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New
Legislators Meet the Lobbyists
by
Ken Freed
Recently
elected legislators in the Colorado
General Assembly discover the six
categories of lobbyists.
.
During
the December 3 orientations for new
Colorado state legislators, the "freshman"
lawmakers were introduced to the kinds of
lobbyists they'll meet during the tenure
at the capitol.
After a lasagna
luncheon in the Colorado History Museum
across from the state house, Sen. Norma
Anderson, R-SD22, stepped up to the podium
as moderator. "Timely conversations with
lobbyists will help you in the
legislature," she began, "and it's
important for you to pay attention to what
you say and what you hear them
say."
In contrast to the
black name badges worn by state
legislators, she told them, the 600
registered lobbyist in Colorado are
required to wear blue name badges in the
state house, "so you can spot them easily
when they approach you."
Lobbyists are bound
by a set of formal and informal rules to
regulate their conduct, she noted, and
they are subject to discipline by the
legislative ethics committee, " because if
a lobbyist tells you something, you need
to be able to believe it."
The legislative
research staff knows a lot, she said, but
the "lobbyist corps" often can provide
more information, "and they'll tell you
both sides of an issue, if you ask, or of
they don't know, they'll tell you where
you can go to find out."
Anderson told the
legislators that they will be meeting six
kinds lobbyists &emdash; contract
lobbyists, association lobbyists, employee
lobbyists, volunteer lobbyists. and
executive branch lobbyists. She then
proceeded to introduce speakers
representing each category.
First up was
contract lobbyist Danny Tomlinson or
Tomlinson and Associates, who began 27
years ago as an employee lobbyist for
Mountain Bell. Today he has contracts to
represent the Colorado State University
system, the "green" industries of
Colorado, some worker's compensation
insurance groups, the City of Westminster,
and others.
"A lobbyist is
someone you hire to protect you from
someone you elected," he began. The
laughter that followed was a bit
nervous.
Tomlinson warned the
new legislators that making sense of all
the biased information coming at them each
day will be like "trying to drink from a
firehose," so they need to learn who they
can trust.
"The most important
thing I can bring to the table," he said,
"is my integrity and my respect for the
institutions of the General Assembly. If I
lie to you or anyone here even once, I'm
done."
Along with total
honesty, a good lobbyist needs three
things, Tomlinson said &emdash; "a
business card, a cellphone, and breath
mints."
Some clients hire
him simply to monitor relevant
legislation. other clients hire him to
pass or kill certain measures. He success
is based on carefully choosing clients for
compatibility with his own philosophy of
what constitutes good
government.
His biggest
professional challenge as an independent
contractor is avoiding conflicts of
interest among his clients. "Whenever that
happens, I try to get my clients to agree
on a single viewpoint, or else I just step
out of the debate on that particular
issue."
He concluded his
presentation with this advice, "Develop
your relationships here based on trust.
Watch out for those who simply use you and
then throw you away. Insist on
respect."
Next up was Jane
Urschel, an association lobbyist employed
by the Colorado Association of School
Boards (CASB), who once served on the
Jefferson Country School Board.
CASB is different
from CASE (Colorado Association of School
Executives) and CEA (Colorado Education
Association), she emphasized. "We
represent the elected school boards in 177
of the 178 school districts in Colorado.
We do not represent administrators or
classroom teachers."
Lobbyists follow two
basic theories of practice, she said.
In the "James Bond
theory," the name of the game is
espionage. The lobbyists make it their
business to find out everything they can
about each legislator, from political
views to personal habits to tastes in
food, and this knowledge is used to
influence the legislators.
In the "James
Madison theory," the objective is
developing solid research on proposed
public policies, then engaging in friendly
but vigorous conversations to influence
legislators' thinking as reliable experts
in a given field.
"Our real job as
lobbyists is to help prepare you for
committee meetings and floor debates, so
you know what you're talking
about."
Sen. Anderson then
introduced corporate employee lobbyist,
Jerry McElroy of the Kaiser Foundation,
part of Kaiser Permanente, the health
maintenance organization (HMO) begun in
1975. McElroy has been with the venture
from the start.
"You need to take
the time to find out who are the different
lobbyists and who they represent," he
said, "so you know who to call with any
question or problem. Our currency is
reliable information."
He recalled a Dick
Lamm quote comparing legislative lobbying
to a pinball machine. "Sometimes you win
and sometimes you lose, and sometimes it
just helps to jiggle the
machine."
Anderson then called
forward former state representative Wayne
Knox, who spent 32 years in the House and
now works as a volunteer lobbyist for the
League of Woman Voters and the senior
lobby representing the elderly.
"Paid lobbyists are
down at the state house every day," he
said, "but you will see volunteer
lobbyists less often. We speak up because
we believe in something, not because we
are being paid. "
The LWV has about 20
volunteer lobbyists "and one low-paid
lobbyist," he noted, so when they have an
issue of concern to them, the organization
can exert a strong presence.
The LWV legislative
committee meets every Monday at Noon in
the First Baptist Church across from the
state capitol building, he said, inviting
legislators to attend the educational
meetings.
From his experience
as a legislator, Knox repeated the caution
about integrity. "Learn who you can trust,
even when you disagree with
them."
He added that a
primary job of any lobbyist is counting
votes. "I'd suggest that you should never
make a commitment to soon about how you
are going to vote on a given issue. Take
your time to do your research and to think
about your choices. But once you do make a
commitment to vote a certain way, you must
stick to it."
Closing out the
session for news legislators was young
Mike Beasley, the legislative liaison for
Governor Bill Owens. Some of the 14 state
agencies have their own lobbyists, he
said, but they each coordinate their
actions through the governor's office to
promote his legislative agenda or kill
unwanted measures.
In any given
session, Beasley noted, along with those
bills drafted by legislators themselves,
there may be up to 150 bills proposed by
state agencies and another 30-50 offered
from the governor's office.
"We will always make
our position on legislation crystal clear
to you," he promised. "We'll let you know
ahead of time if we plan to lobby for you
or against you, and please do not mistake
our interest in your bill as a sign of
support.
Last year the
governor vetoed a dozen bills, and the
record so far is 25 in one session. "If
you have a bill the governor will never
sign, we'll tell you this right away," he
said, "so you can decide what to do. My
job is to avoid a veto at any cost."
Noting that Governor
Owens makes it point to carefully read
everything that crosses his desk, Beasley
explained the governor's duty to sign or
veto within ten days any legislation
passed during the session, adding that the
governor has 30 days to act on bills
passed at the very end of the 120 day
session.
"If the governor
will sign your bill," he said, " you can
ask for a formal signing ceremony, and
we'll do our very best to schedule one for
you. If necessary, we can do a mock
ceremony, which still looks good in the
campaign brochure. Who's to
know?"
Orginally
written for The Colorado
Statesman.
December 2002
(c) 2002-03 by Ken Freed
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