How to be a Montana millionaire.

• Author: Klein, Avi
• Position: Under the Influence

Montana's state motto may be oro y plata (gold and silver), but it's not a good place to get rich. In the rankings of millionaires per state, Montana beats only four other states, with a mere 22.9 millionaires for every thousand households, plus a solitary billionaire. But we'll let you in on a secret: if you live in Montana and want to get not just comfortable, but really, really rich, you might consider working for your senior Democratic senator, Max Baucus.

Between 1996 and 2008, the Missoulian recently reported, 20 percent of Baucus's staffers have gone into lobbying. That makes him the fourth biggest funnel into K Street among all senators, and second only to Ted Kennedy among Democrats. Records show some of these staffers making millions of dollars a year, often by lobbying on issues before Baucus's Finance Committee. Jeff Forbes, Baucus's chief of staff with responsibility for the Medicare drug bill portfolio, showed exquisite timing when he quit his position in 2003 five days before the final vote. Weeks later, he was a lobbyist for Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA). It was a good deal for PhRMA, which saved millions from a bill that prevented the federal government from negotiating drug prices, and a great deal for Forbes, who traded a $140,000 federal salary for $5-4 million (so far) in lobbying income. Meanwhile, another PhRMA executive moved in the opposite direction: in 2005, PhRMA vice president Michelle Easton took an attorney position on the Finance Committee.

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The revolving door has been good to Baucus. Despite his thirty years in the Senate, he was a bit of a wallflower until he became the ranking member of the Finance Committee in 2000. Since then, PhRMA and other health care lobbies have given Baucus more than $700,000. A survey by Public Citizen found that Baucus matched only Bill Frist in the amount of special interest money he'd received. He's also set records for how much money he's raised out of state: 91.4 percent, the most of any senator. As Baucus has grown in corporate popularity, so has his enthusiasm for fundraising. "We've never gotten such an aggressive pitch from a senator," said two lobbyists after being urged to pony up $100,000 each for Baucus's 2008 reelection campaign.

These close ties to industry have infuriated Baucus's Democratic colleagues, who see his support of Bush's tax cuts, the Medicare drug bill, and the 2005 bankruptcy bill as proof that...