Kay Bailey Hutchison left the Senate last month, and this week she announced she’s joining the law firm Bracewell Giuliani, which has strong ties in Dallas and on K Street. Her husband is senior counsel at Bracewell, and the firm’s lobbying clients include Arch Coal, Bombardier, Chesapeake Energy, Chicken of the Sea, Duke Energy, Southern Company, and Waste Management.

She says she “won’t be lobbying.”

Hutchison was a senior member on the Senate Appropriations Committee, but most of Bracewell’s lobbying hasn’t been on appropriations matters — the FBI Agents’ Association being one exception.

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Bracewell, in its announcement, said Hutchison would work in the Dallas office and focus on “the banking, energy, transportation, and telecommunications sectors.”

Hutchison told the Dallas Morning News:

“I don’t want to directly talk with my former Senate colleagues [about client matters],” she said. “I want to focus on advising clients on the regulatory process, legislative attitudes and the likelihood of government action.”

Through the post-2012 election revolving door, Hutchison follows Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.).