"Washington's $3 billion lobbying industry has begun shedding Republican staffers, snapping up Democratic operatives and entire firms, a shift that started even before Tuesday's ballots were counted," reports the Wall Street Journal. "One signal of the new era" is that the influential Republican firm BGR Holdings [3] (previously called Barbour Griffith & Rogers) is acquiring the Westin Rinehart Group, which is run by former Clinton administration [4] aides. The Republican-dominated Ogilvy Government Relations [5] (previously called the Federalist Group) will be revamped by "two former Democratic staffers": Dean Aguillen, who worked for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi [6], and James Williams, who has worked for Senators Joe Biden [7], Dick Durbin [8] and Charles Schumer [9]. Ogilvy's clients include "Chevron [10], the American Chemistry Council [11], Nascar and shareholders of the 20% of American International Group [12] Inc. that isn't held by the federal government." Lockheed Martin [13] and Boeing [14] "both recently named Democrats as top lobbyists." Comcast [15]'s "chief Republican lobbyist" left the company, and the Information Technology Industry Council "passed over its top in-house Republican in naming its new president." The association and three companies all said the changes "weren't made to curry favor with Democrats."