Lobbyists spent more than $1.2 million in the first two months of 2011 trying to influence lawmakers and other state officials, with much of the money devoted to events, food and gifts, according to the latest ethics filings.

These records are now accessible in our new lobbyist directory, a news application detailing all lobbyists’ clients, contact information and spending since 2009. It also aggregates the data to display statistics for all lobbying activity by categories (food, gifts, etc.) and recipient type (state representatives, legislative employees, etc.), and offers rich interactive visualizations.

The records are made public by the Texas ...