How Lobbying Is Changing

There is lobbying, and then there is lobbying. One of the most difficult things about regulating lobbying is defining what it means to lobby. And according to an op-ed piece last week in the New York Times by journalism professor Thomas D. Edsall, it is getting harder to define lobbying. Those who are paid to indirectly affect societal decisions that affect clients and their goals have found ways to do their work without having to register as lobbyists and, therefore, without having to file disclosures or follow rules.

This creativity is a response not only to the increased regulation and sanctions of the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007. It is also, according to Edsall, a response to the ending of earmarks, which put a lot of lobbyists out of a job, and to the change among federal legislators toward a focus on their constituents and on fundraising. Independent expenditures are also an increasingly important way of funding campaigns, allowing for more indirect involvement in campaigns by lobbyists.

The most important new area of lobbying is known as "strategic advice," which Edsall defines as "how to convince and mobilize voters and opinion elites in support of a client’s agenda." In other words, strategic advisers are speaking not directly to legislators and their aides, but rather to the public and to those who affect public opinion, including those who independently support and oppose candidates and legislation.

Strategic advisers do things such as planning out legislative and independent campaigns and drives to affect the implementation of regulations; determining which officials and agencies to deal with; and proposing potential coalition partners. They do this without making direct contact with officials. They make use of their knowledge rather than their contacts, or at least their contacts who still in government (many, like them, are on the outside, at least at the moment).

As one of the leading strategic advisers, Ed Gillespie, is quoted as saying, “What we do mostly is just public relations and strategic communications advice and guidance for a lot of different clients, trade associations and corporate America.” Or as another strategic adviser, Anita Dunn, is quoted as saying, advisers help companies and nonprofits "to craft effective communications strategies.”

In a world where public relations and marketing have become all-important, strategic advisers are meta-lobbyists. They work at a level above lobbyists, creating the strategies that lobbyists (companies, as well as their external representatives, are considered lobbyists when they seek to affect government decisions) employ.

Edsall cites a study by Dan Auble, a senior researcher at the Center for Responsive Politics, called “Lobbyists 2012: Out of the Game or Under the Radar?” which contends that lobbyists are purposely changing their modus operandi. Edsall also cites a November report by Tim LaPira, done for the Sunlight Foundation, which estimates that for every registered lobbyist there is at least one “shadow lobbyist” who is “getting paid to influence public policy” without making any public disclosures.

These "shadow lobbyists" are involved in grass-roots work, and fake grass-roots "AstroTurf" work, as mobilizing stockholders, suppliers, and trade association members to contact their representatives. The goal of affecting government decisions is the same. The only difference is that it is being done more indirectly.

Edsall supplies a more detailed description of the kind of work that is done. It comes from a Roll Call piece last March by Kate Ackley. Ackley wrote about the DCI Group's work for the Retail Industry Leaders Association. The Group scheduled “hundreds of Hill meetings and generated more than 31,500 constituent calls to congressional offices,” along with orchestrating “1,606 individualized contacts in target [Capitol Hill] offices from small business owners.” The quotations come from DCI Group's own "case study." The DCI Group campaign helped win passage of legislation restricting the fees credit card companies are permitted to charge merchants.

Edsall quotes a very informative description of the work done by the Glover Park Group:

“Old lines between public and private sector, journalist and civilian, outside agitator and inside power broker are blurring. GPG was built to help organizations navigate this shifting landscape. We combine substantive understanding of complex issues with disciplined execution of crisp influence campaigns that shape the way critical audiences view our clients and their goals.”

It's not clear how much local work these firms do, but they are likely to get involved whenever the stakes are high. This doesn't mean that lobbying laws are worthless. It just means that local governments need to take these changes into account when they are drafting lobbying laws. I am finally beginning work on a lobbying chapter to add to my book Local Government Ethics Programs. I will certainly take these new trends into account.

Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics

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