Lobbying is highly regulated and relatively transparent. There's a lot you must do and disclose and are banned from doing. It all makes some people think twice about becoming a lobbyist.
This has been a good series. The vast majority of lobbyists are good people advocating for a law, regulation, or protection from outside threats, foreign and domestic. Many are former Hill staff who understand the way knowledge is distributed in Congress. But there are bad ones out there too, as you point out. And like the relatively few ethically challenged Members of Congress, the relatively few bad ones give the vast majority a bad name. My biggest advice to lobbyists when I started lecturing on the subject was to never do anything that will reflect badly on the person whose support you are trying to get. It embarrasses them, and damages your reputation forever. There is no excuse for breaking the Ethics rules.
My first job in Congress was as chief of staff in the House in 2007, the year the lobbyist reforms were passed. We learned that we could not take gifts from lobbyists, but there were 27 exceptions to that rule. Our lawyers told us that if we were sitting down we were probably breaking the law but if we were standing up it was ok. Using a fork would probably send me to jail. Using a toothpick was fine. That did not change the fact that I needed to raise about a million bucks a cycle from the PAC community. It just put more land mines out there to step on while doing it.
While I started in 2007, I was named chief in 2006 before my boss took office. I was invited to a dinner of all the Illinois chiefs - both D and R - in December organized and paid for by the AT&T lobbyist. The dinners happened monthly or so and lobbyists traded off in paying for them. I had a good chat with all the chiefs and from that meeting found an issue on which to collaborate with Rahm Emanuel’s chief. After the lobby reform package passed, the bipartisan group never met again
This has been a good series. The vast majority of lobbyists are good people advocating for a law, regulation, or protection from outside threats, foreign and domestic. Many are former Hill staff who understand the way knowledge is distributed in Congress. But there are bad ones out there too, as you point out. And like the relatively few ethically challenged Members of Congress, the relatively few bad ones give the vast majority a bad name. My biggest advice to lobbyists when I started lecturing on the subject was to never do anything that will reflect badly on the person whose support you are trying to get. It embarrasses them, and damages your reputation forever. There is no excuse for breaking the Ethics rules.
My first job in Congress was as chief of staff in the House in 2007, the year the lobbyist reforms were passed. We learned that we could not take gifts from lobbyists, but there were 27 exceptions to that rule. Our lawyers told us that if we were sitting down we were probably breaking the law but if we were standing up it was ok. Using a fork would probably send me to jail. Using a toothpick was fine. That did not change the fact that I needed to raise about a million bucks a cycle from the PAC community. It just put more land mines out there to step on while doing it.
While I started in 2007, I was named chief in 2006 before my boss took office. I was invited to a dinner of all the Illinois chiefs - both D and R - in December organized and paid for by the AT&T lobbyist. The dinners happened monthly or so and lobbyists traded off in paying for them. I had a good chat with all the chiefs and from that meeting found an issue on which to collaborate with Rahm Emanuel’s chief. After the lobby reform package passed, the bipartisan group never met again