By Shawn Zeller, CQ Staff

Whether or not the federal bailout saves Wall Street, it has already helped salvage what might have been a lackluster year for K Street.

After the usual August doldrums and a slow September, Washington’s lobbying firms lined up more than 500 new clients during October, after Congress first balked at but then cleared the $700 billion financial bailout law. Unless the bottom falls out this month and next, lobbyists will maintain their decade-old streak of positive returns, and the annual cost of Washington lobbying will probably hit $3billion for the first time ever.

“I think companies realize that regardless of what you think the situation is, you’ve got to be at the table,” says Paul Miller, a partner at Miller/Wenhold Capitol Strategies of Fairfax, Va., and a past president of the American League of Lobbyists.

Overall, K Street reported nearly $830 million in revenue and expenditures during the three months that ended Sept. 30, a bit weaker than during the second quarter but stronger than in the first quarter. Expenditures for the fourth quarter would have to drop 39 percent for K Street not to hit $3 billion for the year.

And, thanks to the scores of new registrations filed in October— many of them businesses with a stake in the future of the real estate, investment banking and insurance industries — that seems unlikely. They helped make October the fifth-strongest month for new business this year. August and September were the two weakest.

And while Miller says he fears that next year could bring hard times for his industry if the economy continues to sour, companies and interest groups will have a lot at stake in Congress and should line up their advocates now. “If you are sitting on the sidelines in 2009, “ he says, “you are going to lose.”