At last, I have put up online a final version of what has turned out to be
a separate book, <i><a href="http://www.cityethics.org/publications/lobbying" target="_blank">The
Regulation of Local Lobbying</a></i>. This free 342-page
resource has three parts. The first part explains what local
lobbying is, how it differs from lobbying at the state and,
especially, the federal levels, and the special characteristics of
<b>“I think people should know right from wrong, and if folks are going
to do something they’re not supposed to, they’re going to do it. If people are calling up commissioners at night on their personal cellphones, I have no idea about it. … If I knew something
was going on, I would go directly to (County Attorney) David
Escamilla.”</b> <br>
—Travis County, TX (Austin) Purchasing Agent Cyd Grimes.
Travis County has no lobbying law.<br>
<br>
Most people believe that lobbyists are guns hired to influence
government officials, and most lobbying laws reflect this by
applying only to those who lobby, not to the clients for whom they
lobby. Unlike most laws, lobbying laws focus on agents rather than
their principals.<br>
<br>
This problem extend beyond these jurisdictions. When business
executives who work in cities and counties that require only agents
to register as lobbyists seek work in jurisdictions that require
When a lobbying code requires that lobbyists report "specific
lobbying issues" or "the subjects on which they have lobbied," what exactly is required? The best
approach is to include more specific language in the disclosure
section, such as "information sufficient for an ordinary member of the public to identify the law or
resolution, contract, grant, regulation, real property or project,
rule, proceeding, board or commission determination, or other
matter."<br>
<br>
The portrayal of lobbying state and, hopefully, a few local officials will
soon be in the hands of Lawrence Wright, the Pulitzer Prize-winning
author of <i>The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11</i>
and, most recently, <i>Going Clear:
Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief</i>.<br>
<br>
This is the second post on Alan Rosenthal's <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=pcOyJfxNwfwC" target="”_blank”"><i>The Third
House: Lobbyists and Lobbying in the States</i></a> (CQ Press,
1993). This post focuses on the importance of connections over influence, the
role of money and constituents in local lobbying, and local
lobbyists as relatively unprofessional, and what that means for lobbying regulation.<br>
<br>
Small towns don't need lobbying registration, because no lobbying of
any consequence occurs there.<br>
<br>
Small towns don't need lobbying registration, because no lobbying of
any consequence occurs there.<br>
<br>
Say it often enough — as local government and lobbying associations
do — and people believe it's true. But it's not. And here's a good
example why.<br>
<br>
One of the areas where government ethics laws are weakest is the
indirect relationship, such as when a gift is given not to an
official, but to an official's spouse or child; an official's
business relationship is not with a developer, but with the owner of
the developer's parent; an official's aide participates on a recused
official's behalf; or an official participates in a contract matter
when she has a family relationship with the owner of a subcontractor
Worth reading is <a href="http://www.canberratimes.com.au/comment/weaning-players-off-the-public-…; target="”_blank”">an op-ed piece Saturday in the Canberra <i>Times</i></a> by Jack Waterford,
the paper's editor-at-large. With a title you'd never
see in an American paper — Weaning Players Off the Public Teat —
Waterford takes a very frank approach to the revolving door between
<h4>Banning meals provided by lobbyists was among the proposals up for
discussion Tuesday by the [Missouri] House General Laws Committee. Nearby was a
lunch spread for committee members, provided by a lobbyist.</h4><br>
—the beginning of <a href="http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/virginia-young/who…