kent Conrad, and Kay Bailey Hutchison have a combined 51 former staffers turned lobbyists who may see their bottom line suffer when their former boss steps down. … A recent study from the Centre for Economic Performance showed that a lobbyist who previously worked for a senior senator takes an average revenue loss of 24 percent when their former boss leaves office. Those who worked for junior senators saw negligible revenue loss when their former boss left office. The study also found that former staffers who worked for senators with positions on the most powerful committees, Appropriations and Finance, suffered even bigger losses in revenue with the departure of their former boss. … Three of the four departing senators, Conrad, Lieberman, and Hutchison, were the senior senators for their state. Three also held seats on the key committees, Conrad and Kyl on Finance and Hutchison on Appropriations. Additional important posts include Kyl’s post as Republican Minority Whip and Lieberman’s chairmanship of Homeland Security & Government Reform.”

OCE INVESTIGATING REP. SCHMIDT

—Roll Call: “The Office of Congressional Ethics is investigating Rep. Jean Schmidt’s receipt of legal assistance from a Turkish-American interest group that has represented her in a host of proceedings in Ohio, one of the Republican’s counsels confirmed Friday. … Schmidt attorney Bruce Fein declined to answer questions about how he is paid, saying he is responding to a request from the OCE, the board that reviews potential rules violations and recommends investigations to the House Ethics Committee.”

MORE PROBLEMS FOR JUSTICE THOMAS?

—New York Times: “Discrepancies in reports about an appearance by Justice Clarence Thomas at a political retreat for wealthy conservatives three years ago have prompted new questions to the Supreme Court from a group that advocates changing campaign finance laws. … When questions were first raised about the retreat last month, a court spokeswoman said Justice Thomas had made a “brief drop-by” at the event in Palm Springs, Calif., in January 2008 and had given a talk. … In his financial disclosure report for that year, however, Justice Thomas reported that the Federalist Society, a prominent conservative legal group, had reimbursed him an undisclosed amount for four days of “transportation, meals and accommodations” over the weekend of the retreat.”

FUNDRAISING PARTIES TODAY

–Tons of parties today. See them all here.

YESTERDAY

—Day in Transparency (2/14/11)

—Day in Sunlight (2/14/11)