The time was when Amy Tejral was the legislative director for Senator Ben Nelson. Three years ago, however, Tejral left public service behind her, in order to find more profitable work at the lobbying firm Avenue Solutions. Working at her new firm, Tejral dedicated herself to finding solutions for corporations, using the connections she had gained while working on Capitol Hill.

By the beginning of last year, Tejral had assembled an impressive list of clients, including crude oil giant Exxon Mobil, and a collection of companies from the health care industry that profit from the status quo. Among these clients were insurance companies like Aetna and Blue Cross Blue Shield that would have lost a great deal of money if a public option providing health care for Americans had been passed into law.

So, in 2009, Amy Tejral returned as a lobbyist to work her contacts in the U.S. Senate, in order persuade senators to help kill a public option in health care reform legislation. Wouldn’t you know it – among the old contacts that Tejral got in touch with was her former boss himself, Senator Ben Nelson.

On November 4, Amy Tejral hosted a thousand-dollar-per-plate lunch at the UPS Townhouse. Why at the UPS Townhouse? Well, one of the people who helped Tejral set up the lunch was another lobbyist, Sheryl Bonilla, who is employed exclusively by UPS – United Parcel Service. Another cohost was Sheryl’s husband: Henry Bonilla, who used to be a member of Congress himself, but now works as a lobbyist for the Normandy Group. Henry Bonilla is a Republican, but his main political affiliation these days is with clients such as the TIG Insurance company and American Express.

Have you ever paid a thousand dollars for a lunch? To be fair, time spent with one of the world’s top legislators was a mighty expensive side dish at this particular lunch, one that an ordinary person such as yourself isn’t likely to ever have the opportunity to chew on. Can you imagine the conversations that might have been had at that lunch, with a thousand dollars invested in the opportunity to say the right thing?

To be fair, it’s not just Ben Nelson who partied with Amy Tejral last year. Senator Patty Murray was also a major beneficiary of Tejral’s ability to organize opportunities for meetings between corporate executives and members of Congress.

At a time when millions of Americans were struggling to scrape up enough money to pay for medical insurance, their insurance companies were using that money to pay for Amy Tejral to set up a $5,000 per plate breakfast with Senator Murray. $5,000 was the “host” price of attendance, for lobbyists such as Amy Tejral, but representatives of political action committees were allowed to attend in exchange for payments of $2,500. Individuals hoping to catch the attention of Senator Murray could pay $1,000 – but how many individuals do you know who could spare a thousand dollars just for the chance to talk to their senator about a concern of theirs, over a plate of bacon and eggs?

Hosting that breakfast along with Amy Tejral was Tracy Spicer, who used to be Deputy Chief of Staff for Senator Ted Kennedy, but now works with Tejral as a lobbyist at Avenue Solutions. Spicer just so happens to share Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and HMO company UnitedHealth Group as clients with Tejral. Also on that account was Avenue Solutions lobbyist Elizabeth Barnett, who used to work as the Principal Health Care Policy Advisor for Senator Blanche Lincoln.

Rounding out the group of lobbyist hosts was “Mike Smith”, a man with a rather convenient name, given that there are four federally registered lobbyists with that name.

With just the three lobbyists who hosted Patty Murray’s fundraiser, the lobbying firm Avenue Solutions gave $15,000 to Senator Murray’s re-election campaign. Furthermore, the breakfast was actually held at Avenue Solution’s offices, creating an additional in-kind contribution. Of course, with others in attendance, paying money, the financial contribution by Avenue Solution lobbyists to the Patty Murray re-election campaign goes beyond easy financial calculation.

What did Amy Tejral and her lobbyist colleagues expect in return for this investment?