A moral, ethical, legal and
effective tool to achieve your
political goals
how you can have enormous power...
study of how staff in Congress devalues
e-mail (pdf file).
his own lobbyist
study of what kind of communication
works best: personalized
communicate with them
member of Congress unless you
already have a relationship with a
human who is expecting your email. A
fax is very powerful, but follow up to see
that it was delivered to the correct
person.
The National Conference of State Legislatures lists
7382 elected state legislators. That includes
American Samoa, Guam, Northern Marianas
Islands,Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands and DC City
Council. There are 535 voting members of Congress
and five nonvoting members from the territories and
commonwealth listed above. The Northern Marianas
has no representative.
steps
to maximize your meeting
with a politician
mistake you should avoid
U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow helps you
understand how to deal with staff
U.S. Rep. Jerry Weller tells what he's looking
for video
One Phone Call Gets Results: video
ever, the media, outside interest
groups and party structures reward
conflict and the taking of
irreconcilable positions. There is little
reward for reconciling principled
positions into legislation."
Does it take
To change a Congress?
(From The Book) Lobbyists come to the process both
passionately and dispassionately. They all have
deep, powerful beliefs about what they do. Many are
personally committed to the cause they represent. In
many ways they are like lawyers (many are lawyers,
but by no means all). They are hired to defend a client
and they succeed on their ability to make the best
possible case for that client, regardless of guilt or
innocence.
A term lobbyists use to describe themselves time and
again is ‘‘hired gun.’’ Politicians and staff view them
that way too. They often like lobbyists, have close
relationships with them, respect them and trust them.
But everyone knows the lobbyist may also be working
for the other side a day later, just as a lawyer may
work as a prosecutor and then switch to defending
criminals. Their message to politicians is always
weaker than that of a true believer, a stakeholder, a
participant, a constituent. It’s like the defense lawyer
who does not say to a judge, ‘‘My client is innocent’’
but rather, ‘‘Our position is that he is innocent” or “My
client maintains he has done nothing wrong.” Huge
numbers of lobbyists ply their trade in Washington
competing for time with 535 voting* elected officials
and their staff.
Just how many is not clear. CNN reported that there
are "more than 37,000 registered lobbyists." The
Christian Science Monitor cited "39,402". The Seattle
Times has "32,890". USA Today, "more than 32,000".
Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) referred to "more than 30,000".
The Senate Office of Public Records (SOPR), the
agency responsible for receiving lobbyist
registrations and publishing them online, reports
32,890 registered lobbyists last time I checked.
Debra Mayberry, president of Columbia Books Inc.,
publisher of several directories listing professionals,
including lobbyists and association executives, puts
the number at about 11,500. The difference is, her
company only counts unduplicated, active lobbyists.
Having used her directories for years, I think she’s
probably more on the mark than other estimates. The
actual number in Washington and your state doesn’t
matter. What’s important is that there are so many the
competition for the time and attention of elected
officials is intense.
How do people become professional lobbyists?
Usually by accident. There is almost no formal
training for the job and no high school counselor will
ever say, “You should be a lobbyist.”
Someone who has solid experience on a House or
Senate committee might be able to leave government
and take a lobbying job that starts at $300,000 a year.
To retain one of the big lobbying firms might cost an
association or corporation $15,000 to $30,000 a
month or more, depending on the activity.
But there is a limit to what lobbyists can do no matter
how many people and much money they represent
and how good the relationship with a politician is. A
politician’s most important loyalty and dependence is
on the voters back home. No politician ever got
defeated for making a lobbyist angry, but plenty have
been sent packing for making voters angry. That’s
why your role as a volunteer advocate is so important.
*In the House of Representatives, there are a few
Members of Congress who are not permitted to vote
except in special circumstances. They are called
Delegates and include: Eni F.H. Faleomavaega of
American Samoa, Eleanor Holmes Norton of
Washington DC, Robert Underwood of Guam, Anibal
Acevedo-Villa of Puerto Rico (called a Resident
Commissioner), and Donna Christian-Christensen of
the Virgin Islands.
2020 Pennsylvania Avenue NW #929
Washington DC 20006
GrassRootsGuy@JoelBlackwell.com
Washington (202) 277-5209 / Sacramento (916) 273-9180
If you search the Internet for grassroots or grass roots, you will get a lot of lawn companies, florists and political
organizations of all kinds.
"Grassroots" in a political sense means organized at the most basic level, individual people. Rudyard Kipling
used "grass roots" in his 1901 novel "Kim" to mean the origin or source ("Not till I came to Shamlegh could I
meditate upon the Course of Things, or trace the running grass-roots of Evil").
In the United States, the first use of the word "grassroots" in a political sense is usually attributed to Senator
Albert Jeremiah Beveridge of Indiana. He said of the Progressives Party in 1912 that "This party has come from
the grass roots. It has grown from the soil of people's hard necessities."
I use the term to describe the most powerful moment in politics:
constituents talking, writing, phoning and meeting with the person for whom they can vote.
That’s how you keep on voting after the election.
