The wife of Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) received some unwanted attention yesterday from The Hill newspaper, which pointed out that he has gone to bat for a bank outside his district that his wife previously worked for.
Luckily, spousal employment is a matter of public record, and LegiStorm maintains the financial disclosures of all members of Congress and their staff. In our own review of Rep. Gutierrez's disclosures, we were interested to see that his wife Soraida has since switched jobs and now works for another financial house, Ramirez and Co. Indeed, she's a registered lobbyist for them with the State of Illinois.
Potentially even more interesting is how Ramirez describes the access they are afforded by having Soraida on their payroll. In Soraida's bio, the company describes her as an "active participant in her husband's career in public service."
It further explains that she "has been a full partner with her husband Luis in all aspects of his work in public service. She served as co-chair of the 4th Congressional District Women's Advisory Committee, which provided input to the congressman regarding a wide range of issues, including immigration, education, and health care."
It's not often that a lobbyist boasts so publicly of the special influence they have over official actions.
