eff Malmen is one of the most influential Idahoans. Soon he's going to work for the state's largest utility, which is also Idaho's second-largest public company. The problem? Malmen is chief of staff for Gov. Butch Otter.

Before that he was finance director under former Gov. Dirk Kempthorne, and before that, chief of staff for Gov. Phil Batt.

As Idaho Power's chief lobbyist, Malmen will put the arm on the same people he's working with now in the Statehouse, including the governor himself.

That's wrong.

"A lot of times when a company hires a person, they're doing so because they have access that you or I don't," Steve Carpinelli of the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Public Integrity, told The Associated Press. "It comes down to the ethics of inside information: Are they profiting from their public position, and how is that a benefit to the public?"

Idaho lacks a "revolving-door" law that limits officials from jumping immediately from a position of trust into the private sector where they'll wrangle concessions from state government. Many other states do, and Congress passed legislation earlier this year that requires a two-year "cooling off" period before former senators and high-ranking executive branch officials can lobby Congress; members of the House of Representatives have to wait one year.

Idaho needs a similar law.

In the past 18 months, at least eight ex-lawmakers or staffers for Otter, Kempthorne and former Gov. Jim Risch have became lobbyists. They include former House Majority Caucus Chairwoman Julie Ellsworth, R-Boise, who won a lobbying job on the recommendation of House Speaker Lawerence Denny, R-Midvale; former House Speaker Bruce Newcomb, R-Burley; and Lance Giles, Kempthorne's top adviser on his billion-dollar "Connecting Idaho" roads project. Giles went to work for Washington Group International, which will oversee the highway work.

Kempthorne's chief of staff, Brian Whitlock, is now on the payroll of Battelle Energy Alliance, which runs the Idaho National Laboratory.

These former officials are in a far stronger position to influence public policy than are other lobbyists - let alone private citizens.

Idaho Power, with 450,000 customers and control of most of Idaho's river water, is deeply entwined with Idaho state government. Greg Panter, the utility's top lobbyist, pushed successfully two years ago to kill farmer-backed legislation that would have taken water from its dams to recharge the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer.

In addition, the company sued the state earlier this year, contending that it is being shorted because of errors in a 23-year-old pact with the Department of Water Resources.

What's good for Idaho Power often isn't always what's good for Idaho, but guess whose calls will get returned first by Otter and his staff?

That's blatant conflict of interest. The Legislature must put a stop to it.