The website explains it better than I do, I was skeptical too. The professional lobbyists have those relationships, but they are absolutely for sale; going in on your own carries risk, but if you have the money and the plan, hiring a firm isn’t that big of a hurdle.
I live in DC, I’m going off conversations I’ve had with members of congress, a few chiefs of staff, and people at various levels at lobbying firms. I assume it doesn’t work like this in other places.
The system has set incentives in a certain way. Some pols, particularly ones who are in extremely safe seats, sometimes vote their conscience and it often costs them a great deal. Some pols think it’s a problem, I did hear one member of the house say “yeah it works like that—you know they used to let them just keep the money, and I think if we went back to that, it would give some of these people an incentive to get out.”
The professional lobbyists have those relationships, but they are absolutely for sale; going in on your own carries risk, but if you have the money and the plan, hiring a firm isn’t that big of a hurdle.
Your above example suggests that you would not need to hire a firm and can just offer the money directly. I would expect that you do either need to hire a firm or first just do a personal donation and have a conversation to build up a relationship before a bigger support for a specific objective is an available move.
The key insight I’m trying to present is that your problems are as follows:
1) demonstrating that you have the ability to pay an interesting amount
2) credibly signaling that you are actually going to pay
3) wording things in a way that doesn’t create the perception of impropriety and associated legal risk for everyone involved
A lobbyist, professionally, can do all of these things for you and your friends. Or you can build an organization yourself, the public databases facilitate price discovery, building a track record of actual payments, evaluating whether a politician “stayed bought”, and in the event of an inability to reach a deal, standing up opposition (edit: to clarify, the politician saying “I can’t sell this in my district” can be answered with the counterpoint “then watch me hire someone who can”)
This is as opposed to identifying principles, publicly aligning yourself with them, and demonstrating that alignment to members while standing in their offices. The members’ job is to take your money, deliver, and make whatever it is that they did acceptable to their constituents. Often, the less that you’ve said publicly about your (arcane and technocratic) issue, the easier it is for the member to do this.
I’m doubtful that this is how it works. I think lobbying is much more about having relationships than your approach suggests.
Otherwise, what evidence do you have for things working the way you propose?
The website explains it better than I do, I was skeptical too. The professional lobbyists have those relationships, but they are absolutely for sale; going in on your own carries risk, but if you have the money and the plan, hiring a firm isn’t that big of a hurdle.
I live in DC, I’m going off conversations I’ve had with members of congress, a few chiefs of staff, and people at various levels at lobbying firms. I assume it doesn’t work like this in other places.
The system has set incentives in a certain way. Some pols, particularly ones who are in extremely safe seats, sometimes vote their conscience and it often costs them a great deal. Some pols think it’s a problem, I did hear one member of the house say “yeah it works like that—you know they used to let them just keep the money, and I think if we went back to that, it would give some of these people an incentive to get out.”
Your above example suggests that you would not need to hire a firm and can just offer the money directly. I would expect that you do either need to hire a firm or first just do a personal donation and have a conversation to build up a relationship before a bigger support for a specific objective is an available move.
The key insight I’m trying to present is that your problems are as follows:
1) demonstrating that you have the ability to pay an interesting amount
2) credibly signaling that you are actually going to pay
3) wording things in a way that doesn’t create the perception of impropriety and associated legal risk for everyone involved
A lobbyist, professionally, can do all of these things for you and your friends. Or you can build an organization yourself, the public databases facilitate price discovery, building a track record of actual payments, evaluating whether a politician “stayed bought”, and in the event of an inability to reach a deal, standing up opposition (edit: to clarify, the politician saying “I can’t sell this in my district” can be answered with the counterpoint “then watch me hire someone who can”)
This is as opposed to identifying principles, publicly aligning yourself with them, and demonstrating that alignment to members while standing in their offices. The members’ job is to take your money, deliver, and make whatever it is that they did acceptable to their constituents. Often, the less that you’ve said publicly about your (arcane and technocratic) issue, the easier it is for the member to do this.