Lobbying loyalties

The corps of lobbyists haunting San Diego’s city hall didn’t pull down quite as much money in 2015 as they did the year before. An accounting by the city’s ethics commission reveals that registered influence-peddlers reported getting a total of $3,796,892 from their clients. That compares with $3,919,456 in 2014.

Last year, 1573 lobbying contacts with “high-level City Officials” were tallied. A year earlier, 2,228 contacts were made. But the ranks of lobbyists increased a bit, from 385 to 401. In 2014, lobbyists raised a total of $2,673,673 for candidates for city office and related political causes; in 2015 that dropped to $1,641,940.