The state’s Citizen’s Ethics Advisory Board on Thursday randomly selected 30 lobbyists to be audited in 2026 by the Office of State Ethics.
The state agency is required by state law to annually audit lobbyists’ official filings, including both registrations and disclosure reports. The advisory board annually makes its random selections during its November meeting.
During its meeting on Thursday, the board selected a list of 40 lobbyists from a pool of all “client lobbyists” who were registered at any time from Jan. 1, 2023, through Dec. 31 of this year.
While 40 organizations were selected, a total of 30 will be audited. If any of the first 30 lobbyists selected in the lottery were subject to an audit within the past three years, the state will bypass that entity and audit the next eligible lobbyist.
A “client lobbyist” is a person or entity paying for lobbying services on its behalf. Any client lobbyist who spends or agrees to spend $3,000 or more for lobbying in a calendar year is required to register with the state and file financial reports.
A “communicator lobbyist” is someone being paid to lobby on behalf of the client lobbyist. In the course of auditing the selected client lobbyists, the agency also will audit all of their associated communicator lobbyists, it said.
State lobbying laws seek to prevent corruption and provide transparency by providing data to citizens who spend money on lobbying, what issues are being targeted and what activities or actions that money supports, the agency said.
The audits will be conducted in the order in which the lobbyists were selected. The lobbyists selected, in order, are:
- CT Chapter American College of Physicians
- Bestech Clean Energy LLC
- Fairfield County Medical Association
- Dattco Inc.
- New Haven Center for Performing Arts
- SAM Advocacy dba CTVotersFirst.org
- Center for Human Development
- TOMRA North America
- Google LLC and its affiliates
- Newport Academy
- Professional Insurance Agents of CT
- Abbott Laboratories
- Southwest Airlines
- CT Association of Health Plans
- Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services
- Christian Healthcare Ministries Inc.
- Election Systems & Software
- 7-Eleven Inc.
- Iroquois Gas Transmission System
- Wilhusky LLC
- Connecticut Independent Physician Practice Association
- UA Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 777
- CT Coalition of Taft Hartley Health Funds
- Strategic
- Workers’ Compensation Trust
- Sunrun Inc.
- Common Cause in CT
- American Investment Council
- Northeast Pharmacy Service Corporatio
- Connecticut Foodshare
- LKQ Corporation
- Restoration Industry Association
- New England Convenience Store and Energy Marketers Association
- Datavant
- Connecticut Public Interest Research Group
- Consumer Data Industry Association
- Astellas Pharma US Inc.
- CT High School Coaches Association
- FoodCorps
- Girls for Technology
The Office of State Ethics said it will contact each selected lobbyist with information about the audit process.
