STATE OF LOBBYING

Who Will Gain? Who Will Lose?

by James A. Barnes

Saturday, March 21, 2009


Who Will Gain?

DEMOCRATS (82 votes)

Wind and solar power associations (alternative-energy industries)
"President Obama made it clear to the country that renewable energy was one of his three top priorities, and [Senate] Majority Leader [Harry] Reid is making a new clean-energy economy his cornerstone issue in Congress."

"This is a transformational time. New technologies and efficiencies will be promoted. Mule drivers will lose, railroad operators will win."

"Already big winners in the stimulus package and more money to come."

Environmental Defense Fund (environmentalists)
"Al Gore through Carol Browner is now setting environmental policy in the U.S. What more could the greens ask for?"

AFL-CIO (organized labor)
"Labor will eventually get 'card check' and new workplace-safety regulations. Their support for Obama will pay off big-time."

REPUBLICANS (81 votes)

AFL-CIO (organized labor)
"Incredibly, it appears 'card check' has a chance now. Even liberal Dems thought it was dead."

"Organized labor likely gets 'card check' and billions of [dollars in] government spending projects with union labor mandates."

"They successfully put an end to the secret ballot in the workplace in the largest power grab since the Great Depression."

American Association for Justice (trial lawyers)
"Lobbyists--not lawyers--were banned from contributing to Obama. And their chief opponent, the [U.S.] Chamber [of Commerce], has been weakened by election returns."

Wind and solar power associations (alternative-energy industries)
"They'll spend that stimulus money faster than a Vegas wedding."

Some individuals did not vote for three organizations.

Who Will Lose?

DEMOCRATS (80 votes)

American Petroleum Institute (large oil and natural gas companies)
"As the environmentalists and alternative-energy advocates rise, the influence and 'windfall profits' of Big Oil will fall."

"There is no 21st-century LBJ or [Lloyd] Bentsen to protect Big Oil in a Democratic administration."

PhRMA (drug companies)
"Health care reform likely to put a pinch in their businesses and causes."

Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (Wall Street)
"They will be in the crosshairs for a while."

America's Health Insurance Plans (health insurers, HMOs)
"They already dislike the Medicare cost controls that the president announced ... and there's more bad news for them on the way. Will they bring back Harry and Louise?"

REPUBLICANS (80 votes)

American Petroleum Institute (large oil and natural gas companies)
"They will be punished by the leftist environmental movement, Democrats in Congress, and the administration."

"I don't hear many chants of 'drill, baby, drill' coming from Team Obama."

PhRMA (drug companies)
"The health care reforms being discussed need a bogeyman: enter Exhibit A."

"Will all discover that money can't buy them love."

America's Health Insurance Plans (health insurers, HMOs)
"Judging by his budget, Obama handed the industry its Chapter 11 papers this week."

"Even Republicans are fed up with insurance's failure to control premium increases, which is destroying American businesses."

Some individuals did not vote for three organizations.

Ethics, Influence, and Money

DEMOCRATS (81 votes)

Too restrictive
Lobbyist: "They are not gonna be able to fill all the jobs with their anti-lobbyist, anti-private-sector biases."

Lobbyist: "Compared to Iraq, health care, and economic recovery, this issue is fish wrap to everyone but a handful of Obama strategists."

Non-lobbyist: "This administration needs more experience, not less. Administration has too many Harvard professors and not enough private-sector people."

Not tough enough
Non-lobbyist: "People like [William] Lynn at the Pentagon have slipped through the cracks. That is not change."

About right
Lobbyist: "They [rules] are a burden on the small lobby shops but not an impediment."

Lobbyist: "Need to try to restore confidence in government."

Non-lobbyist: "The cries of unfairness we're hearing from K Street are proof that the medicine is working just fine."

REPUBLICANS (81 votes)

Too restrictive
Lobbyist: "How does banning outside expertise produce a more effectively targeted recovery plan?"

Lobbyist: "Unless he wants to make policy based on theory and not real-world experience and expertise."

Non-lobbyist: "He's squeezing a balloon; it's a waste of time and hurting his credibility."

Not tough enough
Lobbyist: "Still too many loopholes. I mean, give me a break--an Obama campaign person joins Ogilvy Government Relations but does not register as a lobbyist because he is a 'strategist.' C'mon."

About right
Non-lobbyist: "But the problem with portraying yourself as purer than the driven snow is that every yellow spot stands out that much more."

DEMOCRATS (81 votes)

Yes
"The influence will have to be more grassroots-based."

"Limiting the revolving door on White House staff will significantly change a common practice from the previous administration for the better."

No
"People and companies will always band together to protect their interests."

"As long as there is legislation, there will be lobbyists."

"Not much will change until we have public financing. Until then, money will unduly influence the political system, lobbyists or no lobbyists."

"If that were the case, why are firms hiring more lobbyists?"

REPUBLICANS (81 votes)

No
"Until some Einstein can explain which interest is special and which isn't, advocacy by individuals and groups of individuals about their issues will always be alive and well in Washington."

"Presidents come and presidents go. Lobbyists and the entrenched bureaucracy remain."

"There is always another route to the decision makers."

"They may make things more transparent, which is good. But as long as money is out there to be made, lobbyists will be there as well."

"If his goal was to make lobbyists more numerous, powerful, and entrenched, Obama is succeeding beyond his wildest dreams. The stimulus was the pinata of lobbyist candy, and the massive regulatory and spending explosion may create enough lobbyists to account for half of the 3 million jobs he wants to create."

DEMOCRATS (81 votes)

Yes
"Lobbying and fundraising need to be separated."

"Why not make things cheaper for good lobbyists? Money makes it a transaction--craft makes it a skill."

"They would love it, but then they would have others do it, so the effect would be the same."

"We will need the money for higher tax bills."

No
"The only way to end donations from lobbyists is public financing of campaigns, which is not going to happen."

"It's impossible to regulate. What's a lobbyist versus a strategist versus a consultant versus a corporate executive?"

Should members of Congress be prohibited from taking campaign contributions or fundraising assistance from lobbyists? Solid majorities of Insiders from both parties said no.

"The most significant reason change in influence will occur is the democratization of fundraising because of McCain-Feingold, and more importantly the emergence of the Internet as a mass fundraising tool."

"You can mess with almost anything in this here world, but not the First Amendment."

"Lobbyists are people too ... I think."

REPUBLICANS (81 votes)

Yes
"The dirty secret is, members need them to solicit others for the money so they don't have to solicit. Then the only value of the lobbyist is the value of their advice--that would severely limit their influence."

"The relationship is getting too close. The party committees are turning into shakedown operations, as are some of the personal offices."

"It will save me a lot of money."

No
"The Constitution provides for freedom of speech, and the ability to support political candidates is enshrined therein. Lobbyists are merely one symptom of a political system that has been corrupted by too much damn money."

"Lobbyists are citizens and should have the same free-speech rights as people stirred up by MoveOn.org."

"Some lobbyists would actually welcome that change--[it] makes their job easier to focus more on the arguments and less on the currency."

"Both are intertwined and protected within the same constitutional amendment: contributions equal speech."
"That is as foolhardy and naive as so-called campaign finance reform, which has done nothing more than make the political process more unaccountable."