The revolving door also spins for governors. Ten of the 32 governors who have left office since Jan. 1, 2011, now work for trade associations or with consulting and lobbying firms that allow them to help clients navigate state and federal government agencies, a USA TODAY review of their post-government employment shows.

Former state governors now in consulting or government-affairs roles range from Minnesota's Tim Pawlenty, a Republican who runs the Financial Services Roundtable in Washington, to Ted Strickland, an Ohio Democrat who formed a consulting partnership with several former aides.

"Governors are seeing that it's lucrative to trade in on their public service," said Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight.

"Governors also have a special opportunity to go through the revolving door," she said. "Having been the top executives in their states, they have fantastic name recognition. They have the capacity to speak from the public-interest sector, and it's not assumed they are doing it because of who's paying them."

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