For the sixteenth straight year, Princeton Public Affairs Group Inc. reported the top receipts among multi-client contract lobbying firms. Nine of 10 firms on the 2017 list remained there in 2018. Advocacy & Management Group was the newcomer.

FIRM/2018 RECEIPTS

Princeton Public Affairs Group Inc
$9,144,770

Public Strategies Impact LLC
$7,184,927

Cammarano Layton & Bombardieri Partners LLC
$3,164,924

Kaufman Zita Group LLC
$2,890,239

MBI Gluckshaw
$2,838,255

Gibbons PC
$2,441,877

Optimus Partners LLC
$2,207,850

Capital Impact Group
$1,637,182

Advocacy & Management Group
$1,502,290

Komjathy & Kean LLC
$1,368,063

The amount spent by lobbyists on “benefit passing”- gifts like meals, trips or other things of value- reached a new low in 2018 at $2,331. That represents a 99 percent drop from the 1992 benefit passing peak of $163,375.

Annual reports filed by lobbyists also indicate that 106 lobbyists served on 136 public authorities, boards and commissions. Some lobbyists serve on multiple boards.

The average number of lobbyists rose 2 percent to 922 in 2018. Despite the uptick, it remains 12 percent below the peak of 1,043 lobbyists in 2008. The number of reported clients fell to 1,915- a 7 percent drop from the peak of 2,077 in 2012.