In Defense of Lobbyists

Dave Wenhold thinks his profession gets a bad rap.

The president of the American League of Lobbyists argues he and his colleagues bring specialized skills to their myriad clients. And if people followed around a lobbyist on a typical day at work, the mysticism surrounding the profession would disappear, he added.

 Dave Wenhold, co-founder of Miller/Wenhold Capitol Strategies. (Photo courtesy of Dave Wenhold)

"Frankly, we have made a very easy punching bag," said Wenhold, also the co-founder of Miller/Wenhold Capitol Strategies, a lobbying firm based in Fairfax, Va.  Gallup's 2008 poll of the public's views of professional honesty and ethics rank lobbyists as having the worst, lower than car salesmen or telemarketers.

Despite the prevailing perception of their profession, many lobbyists say they toil in the public interest to make democracy work beyond the ballot box. More generally, they help many Americans exercise their constitutional right outlined in the First Amendment to "petition the government."

Wenhold blamed disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who defrauded several Native American tribes while giving illegal campaign donations and gifts in exchange for support on the Hill, for triggering many negative perceptions about the profession.

"I hate the fact that Jack Abramoff is considered the face of lobbying," Wenhold said. "He's not the face of lobbying, he's the face of a criminal."

A more accurate face of lobbying, experts say, is a mix of advocates who represent interests that extend beyond big business. Andrew Cochran, who has worked as an independent lobbyist in Washington for five years, said issue advocacy differs from advocacy for financial gain.

"More and more, it's important to bring in the grassroots, individual perspective," said Cochran, a former senior counsel on the House Financial Services Committee.

For instance, Cochran had Brian Sullivan, a former security expert for the Federal Aviation Administration from Boston, meet with congressional staffers to discuss how the FAA and the Transportation Security Administration abused secrecy to keep pre-9/11 security reports and documents under wraps.  Cochran was hired by South Carolina law firm Motley Rice, which represents some 9/11 victim families who have filed a class action law suit.

In the lawsuit, the 9/11 victim families were blocked from viewing some government information on airport security vulnerabilities before the attacks. TSA argued releasing the information in court would reveal vulnerabilities of the security system. Congress passed a law allowing the release of some of this information, in part due to Sullivan and Cochran's meetings.

Last year, Cochran brought Diana Levine, a Vermont woman whose right forearm was amputated after a botched drug injection, to speak with staffers in support of the Medical Device Safety Act.  The American Association for Justice, a group representing trial lawyers, hired Cochran.

The legislation would override a U.S. Supreme Court decision barring victims of medical devices from suing in state courts if the Food and Drug Administration had approved those devices. Cochran anticipates the legislation will be reintroduced this month.  In a separate case, decided today, the Supreme Court upheld a Vermont jury's $6.7 million award of Levine.  Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, the maker of the drug, argued that FDA approval should have shielded the company from lawsuits.

"The medical industry is afraid of Congress hearing individual stories such as Levine's firsthand," Cochran said.

Wenhold said interests from across America can get lost inside the Beltway without the guidance of lobbyists, who know how to gain access in Congress. By quickly distilling facts, lobbyists help Congressional members and staffers with cramped schedules to comprehend various issues, Wenhold said.

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"A dairy farmer could spend the time to become an expert on Washington," Wenhold said. "But then wouldn't have the time to be a dairy farmer."

“It would be impossible for a staffer on the Hill to be an expert on every single issue,” added Abby Bownas, the director for federal government affairs at the American Diabetes Association.

Bownas said she not only provides a “good credible source of information” on issues on diabetes to the Hill, but also brings information back to the association's members.

“We have very strong grassroots,” Bownas said.

In recent years, technology has helped many advocacy organizations leverage their grassroots support into power on Capitol Hill.  Many use the Internet to assign their members simple tasks, such as calling their representatives or sending an e-mail.

Josh Zaharoff, deputy program director at Common Cause, a nonpartisan, nonprofit advocacy organization, said those mass calls and e-mails do make a difference.

“We can’t hand over a check,” he said. “We don’t have the money, and we’re fighting against that. But the currency we do have is that we have a lot of members.”  

Zaharoff is philosophical about the public’s poor opinion of lobbyists.  While he said Common Cause lobbyists sometimes bristle at being tarred with the bad-lobbyist brush, “they understand that the anger around the country is not at them.”

The negative perception of lobbyists may even help Common Cause in its lobbying for campaign-finance reform.

“The real problem is the power of money throughout the government,” Zaharoff said. “Lobbyists are a symbol of that.”  

At the same time, there are limits to the power of lobbyists.

"At the end of the day, a lobbyist never makes a vote," Wenhold said.