How Washington lobbyists peddle power

A National Journal tabulation shows 30 of Mr. Obama’s top appointees – 11 percent – had been lobbyists within the past five years. Among the exceptions the administration made in its revolving-door rules: Former Raytheon lobbyist William Lynn, who was named deputy Defense secretary.

The revolving-door rules matter because experts say the most effective tool for affecting legislation is hiring a former member of Congress or a key congressional staffer.

“The healthcare battle is instructive in the sense that we know that the vast majority of players who care about this battle have hired at least one insider,” says Krumholz. “So they have got the revolving door working for them ... former members are golden if you can get them.”

In her view, the next most effective lobbying tool is the ability to bundle campaign cash for a candidate or a member of Congress. The current limit for individual giving is $2,400.

“If you can multiply that by 100 people, [it means] that you can deliver a big message to a candidate or a member of Congress,” Krumholz says. “In that way, you can funnel money to the targets that are most valuable to you as chairmen or ranking members of key committees that can move your legislative agenda forward fastest.”

Lobbyists “catch us when they catch us, and that’s usually at a fundraiser,” says former 11-term Rep. Chris Shays (R) of Connecticut. “The dollars don’t buy votes, they buy a better shot at access. There’s a distortion but a much different one than most people think.”

The practice of plying legislators with food and drink and taking them to sporting events has fallen off in the wake of tough new rules adopted because of the lobbying scandal surrounding Jack Abramoff, who was convicted of fraud, tax evasion, and conspiracy to bribe public officials by trading gifts, meals, and sports trips for political favors. The 2007 Honest Leadership and Open Government Act has a provision some in Washington sarcastically refer to as “The Jack Abramoff Reform” that prohibits members of Congress from receiving gifts, including gifts of meals, entertainment, and travel, from lobbyists.

Measuring the success of lobbying efforts is difficult, experts say.

“Members of Congress almost never make up their minds, first, on any one thing, or based on what a single lobbyist is saying to them,” Wertheimer says. “There is a hell of a lot of smoke blown in Washington by lobbyists to their clients about what they have single-handedly accomplished.”

And, of course, sometimes the battle in Washington is to keep things from happening, which can be harder to track than an action in favor of some industry.

For example, Krumholz cites the success of oil company executives in warding off legislative action when oil prices were high. “Although they were the target of such public ire and although they were marched up to Capitol Hill to explain themselves and their high profits at a time of high gas prices, they were able to diffuse the issue, and I think lobbying and campaign contributions had a lot to do with that.”

Another example of lobbying success, Wertheimer says, is the battle to impose tougher regulation on cigarettes. It was, he says, “a David and Goliath battle against enormous resources.”

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Also in this series:

When Gates stared down the F-22 lobbyists
The lobbyist through history: villainy and virtue

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