Senator Lott and his retirement....yeah, right....

[Neil D]

Lott's Senate Retirement Plans Bring Lobbying Offers, Criticism

By Laura Litvan and Lorraine Woellert

Nov. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Senator Trent Lott is weighing a new career as a lobbyist when he retires from Congress and may team up with his former colleague John Breaux, the Mississippi Republican's son said.

``He was a lawyer years ago, and a lot of the lobbying law firms are calling,'' Chester Lott, who heads a Lexington, Kentucky-based lobbying firm, Lott and Associates, said in a telephone interview. ``It's all over the map.''

He said his father is considering a partnership with Breaux, a former Democratic senator from Louisiana who is a lobbyist at the Washington firm Patton Boggs LLP. Lott is also looking at offering his services for speaking engagements or as an occasional television-news commentator, Chester Lott said.

Lott sparked controversy with his announcement this week that he will retire by Dec. 31, one day before the application of new rules requiring senators to refrain from lobbying their former colleagues for two years after leaving office. Some ethics watchdogs said the decision by the Senate's minority whip and one-time majority leader is also unusual because he will leave office just one year after being re-elected to a six-year term.

``Because he wants to leave right before the one thing that changes here -- the enhanced revolving-door restriction -- it strongly suggests that he's planning a career as a lobbyist,'' said Craig Holman, campaign-finance lobbyist at Public Citizen, a Washington-based campaign-watchdog group. ``He has no reason to do so otherwise.''

35-Year Career

Lott said he began to think about ending his 35-year congressional career in August, only seven months into his new term, and made up his mind after consulting with his family over last week's Thanksgiving holiday. He said he has no immediate plans for his career after Congress, and isn't yet negotiating any offers.

``There are some opportunities out there that I want to be able to consider, but I have nothing that we've agreed to or lined up,'' Lott said.

Lott is the sixth Republican senator to announce he won't seek re-election in 2008, creating opportunities for Democrats to expand their 51-seat majority in the 100-member Senate.

The timing of his decision is triggering a political battle in Mississippi. Democrats insist that if Lott leaves by year's end, state law requires a special election to be held by spring, while the state's Republican governor, Haley Barbour, has said he plans to appoint a new senator to replace Lott until a special election next November.

Special Election

Kell Smith, a spokesman for Republican Mississippi Secretary of State Eric Clark, said yesterday that state law only requires a special election for a temporary replacement in years when there is neither a state nor congressional election. Statewide elections were held in 2007.

That interpretation could spark legal action, said Terry Cassreino, a spokesman for the Mississippi Democratic Party. He said the law requires a special election for Lott's replacement within 100 days of his resignation.

``The party believes if the senator resigns by the end of the year, an election must be held within 100 days,'' Cassreino said.

Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood, a Democrat, suggested yesterday that he could enter the fray. ``We fully expect the governor to follow the law,'' Hood said in a prepared statement.

Nick Simpson, a spokesman for Lott, said ``nothing has changed'' in the senator's plans to leave by the end of the year.

Home Destroyed

Lott had hinted in 2005 that he might retire. After Hurricane Katrina destroyed his home in Pascagoula that year, he sued his insurer, State Farm Fire & Casualty Co., to force it to pay for rebuilding. He then ran for re-election in 2006, saying he wanted to help his state recover from Hurricane Katrina.

Lott said this week that he felt the key legislation aiding the recovery had already been signed into law, and it was time to move on.

Washington lobbyists say that Lott is uniquely qualified to join their profession because of the unique ties to lawmakers he acquired during a career that includes stints as a Republican leader in both the House and Senate. He also has a reputation for working with Democrats, said Bill Paxon, a former Representative from New York and now a lobbyist with the firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer and Feld in Washington.

``He would be an enormously successful strategic counselor and advocate,'' Paxon said.

Breaux, 63, didn't respond to requests for comment. Chester Lott said a partnership between his father and the former Louisiana Democrat is ``a possibility'' because they ``have a great relationship.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Laura Litvan in Washington at llitvan@bloomberg.net ; Lorraine Woellert in Washington at lwoellert@bloomberg.net