Congressman Tom Cole from Oklahoma says that it’s his duty to “represent the views and values of the people of the Fourth Congressional District.” Do those views and values include meetings held at the offices of lobbying firms, and money taken from lobbyists themselves?

In the middle of the day on March 2nd, Tom Cole walked into the offices of lobbying firm DC Navigators. DC Navigators represents clients such as Citigroup, the Oklahoma Indian Gambling Association, the Video Gaming Association, Pacific Gas and Electric, and New York Life Insurance. For an hour and a half there, Cole met with representatives of political action committees who had paid for the privilege of access to a real member of Congress. The fee, as described on the invitations sent out by Cole’s re-election campaign, was one thousand dollars each.

Cole’s connections with lobbyists aren’t limited to that March meeting, of course. Consider the sources of donations that Cole has accepted for his re-election campaign over the last year:

- Steven Hart, a lobbyist with the firm Williams and Jensen, which represents clients such as VISA, TD Ameritrade, Pfizer, Novartis, Goldman Sachs, Comcast and American Forest Products

- Robert Horn, a lobbyist with Patton Boggs who works to contact members of Congress on behalf of companies like Mining Awareness Resource Group and the General Chemical Corporation.

- Cleta Mitchell, who through the firm Foley and Lardner lobbies for, among other clients, the Oklahoma City National Memorial Foundation (curious, given Tom Cole’s recent outburst against Betty McCollum’s request that members of Congress not contribute through extreme rhetoric to another domestic terrorist attack like the one in Oklahoma City 15 years ago)

- John H. Montgomery, a member of the firm Murray, Montgomery & O’Donnell, who lobbied last year for the American Medical Association and the Central Oklahoma Transportation and Parking Authority, among other clients.

- Paul Moorehead, who used to be Staff Director at the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, but now works as a lobbyist for clients such as the Navajo Nation Oil & Gas Company and Station Casinos through the firm of Drinker, Biddle & Reath.

- Brian Lopina, who went from being an aide to Congressman Earnest Istook to staff member at the Christian Coalition to lobbyist at Patton Boggs, where he represents clients including the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation, mPhase Technologies, and the National Animal Supplement Council.

- Daniel Mattoon, who once was Deputy Chairman of the Republican National Committee, but now works as a lobbyist at Mattoon and Associates, representing the interests of Rolls-Royce, Clear Channel Communications, and tobacco giant Altria.

These are just a few of the many lobbyists who have given money to Representative Tom Cole’s re-election campaign for 2010. Their profession, compared to others that have no particular financial interest in congressional legislation, is vastly over-represented in Cole’s list of campaign contributors.

How will Cole’s dependence on lobbyists for campaign cash impact his 2010 re-election effort? Already, Cole is being challenged from within his own party, by Hector Diaz and RJ Harris.