Rep. Jo Ann Emerson of Missouri, who won easy re-election to her 10th term in Congress in November, is expected to officially leave office soon to take over a job as head of one of Washington’s largest and most influential trade associations.

According to public records, she is one of five outgoing members of the House of Representatives—four Republicans and one Democrat—to take lobbying jobs as the new Congress begins its work.

A public interest group in Washington says Emerson’s case is the personification of the revolving door in the nation’s capital. And a close look at her career helps explain why.

She is a Washington native who in 1975 married a lobbyist named Bill Emerson. He went on to become a Republican congressman from Missouri’s 8th Congressional District, which encompasses much of the southeastern part of the state, with Cape Girardeau as its largest population center. During Bill Emerson’s term in office, his wife became a lobbyist, first for the restaurant industry and later as a spokeswoman for the American Insurance Industry Association.

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