Want to find out how much money a highly successful lobbyist can make in Washington from a position of unparalleled influence?
Check out the financial disclosure of David Krone, the senior adviser Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's (D-Nev.) hired back in December. His lobbying income last year? More than $5 million in salary, severance and living reimbursements.
Based on financial disclosures of other lobbyists-turned-staffers, Krone's take-home amount is an extreme outlier. Typical lobbyists make generous six-figure, not seven-figure, salaries.
As a lobbyist for Comcast Corp. and before that the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, Krone was rewarded handsomely for being a confidant of the majority leader.
Krone served as senior vice preisdent for Comcast for less than 11 months. But he reported receiving more than $4 milllion for his efforts - $2,951,614 in "salary, severance and reimbursement", plus $1,196,887 for a "condo reimbursement."
Additionally, Krone reported receiving $952,884 in "deferred severance" from the National Cable and Telecommuncations Association.
Krone also reported having millions of dollars in assets, much of that wealth in non-publicly traded assets such as oil and gas partnerships.
This post is part of our occasional series "Storm Tips," in which we highlight interesting items we stumble across in our raw records.
Update: Rodell Mollineau, communications director for Sen. Reid's office, phoned us Thursday to point out - correctly - that Krone was not registered to lobby for Comcast at the time of earning his multi-million-dollar compensation in 2008. Federal law requires corporate officials to register when their job consists of 20% or more of lobbying activity. If it was less, he was not required to register. Krone had been a legally registered lobbyist for many years, including having Comcast as a client, but not for this past year when he served as senior vice president for corporate affairs.
