In recent years the most successful policy advocates began using traditional campaign techniques to advance their positions, supplementing “shoe leather” lobbying with earned and paid media, social media, and local stakeholder engagement. They are now increasingly supplementing Washington work with local and state-based work. While Congress Shouts More (and does less) Who Is Filling the…
Tag: congress
Congress and The Influence Industry: Framing The Issue
The most successful lobbying doesn’t tell elected officials what to think. The most successful lobbying tells elected officials what to think about and how to think about it. Successful lobbying isn’t about bags of cash exchanged in underground parking garages or drunken promises extracted in rooms full of hookers. The best lobbying is about agenda…
Lobbyist is NOT a Four Letter Word
The best lobbyists are trusted experts and allies in the elected official’s policy efforts. The best lobbyists, in political science terms, offer legislative subsidies to elected officials. They provide the support on which Congressional staff, Members of Congress, and ultimately the American people, rely. This is in part because legislation about complex issues requires specialized…
The Three Budget Debates
Since the mid-1990s I have dropped in and out of the federal budget debate, the politics of the federal budget, and citizen engagement in the federal budget. The substance of that debate is largely the same today as it was when President Clinton was in office (one notable difference being that the government was running…
The Mad Dash To Status Quo
The recent shootings in Santa Barbara have, rightly, grabbed national headlines. The father of one of the victims is, appropriately, expressing rage and outrage at both the event and the set of laws that he sees allowing events like this. And as a result, no law will change. The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza points out…