Craig Hudson is stepping down after 20 years as the executive director of the California Independent Bankers, but he will still be making the rounds in Sacramento and Washington.
Mr. Hudson, 63, is retiring at the end of this month and plans to open a political consulting firm in Newport Beach, Calif., in January.
One of his first clients will be the California trade group's national affiliate, the Independent Community Bankers of America, which has hired him to lobby on its behalf to both the California Legislature and Congress.
"I've been active in politics almost my entire professional life, and now I want to go off on my own as a political consultant," he said.
Touting his connections in the state and federal capitals, Mr. Hudson said he also hopes to attract individual banks and other financial services companies as clients.
"I believe very strongly that community banks are the cornerstones of our democracy by helping small businesses and creating jobs," he said.
David Haithcock, an ICBA lobbyist from 1997 to 2002, will replace Mr. Hudson at month's end as the California group's executive director. Mr. Haithcock, who most recently headed the West Coast office for America's Community Bankers, will also head the ICBA's Western regional office, taking over a position Mr. Hudson has held since 1984.
Camden Fine, the ICBA's president and chief executive, said this is the right moment for Mr. Hudson to make the move.
He said Mr. Hudson has historically had good relations with Republicans and Democrats alike, "and that is crucial in a time where there is more and more polarization in politics. Having contacts on both sides of the aisle just increases his effectiveness exponentially."
Mr. Hudson began his career in 1973, working for former Sen. Russell Long, D-La., then a member of the Senate Finance Committee. A year later he joined the Ford administration as a lobbyist, and later participated in the Tokyo Round of multilateral trade negotiations on behalf of Presidents Ford and Carter.
Mr. Hudson was hired by the ICBA in 1984 to increase its membership in the West. In 1990 he and several bankers founded the California Independent Bankers, and the organization's membership has grown to 158 banks.
In 2002, Mr. Hudson successfully lobbied the California Legislature to close a loophole in state law that would have enabled Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to buy a state-chartered industrial bank there.
More recently he helped lobby for the passage of California legislation that lets local governments receive up to $30 million of deposit insurance through a single bank; 34 other states have similar laws.
Under the new California law, municipalities there are allowed to use deposit placement services such as Promontory Interfinancial Network of Arlington, Va., to divide their funds into certificates of less than $100,000 at multiple banks so that the funds can be eligible for federal insurance.
Stephen Andrews, the president and CEO of the $250 million-asset Bank of Alameda and a former chairman of the California Independent Bankers, said Mr. Hudson has been effective as a lobbyist because he has never stuck to a script.
"Craig picks up on the nuances of why a politician may or may not be with us, and then he either educates them about our issues or just moves on - and politicians really respect him for that," Mr. Andrews said.
