Is it better for lobbyists to be smart or well-connected?

Sunlight Foundation

In other words, being well-connected is financially rewarded at a much greater level than possessing expertise. And lobbyists will abandon their areas of expertise in order to maintain personal connections to their former colleagues.

The authors speculate that “the price tag attached to lobbyists services suggest that they bring to the table a complementary resource, perhaps reputation, credibility or political savvy, in the transmission of information.” It is no surprise that people rely on their social networks to make decisions.

How much is it worth to lobbyists when congress relies on social networks over expert networks? The paper “Revolving Door Lobbyists” suggests an answer:

[W]e find that lobbyists with past working experience in the office of a US Senator suffer a 24% drop in revenue -around $177,000- when their ex-employers leaves office...