Lobbyists at Work

by Leech, Beth L.

• ISBN13: 9781430245605
• ISBN10: 1430245603
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2013-04-24
• Publisher: Apress

Summary

Lobbyists run Washington, and special interests run lobbyists-but what makes lobbyists run and how do they do it? Lobbyists at Work provides the answers by intensively profiling eighteen political advocates who run the gamut of the lobbying profession. The interviewees range from the top lobbyists-for-hire at the most powerful K Street firms to pro bono lobbyists for the disenfranchised and powerless. The roster includes all types of lobbyists for all types of clients in all sectors seeking to influence all levels and branches of government: business-lobbying-government, government-lobbying-government, government-to-business revolving door, citizen groups on the left and right, lobbying firms and law firms, single-issue and multiple-issue, respectable and louche. The interviewees describe in detail their arsenal of traditional and next-generation lobbying techniques: face-to-face persuasion of elected officials, targeted campaign contributions, drafting complex legislation and regulation for government committees and agencies, and astroturfing social media campaigns. In Lobbyists at Work, the interviewees open up about themselves and their profession: why they chose to become lobbyists, what motivates them to keep lobbying, how they cultivate their lobbying influence, and what they actually do at work each day. As an authority on lobbying who is well-known in Washington for her impartiality, Beth Leech elicits from her characteristically reticent subjects frank disclosures and riveting war stories about the good, the bad, and the ugly on both sides of the symbiotic relationship between government officials and special interests. This unprecedented assemblage of in-depth interviews     takes concerned American citizens and students of politics inside and beyond the headlines to see first-hand how lobbyists shape legislation, regulation, policy, and spending in all branches and at all levels of American government on behalf of special interests provides vivid accounts from the mouths of lobbyists of what they, their clients, and the government officials whom they seek to influence really do and think serves as a touchstone for individuals who are considering becoming lobbyists, public advocates, or citizen activists