Here is a study that is interesting to me given the recent history in Washington of the "K Street Project," where GOP leaders, when they were in charge of Congress, pushed trade associations and major lobbying firms and corporations to hire individuals of a particular political strip. The legacy of placing that emphasis on how the business of Washington gets done continues on K Street, as this study shows.

Federally registered lobbyists in Washington tend to be loyal to the political party they personally favor, in terms of campaign contributions, rather than pragmatic operatives giving to both sides of the aisle, according to a new study published by the American Political Science Association.

Political scientists Gregory Koger, from the University of Miami, and Jennifer Nicoll Victor, from the University of Pittsburgh, looked at the campaign donations of 1,200 lobbyists from the 2006 election cycle and found the behavior of lobbyists "quite partisan," with 29% giving almost nothing to Democrats while another 28% giving almost nothing to Republicans. Only 6.3% of lobbyists gave at least 40% of their donations to both parties.

"Lobbyists are often depicted as the ultimate insiders of the Washington 'game' [but]...we have found a pattern of stark polarization in lobbyists' donations," said Koger and Victor in their study. "The broader implication is that lobbyists do not shed their partisan loyalties [and therefore] it is easy to see why politicians take a great interest in who is hired to talk to them, since they clearly see lobbyists as resources for one party or another."