Lobbyists

The Goo-Goo’s are all aflutter over lobbyists. Allow me to make a few observations on a subject I know something about.

Political capitals are covered with lobbyists. Positively crawling with them. Which is only natural because elected officials are all about telling people what to do, how to do it and how much it’s going to cost you. For example, the Virginia legislature is currently in session. The decisions it makes and the bills it passes will affect everyone in Virginia.

One of the rights granted to the citizens is the right to petition our elected officials.

That’s what lobbyists do.

Who do lobbyists represent? Cities, for one. Virtually every city in the Commonwealth lobbies the legislature for something; so cities send lobbyists. So do business interests whose business is impacted by legislation. So do professional organizations like lawyers, doctors, and Indian chiefs. Environmental groups and anti-smoking groups send lobbyists. Religious groups send lobbyists. Hospitals send lobbyists. And blue-noses of the kind spawned by Ralph Nader send lobbyists while complaining about lobbyists.

And how do these lobbyists work? They stop in to talk to legislators and their staffs. The send them position papers on existing or proposed legislation or regulation. They participate in public hearings. They entertain, although I have yet to see this doing much good. And they make campaign contributions. They do this all legally and above board. Their contributions are reported to the public.

Of course this bothers the people who prefer to have unique undue influence on the public process: the press. Natuarally the press itself hires its own lobbyists, either directly (Washington Post Co. reported spending $1.1 million in federal lobbying spending between 1997 and 2004, and Dow Jones & Co. spent $985,000 between 1997 and 2001, the last date federal lobbying records were available for the company. The corporate owners of the major networks spend much more.) or through its professional trade organization: the Newspaper Association of America which spent $12 million lobbying between 1997 and 2004.

In my own “back yard” the billionaire Batten family, owners of Landmark Communications (The Virginian Pilot, Weather Channel, etc.) have been major givers to Democrats including gifts of $105,000 by Frank Batten, Sr. to Democrat Governor Tim Kaine, beating out such giants as the Teamers ($76,000), Norfolk Southern ($75,000) and Microsoft ($67,890), and making the coal lobby ($20,000 from the Virginia Coal Association) look like pikers.

But spending by the press is only a small part of the power that these lords of the media have over elected officials. How much is positive press or an editorial endorsement worth? Like the Master Card commercial, a full page ad in the Virginian Pilot costs anywhere from $26,000 to $35,000; a positive news story having much more impact? Priceless.

This is not paint Big Media and their barons in an unfavorable light by any means. That would make me as two-faced as any one of them. It is certainly possible that the media lords honestly feel that Tim Kaine deserves their support because they believe in good government and his opponent was viewed as favoring bad government. That is certainly a possibility. And I may be excused for believing the same about Norfolk Southern, the Teamsters, Microsoft and the Virginia Coal Association. But the media lords somehow don’t see things this way. They are acting from altruistic principles while their opponents (the ones wearing the black hats known as “lobbyists”) are acting from bad motives.

Which is a roundabout way of getting to the Times story about McCain cavorting (sexually? wink, wink) with lobbyists. Of course in some ways McCain brought this on himself with his loud and frequent denunciation of lobbyists, presumably the ones that don’t give him money or lend him their private jets. But that’s a story for another day.