Florida Bulldogs by Dan Christensen
May 30, 2019
Democratic state legislators filed formal complaints Thursday with the state and Senate and House oversight authorities seeking investigations into Tallahassee lobbyist Marion Hammer’s failure to disclose hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees from the National Rifle Association.
Florida Bulldog reported May 14 that Hammer received $270,000 from the NRA last year for “consulting services and legislative lobbying in Florida” in the wake of the Parkland school massacre. She was paid another $134,000 in 2017 “for legislative lobbying services in Florida.” Neither of those payments, described in internal NRA documents, was disclosed on quarterly lobbyist compensation reports required to be filed by the legislature.
NRA tax returns show that Hammer also received $147,000 in 2014, $172,000 in 2015 and $206,000 in 2016. The 2014-2018 total: $929,000. None of it was reported to state lobbyist regulators, and in fact, while Hammer is a registered lobbyist in the capital she has not filed any compensation reports since at least 2007.
“Florida’s lobbying disclosure law was passed in 2005 to give citizens more insight into the forces driving the legislative process,” said Sen. Perry Thurston, D-Fort Lauderdale. “The National Rifle Association has had an outsized influence on the passage of pro-gun bills for more than two decades. Floridians have the right to know just how much money was driving that agenda, and why those payments were never disclosed.”