Former Idaho Republican Sen. Larry Craig has returned to work on Capitol Hill. This time as a lobbyist.
Dana Bash of CNN reported Monday that Craig told her he was “making the rounds” lobbying former colleagues. She encountered him on the subway from the Capitol to the Russell Senate Office Building.
Craig, whose 2007 arrest in a Minneapolis airport’s bathroom for soliciting sex led to his retirement in 2009, returned to Capitol Hill nearly as soon as he could have. Former senators are forbidden from returning as lobbyists for two years.
Bash wrote, “a cheerful Craig told me he still spends most of his time in his home state of Idaho with his children and grandchildren.”
The Associated Press reported in late February that Craig was lobbying in support of a bill that would modify the Endangered Species Act “to provide that Act shall not apply to the gray wolf.”
Craig represents Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife, a group advocating for the legislation because of the negative effects that a rebounding wolf population have had on large animals prized by hunters.
After leaving Congress in disgrace, Craig established the lobbying firm New West Strategies.