Lobbyists and keys to power

Like all newly elected lawmakers, Assemblyman Felipe Fuentes arrived in Sacramento needing two things to ensure his success: legislative achievements and campaign money. Karen de Sa in the Daily News.

If he established himself as a political force, the Arleta Democrat might breeze to re-election in two years and rise up the legislative ranks. And sure enough, there were folks who could help him along - the throng of lobbyists offering bill ideas on behalf of their corporate clients.

In his first term in office, beginning in 2007, Fuentes introduced 10 bills that had been crafted and pushed by those lobbyists - one of the highest totals of any legislator in a session where much special interest legislation was passed while many statewide problems went unaddressed. And in the years since, he has reaped tens of thousands of dollars in campaign money from bill sponsors, won re-election, and snagged plum appointments to Assembly committees.