chAPTeR seven • InTeResT GRouPs AnD PolITIcAl PARTIes 153
islators and government officials are often more impressed by contacts from constituents
than from an interest group’s lobbyist.Generating Public Pressure. In some instances, interest groups try to produce a
“groundswell” of public pressure to influence the government. Such efforts may include
advertisements in national magazines and newspapers, mass mailings, television publicity,
and demonstrations. The Internet and satellite links make communication efforts even
more effective. Interest groups may commission polls to find out what the public’s senti-
ments are and then publicize the results. The intent of this activity is to convince policy-
makers that public opinion supports the group’s position.using constituents as lobbyists. An interest group may also use constituents of
elected officials to lobby for the group’s goals. In the “shotgun” approach, the interest
group tries to mobilize large numbers of constituents to write, phone, or send e-mails and
tweets to their legislators or to the president. Often, the group provides postcards or form
letters for constituents to fill out and mail. These efforts are effective on Capitol Hill only
when the number of responses is very large, however, because legislators know that the
voters did not initiate the communications on their own. Artificially manufactured grass-
roots activity has been aptly labeled astroturf lobbying.
A more powerful variation of this technique uses only important constituents. With
this approach, known as the “rifle” technique or the “Utah plant manager theory,” the
interest group might, for example, ask the manager of a local plant in Utah to contact the
senator from Utah. Because the constituent is seen as responsible for many jobs or other
resources, the legislator is more likely to listen carefully to the constituent’s concerns about
legislation than to a paid lobbyist.Regulating lobbyists
Congress made its first attempt to control lobbyists and lobbying activities through
Title III of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946, otherwise known as the Federal
Regulation of Lobbying Act. The law actually provided for public disclosure more than
for regulation, and it neglected to specify which agency would enforce its provisions.
The 1946 legislation defined a lobbyist as any person or organization that received funds
to be used principally to influence legislation before Congress. Such persons and organi-
zations were supposed to “register” their clients and the purposes of their efforts, and
to report quarterly on their activities. The act proved to be
ineffective, however.The lobbying Disclosure Act. The reform-minded
Congress of 1995–1996 overhauled the lobbying legisla-
tion, fundamentally changing the ground rules for those
who seek to influence the federal government. The
Lobbying Disclosure Act passed in 1995 included the fol-
lowing provisions:n A lobbyist is defined as anyone who spends at least
20 percent of his or her time lobbying members of
Congress, their staffs, or executive-branch officials.
n Lobbyists must register with the clerk of the House and
the secretary of the Senate.
n Semiannual reports must disclose the general nature
of the lobbying effort. (©e
d
fisher/Thenewyorkercollection/www.cartoonbank.com)“Please understand, I don’t sell access to the government. I merely
sell access to the guys who do sell access to the government.”Copyright 2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
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