Among the 11 legislative affairs staffers the incoming Obama administration named yesterday, several have done stints on K Street. The bios released by the Office of the President-Elect did not list the lobbying connections. But here they are:

• Jay Heimbach, who now serves as chief of staff to Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, followed his then-Clinton administration boss, Steve Ricchetti, to Ricchetti's lobbying shop from 2001 to mid-2006, where his clients included Eli Lilly, Fannie Mae, the Alliance for Justice, and E-Bay.
• Denise Wilson did a stint as manager of government relations for Motorola in Washington besides spending more than a decade as an aide to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee under Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif.
• Sean Kennedy also took a trip through the revolving door: After working for then-House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., he was a lobbyist for SBC Communications (which later took the name AT&T) from 2005-2006. He then returned to Capitol Hill as chief of staff to Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.

Asked about his stint in Washington's profession of ill-repute, Kennedy, in 2005, offered The Kansas City Star a line of argument resembling Sen. Hillary Clinton's during the presidential campaign. "The stunningly illegal relationships" of a few corrupt members and lobbyists make the profession seem to many as "somewhere between amoral and anti-American," Kennedy conceded. But although some reforms were needed, he argued, many folks in Washington "represent 'interests' that are at the heart of our country -- everything from farmers to small businesses to educators -- and these individuals perform an important and honest role in providing assistance and perspective to Congress."

We'll have more on former lobbyists who are joining the Obama administration in the January 24 issue of National Journal.

                                                                                                              -- Julie Kosterlitz