UPDATE: Tinklenberg spokesman John Wodele got back to me Monday and said he considers the accusation to be not a legitimate news story, since he said the US Attorney's office has rejected the letter's request.
For the record, Wodele said, Tinklenberg is not registered as a lobbyist and does not need to be registered as a lobbyist, under the 1995 Federal Lobbying Disclosure Act.
Further, he said, if Tinklenberg had met the criteria to register as a lobbyist and had failed to do so, the only consequence would be that he would be required to register in order to get everything straight.
That seems right, as I remember covering a similar episode during the 2005 state Senate special election in which then-lobbyist Tarryl Clark was tardy filing required state lobbying reports. She updated them and that was the end of the story.
In any event, Wodele said Tinklenberg does not meet the following criteria, from the act:
Who is a Lobbyist?
Any person who:
- Receives compensation of $5,000 or more per six-month period, or makes expenditures of $20,000 or more per six-month period, for lobbying;
- Makes more than one lobbying contact; and
- Spends 20 percent or more of his or her time over a six-month period on lobbying activities for an organization or a particular client.
That is an excerpt without Schumacher's helpful links, so have a look at the original. Blue man has a view. As does June Cleaver.
I had this to say, and the Tinklenberg camp is saying it got shipped upstairs to be pidgeon-holed. One email I received said, welcome to the world of government investigating itself.
My expectation - it will grow legs, unfortunately, after the endorsement process, if Tinklenberg is the MN 6 candidate. The GOP has to be loaded and ready to fire. This up-the-chain-of-command is within a GOP Justice Department.
We wait. We see. The coherent record pieced together from a number of individual items is in the letter, which has been posted here. Even if it is just this soapbox and the ballot box that pays attention, that is something. I continue to believe it had to be sent - the process of official questioning had to be moved off the dime. The revolving door lobbying problem is that sapping to the strength of our nation's political processes that it needs to be challenged at every chance.
Unfortunately, mainstream media believes Tinklenberg's Revolving Door Group, for now at least, is a non-question.
We wait.
We see.