"Casablanca," the classic Humphrey Bogart movie, generated countless bits of dialogue that became embedded in popular culture, but none surpasses the longevity of Capt. Louis Renault's cynical declaration that "I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on here."

Members of the California Assembly expressed similar shock Monday that campaign consultants who double as lobbyists may try to influence their political clients.

Actually there's only one such consultant-lobbyist now plying his trade in the Capitol, Democratic operative Richie Ross, and it was a dust-up between Ross and two Democratic lawmakers -- or actually their staffs -- that prompted Monday's floor debate.

Ross reportedly gave tongue-lashings to legislative aides because their bosses, Assemblywomen Lois Wolk and Gloria Negrete McLeod, had failed to support a controversial health care bill for farm workers sponsored by the United Farm Workers union, a Ross lobbying client.

The Ross incident generated two bills that would prohibit a lobbyist from contacting a legislator or other state officeholder with whom he or she had a business relationship -- such as a contract for campaign management. And those bills, carried by Wolk, a Davis Democrat, and Assemblyman Dario Frommer, D-Los Angeles, reached the Assembly floor Monday, giving members an opportunity to vent their dismay that such influence-peddling might occur.

Wolk described the legislation as an attempt to end a practice that will "only get worse if unaddressed." Others talked about "despicable behavior" and a "poisoning cancer." Still others worried aloud that consultant-lobbyists might learn secrets about politicians while managing their campaigns and then more or less blackmail their political clients into voting for their commercial ones. Not surprisingly, both bills passed overwhelmingly.

Legislators' sensitivities were offended, however, only when Ross went on his tirade, since his intermingling of political and lobbying work had not exactly been a secret. A few years ago, this column revealed that while representing a major maker of chewing tobacco, he persuaded one of his political clients, Tracy Assemblywoman Barbara Matthews, to carry legislation that would have raised taxes on the firm's rivals.

For years, other campaign consultants had been cashing in on their relationships with governors, the most obvious example being Darius Anderson, who continued as a fund-raiser for, and political adviser to, former Gov. Gray Davis while acquiring dozens of private lobbying clients with business pending before the administration.

Anderson collected millions of dollars in lobbying fees during the five years of Davis' administration, raising the hackles of other lobbyists who saw their clients defect to Anderson's firm, Platinum Advisers. But over the past several months, ever since Davis' career was ended by a recall election, Platinum Advisers has lost more than two dozen clients.

With Davis gone, Anderson's remaining lobbying activities would be unaffected by the proposed new law, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign manager, Mike Murphy, might have his wings clipped. The San Jose Mercury News reported last week that Murphy's Washington-based campaign management firm, DC Navigators, is expanding to the West Coast, hiring a Sacramento-based lobbyist and soliciting for clients. DC Navigators boasted on its Web site that it offered "strong relationships on Capitol Hill and inside the Bush and Schwarzenegger administrations" and could "provide access to the highest-level decision-makers in Washington and Sacramento." But after the Mercury News began questioning Murphy about the claim, it was erased from the firm's Web site. Murphy has said there is a "near Chinese Wall" between lobbying and campaign businesses.

The potential effect on Murphy raised fears that Schwarzenegger might reject the bills, and their authors committed to an amendment that would exempt campaign work for ballot measures sponsored by the officeholder from the prohibited relationship.

Murphy is managing Schwarzenegger's drive to persuade voters to approve a $15 billion bond issue to refinance the state's budget debt.