Richard Baker, who recently resigned his House seat to become president and CEO of the hedge fund industry’s main lobbying group, the Managed Funds Association, says he’ll be making a big push for fund companies to bolster the election year campaign kitties of influential legislators.

“I am going to be aggressive in asking our members to make contributions,” the former Louisiana congressman says, claiming that the MFA actually punches below its economic weight compared with other big lobby groups.

A major effort by the Treasury to overhaul financial regulations make it all the more crucial for the industry to try to wield influence in the way that tends to get the most traction in Washington, he says.

Baker says it would practically be a dereliction of hedge funds’ duty not to write big checks to their congressmen “given the political environment which we’re in going into a competitive election cycle.”