Another incumbent Republican is looking to head for the exits and take a very lucrative job ($1 million a year) as a lobbyist.
This time it is Richard Baker, who has represented Louisiana's 6th District, which is the area around Baton Rouge, since 1987.
Baker had no opposition other than a Libertarian candidate in the 2006 election. The largest parish in the district, East Baton Rouge, went for Bush in 2004 with 54.5%.
Rep. Richard H. Baker (R-La.), a longtime legislative expert on the regulation of capital markets, is in serious talks to become president of the main lobby for hedge funds, the Managed Funds Association.
Baker disclosed the talks yesterday to the House ethics committee, becoming the first lawmaker to file a report about job talks as required under the lobbying law that Congress passed last year. Lawmakers must inform the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, as the ethics panel is officially known, when they start serious negotiations with outsiders that might want to hire them.
Hedge-fund industry executives, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the news media, said that Baker is the top candidate for the nearly million-dollar-a-year job and was likely to formally be offered it soon. Baker would have to resign from Congress to take the position.
It's hard to say whether this would be any sort of pickup opportunity. This district wasn't hit by Katrina but it was greatly impacted by the storm as thousands of New Orleanians sought shelter there and many of them stayed.
I'm sure many of them will not miss Baker:
Baker created controversy after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in 2005 when he was overheard telling lobbyists: "We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did."
But even if we don't pick this one up, it's another district that Republicans will have to expend effort and money on in order to hang on to.