Richard Corcoran pushes constitutional panel to support 6-year lobbying ban

florida constitution

Florida would have the strictest lobbying ban in the nation under a proposed constitutional amendment that House Speaker Richard Corcoran is pushing Constitutional Revision Commission appointees to support.

Corcoran, who prides himself in running a “House of Reformers,” is seeking to close the revolving door between lobbyists and legislators by implementing a six-year lobbying ban for legislators and statewide elected officers.

In a letter sent this week to commissioners, Corcoran said they should back ethics proposals filed by Commissioners Don Gaetz, a former Senate president, and Sen. Darryl Rouson, which would be put on the ballot for voter approval if passed by the 37-member CRC panel.

Both proposals were temporarily postponed at hearings in mid-December last year.

“Recent legislative attempt to extend the lobby ban and impose stricter ethical requirements have been thwarted by the self-interested politicians we hope to regulate,” Corcoran wrote.

Currently the state constitution has a two year lobbying ban. According to National Conference of State Legislatures report, at least 34 states have a form of lobbying cooling-off period, but none exceed the two-year ban.

The term-limited Republican has advocated for a longer lobbying ban since the day he was sworn in as speaker and said, “it all ends” with him at the helm

Ana Ceballos

Ana covers politics and policy Before joining the News Service of Florida she wrote for the Naples Daily News and was the legislative relief reporter for The Associated Press and covered policy issues impacting immigration, the environment, criminal justice and social welfare in Florida. She holds a B.A. in journalism from San Diego State University. After graduating in 2014, she worked as a criminal justice reporter for the Monterey Herald and the Monterey County Weekly. She has also freelanced for The Washington Post at the U.S.-Mexico border covering crime in the border city of Tijuana, where she grew up. Ana is fluent in Spanish and has intermediate proficiency in Portuguese.



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