Illustration When Vermont lawmakers left the Statehouse last March amid the worsening pandemic, they weren't the only ones evicted from their stately digs. The army of lobbyists who work to influence the legislative process was also driven from those corridors of power. Unable to buttonhole senators in the halls or grab lunch with committee chairs in the cafeteria, lobbyists found their working lives disrupted by the pandemic as profoundly as any bartender's or bed-and-breakfast owner's. And yet even as their stock-in-trade — access to lawmakers — has been curtailed, demand for their influence has remained as strong as ever. Decisions made in Montpelier, from sweeping executive lockdown orders to legislative spats over who should receive relief funds, have taken on existential import, raising the stakes for lobbyists and their clients.