The Spiders of the Rotunda
A look at the professional lobbyists who stalked the halls of the old Washington capitol, turning the state legislature into a theater of influence.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The house and senate chambers of the state legislature are located on the third floor of the old capitol building. They are separated by a large square rotunda in the center of which is a light well that opens on the second floor. Around it day after day during the legislative session gathers men and women who are in Olympia seeking a favor, for the rotunda is a common rendezvous where the lobbyists gather to stalk their prey. Doors open off of the rotunda onto both chambers. Because of the arrangement of apertures, it is difficult for a solon to escape a pursuer if the predatory seekers of favors be patient—and most of them are. Not all lobbyists linger in the rotunda; the Olympian hotel, built by the people of the capital city, sits diagonally across the street, where many of this small army of camp followers loaf and tell stories. As a class, they are men accustomed to the ways of the world, drawing large salaries and seeking only one thing—results. They are inclined to be contemptuous of the men and women sent to the legislature, but they carry cigars and smile, swallowing pride to perform a necessary job. Nearly always the lobbyists win a concession, but not always. Sometimes the fly turns on the spider, spurns its advances, and laughs at it. No one class in the state seems free of favor seeking in Olympia this winter; the large power companies, the real estate men, labor, the farmers, the motor bus line owners, the railroads, and the dentists daily try for legislative ears.
“The lobbyists who frequent the hotel corridors resemble nothing so much as gigantic spiders lying in ambush for the innocent fly.”
While the physical 'light well' and the old rotunda have changed, the tension between monied interests and the legislative process remains a constant. Modern ethics laws and public disclosure requirements for lobbyists exist precisely because the 'spiders' described in 1923 were so effective at operating in the shadows of the capitol.
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