Posted on Feb 14, 2006
When it comes to lobbying, there aren't just big fish in the pond.
Nonprofit groups, colleges, public interest groups, as well as state and local governments, are among those that hire outside experts to advocate on their behalf with government officials in Albany and Washington.
While the ongoing congressional scandal involving lobbyist Jack Abramoff has gotten the public's attention, lobbying is an often misunderstood topic.
“Lobbying itself is not a bad word,” said Rachel Leon of the public interest group Common Cause of New York, herself a registered lobbyist. “But it's a trend that's turned into a phenomenon. There are more lobbyists per legislator in New York state than in any other state.”
Nationwide, lobbying is a booming business. In New York state, $144 million was spent on lobbying in 2004, up from $120 million the year before, according to the New York Temporary State Commission on Lobbying's 2004 report. Twenty years ago, $12 million was spent on state lobbying in New York.
Jim Featherstonhaugh of Featherstonhaugh, Wiley, Clyne & Cordo, an Albany law firm that's also one of the top lobbying firms in the state, said the “Reagan Revolution” of the 1980s increased the state's regulatory role and led to more state lobbying. “As the states took a greater and greater regulatory role, the need for expertise came with it,” he said.
The expansion isn't limited to big-time lobbyists with big-time clients.
Lake George Opera, a small Saratoga Springs-based opera company, paid federal lobbyist William Teator $40,000 in 2004. Ellis Hospital in Schenectady paid Albany-based lobbyist Wilson, Elser, Moskowitz, Edelman & Dicker $75,000 a year to act as its federal lobbyist.
VOICE OF HOSPITALS
Donna Evans, an Ellis spokeswoman, said the firm was hired to “help us understand what health care funding might be available in the state and federal government.” The relationship has since ended, with Ellis now doing its own lobbying as well as with a group of six local hospitals.
Curtis Tucker, general director of the Lake George Opera, said its lobbyist was hired for expertise in seeking out federal grant money apart from the National Endowment for the Arts grants the opera company receives.
“For a small organization like ours, it was felt it would be particularly hard to be active at the federal level,” Tucker said. “The scope of funding within the federal government is really vast, and we're not aware of a lot of the opportunities out there.” In the end, however, the grant didn't materialize and the lobbying effort was abandoned.
“Increasingly, because lobbying is such a lucrative profession especially here in New York state, it's so much a part of how business is done in Albany,” Leon said. “A lot of nonprofits and schools feel they have to be in the game in order to get their point of view across, and that's too bad.”
FORM OF OUTREACH
Fundamentally, lobbying is a form of reaching out to government officials to convey information, ideas and opinions. That, in essence, is expression protected by the Constitution, said Leonard Cutler, director of the Center for the Study of Government and Politics at Siena College in Loudonville. “It's up to the policy-makers to determine whether to accept the view of one lobbyist over another,” he said.
Melissa Carlson, a spokeswoman for Congressman John Sweeney, a Republican from Clifton Park, echoed that viewpoint. “There has been a lot of talk in Washington about ethics laws and lobbying, and certainly there are things we could look at,” she said. “Members [of Congress] looking to do any kind of reform should keep in mind that the right to petition is a very sacred constitutional right.”
Not everyone sees the need for lobbyists.
Congressman Michael McNulty, a Democrat from Green Island, said advocating for the people, groups and companies in his district is his job and that makes spending money on lobbying “a total and complete waste of money.”
“We are representatives of the people . . . and our job is to aggressively represent them,” McNulty said, noting his own successes in bringing federal dollars to his district. “I have no idea what a lobby group can do that would be more effective,” he said. “Spending money on a [Washington] DC lobbyist is a waste.”
“Lobbyists will tell you that there's some foreign language spoken here in the Capitol that only lobbyists can translate,” said David Grandeau, executive director of the state Lobbying Commission. “But the best advocate for a business is the owner of the business. He'll do a far better job of lobbying than a paid gun.”
CALLS BY CONSTITUENTS
State Sen. Hugh T. Farley said his 300,000 constituents are his most effective lobbyists. “When they call, when they write, that has a lot of influence with everyone.”
But the professionals have their place as well, he said. Farley meets regularly with lobbyists, and appreciates the knowledge they bring to the table. “They do provide a positive function,” Farley said.
By definition, a lobbyist is someone who is paid to promote a specific interest to government officials. How much they're paid determines whether they need to register with the state or federal government.
The lobbying industry has long been colored by unsavory images of smokey back rooms crowded with fat cats securing preferential treatment from seedy politicians.
Featherstonhaugh said any industry with the high number of people involved in it that are involved in lobbying will have “an occasional bad apple.”
“And you certainly have misguided, misinformed and not very careful apples,” he said.
ONLINE INFORMATION
But he added that today's lobbying industry is far more transparent than the industry of a generation ago. The state collects and posts online information listing every client he represents, what issues they're interested in and how much he's paid.
Grandeau, of the Lobbying Commission, said the profession itself has “evolved from cigars and cocktails to modems and laptops.” Lobbyists, he said, are using sophisticated marketing techniques, such as polling, letterwriting campaigns and celebrity endorsements, to get their points across.
The techniques mimic those used in elections. “Whatever they're doing in campaigns, we'll see three or four years later in lobbying,” Grandeau said.
Some say lobbyists perform an essential service to government by providing decision-makers with information and different points of view.
“That's information we depend on,” Carlson said. “We have a very limited number of people in the office and we have to be experts on every issue out there.”
If legislation is going to hurt an industry or a group of people, Farley said he wants to know before he votes, not afterwards. “One of the classic things is when an industry gets skewered, and we never heard from anyone,” he said.
“At least New York state, and most of the major states, have quite professional central staffs that have real continuity so they have expertise of their own about, for example, economic development, gaming, health care,” Featherstonhaugh said.
But Featherstonhaugh said that while government staffers have a background in which they can frame an issue, they frequently don't have all the information they need to evaluate the proposal fully.
“It's not that [contacting elected officials] doesn't work,” said William Schwarz, director of communications and public affairs at Union College in Schenectady. “But there is a value in some situations to have an individual with an in-depth knowledge about the political process.”
For some institutions, that makes hiring an outside lobbyist more efficient. “You can end up making a lot of phone calls not knowing if you're calling the right person,” Schwarz said.
EXPERIENCE CITED
“New York state is a very complicated system of government,” he said, adding experience is often needed to understand its processes and nuances. Even something as simple as an appropriation for a specific project, he said, can be waylaid by the vagaries of the legislative calendar. “If you miss a deadline for the executive budget, the window might almost be closed and you have to look elsewhere for money,” he said.
Lobbying on behalf of colleges and universities is done by a number of broader groups. But Union, like others, has in recent years lobbied on its own behalf as well. That effort primarily seeks state funding opportunities for programs that enhance Union's educational mission, he said.
One success was the $5 million state grant awarded in 2005 for a research and training collaboration among Union, SuperPower Inc. and Schenectady County Community College.
Making that happen required coming up with a proposal that would satisfy the state's objectives. It was more than filling out a grant application, Schwarz said. It was discussions, meetings and reviews aimed at coming up with a solid proposal.
CHANGE EXPECTED
Given the controversy over the current Washington scandal, some change in lobbying rules is expected at both the federal and state level.
“It's not something that will be done in one fell swoop,” said Cutler, who nonetheless expects some state action on lobbying and campaign finance reform.
Read More
