Lobbyists are, perhaps unsurprisingly considering their role in the political system, similarly split
Actually, you need to read the article. Pointer from Tyler Cowen. Some remarks.
1. Although both liberals and conservatives receive large donations from lobbyists, the donations of people in the media skew very heavily liberal. I am not sure that this is easy to explain. I would think that the market would produce a bulge in the media at both extremes, not at one.
2. I am not surprised that the auto, banking, pharmaceutical, and real estate industries donate heavily to both liberals and conservatives. When you have a close relationship with government, you need to hedge your bets.
Yes, those industries need to feed both parties to protect, or promote, themselves.
But that does not explain the extremes. These industries could donate to centrists in both parties. The spectrum in the chart is not Republican vs Democrat, but liberal vs conservative with centrist between them.
It may be that industries don’t like centrists.
People in the media are secular or Jewish and live in big cities. Those two factors explain their politics.