“Whenever I tell people I am a lobbyist, there is an embarrassed pause.” In relating this, I speak not only from personal experience, I’m also quoting a fellow lobbyist named Arnold Mayer. Obviously, we are observing something of a universal reaction.
I would take this observation a step further. After a moment or two of that embarrassed pause, people ask - “Exactly what does a lobbyist do?”
What’s interesting about this is that most people, at least if public opinion polls can be believed, hold lobbyists in comparable esteem to such callings as used car salesmen, lawyers, or journalists. For everyone in those occupations, I share your frustration at the public’s disdain. But it’s even more frustrating when people don’t like what you do, even when they don’t know exactly what it is you do.
So let’s examine how some other people have described lobbying.
According to former Louisiana Governor Charles E. Roemer III, “Lobbying is good information early; it is a presence when minds are being made up.”
Jack Valenti, former special assistant to two Presidents said, “The best lobbying tool in the world is merit and a good cause.”
Labor leader George Meany offered the following advice: “Don’t beg, don’t threaten, and don’t assume you’re always right.”
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We should also recognize that distrust of lobbyists is not a new phenomenon. In 1877, an interesting clause was adopted as part of the Constitution of the State of Georgia. It said, quite simply, “Lobbying is declared to be a crime.”
But my favorite quote is from President Harry Truman who, when asked by a reporter “Would you be against lobbyists who are working for your program?,” replied, “We probably wouldn’t call those people lobbyists. We would call them citizens working in the public interest.”
Obviously there is some diversity of opinion concerning the role lobbyists play, and, as President Truman’s quote indicates, perspective is a major factor in creating that diversity.
Most people have an image of a lobbyist as a well-paid, well-dressed agent of a wealthy private company, and certainly there are plenty who fit that description. But that is only one part of the picture.
It’s obvious why a private company would hire someone to be involved in the business of government; after all, government is often quite willing to intrude in the business of private companies. But lobbyists also represent almost every diverse interest found in modern society. To balance those corporate lobbyists you will find union delegates. In the high-ceilinged halls outside our Legislative chambers - lobbyists are, after all, actually found in lobbies - you will find agents of heavy industry positioned right next to back-to-nature environmentalists. There will be self-styled “citizens” groups, a term which seems to imply that other interests don’t represent citizens, and victim’s rights advocates standing next to prison reformers. You will find champions of young and old, rich and poor, people with a variety of medical afflictions, and the medical professionals whose job it is to heal them.
Yes, lobbyists represent special interests. The trouble is, almost every one of us has an interest which we find special.
A recent article in Empire State Report, focusing on the State Lobbying Commission, offered a rather impressive statistic: that lobbyists reported spending $49.1 million to influence state legislation in 1996. That’s a lot of money, but not so impressive when considered in a larger context, that it amounted to less than 1/10th of one percent of the state government’s $66 billion budget that year. Taken one step further, it amounted to less than 1/100th of one percent of the state’s overall economy of $632 billion.
The context of these numbers is important. Because when the total amount spent on lobbying is announced each year, it is inevitably accompanied by calls for “reform” from a small number of those self-styled “citizens” groups, who often appear to be marching in lockstep to the drumbeat of their own sanctimony. One recently proposed “reform” demanded that lobbyists wear visible identification tags, an idea eerily akin to the medieval practice of forcing lepers to wear bells, so their presence would be announced to all who came near.
Before taking up the banner of lobbying reform, we should start by asking the obvious question - why allow lobbyists at all? Why not take Georgia’s approach from 1877 and ban lobbying altogether? Besides the fact that lobbying is protected by the First Amendment, there are good reasons to countenance lobbyists.
Perhaps the best reason is that New York is so diverse and complex that legislators can’t possibly hope to understand all the ramifications, intended and unintended, that could result from the several thousand pieces of legislation that are considered each year. The principal business of the lobbyist is to explain those ramifications. Quite often, the information the lobbyist provides saves a lot of money that would otherwise come from the pockets of consumers.
Equally important is the fact that this diverse society has many competing, often conflicting interests, and not all the demands of those conflicting interests can, or even should be, satisfied by government. Lobbyists help those interests make their best case to the people who decide which will emerge satisfied and which will be disappointed.
None of this sounds like a system in need of wholesale change. Certainly change is not required just because the groups calling for it have managed to attach a politically-correct, value-laden, yet ultimately meaningless label such as “reform” to their effort.
In the end, what lobbyists do is to help create or protect jobs, safeguard the environment, enhance worker rights, victim rights, convict rights, and perform a whole host of other useful functions. They help promote the growth of New York’s $632 billion economy, which happens to be the 10th largest in the world.
In short, lobbyists are a vital part of the process under which our communities constantly rebuild themselves. Whenever people ask me what a lobbyist does, I’m always proud to tell them.
