Texas Tribune: Gallego says he didn’t lobby after leaving Congress

Democratic congressional hopeful Pete Gallego on Thursday rejected a claim that he turned to lobbying after leaving the U.S. House of Representatives two years ago, an accusation central to Republican efforts to scuttle his comeback bid for the 23rd district seat.

“From my perspective, it’s simply not true,” Gallego told The Texas Tribune after a campaign event here. “There’s a statutory definition of lobbying, and I didn’t fit that statutory definition of lobbying. I didn’t register as a lobbyist because I didn’t fit the statutory definition of lobbying.”

Under Texas law, a lobbyist is defined as a person who has “direct communication” with members of the executive and legislative branches in an effort to influence their actions.

As Gallego seeks to reclaim his seat from Rep. Will Hurd, R-San Antonio, Republicans have been hammering the Alpine Democrat as a political insider who sought to cash in on his experience following his re-election loss in 2014. In a TV ad released Tuesday by the National Republican Congressional Committee, a narrator tells voters that Gallego “went and lobbied after you fired him from Congress.”

The claim appears to stem from public records showing Gallego had an annual salary of more than $117,000 working last year for the City of Austin in its department of governmental relations – a term often associated with lobbying. The records show Gallego started the job March 2, 2015, and a city representative said Thursday his employment ended roughly five and a half months later.

To read the complete article in the Texas Tribune, click here.