Lobbying Often Benefits the Public Interest

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

To the Editor:

Gary Bass and Rick Cohen have both written in your pages about the impact of the scandal involving the lobbyist Jack Abramoff and suggested ways to reduce wrongdoing by paid lobbyists (“Let’s Change How Washington Does Business,” March 23 and “How to Prevent Politicians From Misusing Charities,” January 26).

But what is most worrisome about the Abramoff scandal is that it taints all lobbying attempts to influence government action.

There are thousands of nonprofit organizations and millions of people identified with them whose only interest in lobbying legislators is to improve health care, achieve a more equitable distribution of the nation’s wealth, clean up the environment, advance civil rights, protect civil liberties and the like — not to line their own pockets.

Today, many people disdain all lobbyists. But to us, being a public-interest lobbyist is a career you can write home about. Each of us has lobbied in the public interest for more than 40 years. If a wrong can be repaired by lobbying, our juices flow.

Pride in our work does not come from greater virtue or wisdom, nor does it come from enjoying life’s luxuries. Public-interest lobbyists will not often find themselves eating in posh restaurants, driving expensive cars, or flying first class.

No, the pride comes from helping create what social analysts call the “civic balance,” allowing the public interest to be incorporated into public policy. A public-interest lobbyist helps balance the many self-interests that, naturally enough, push policy in ways that benefit specific parts of the population.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with pursuing self-interests. Each of us has his or her own specific interests.

But these self-interests create a cacophony of special interests that must be balanced by people and groups that pursue the public interest. And, by public interest, we don’t simply mean people pursuing causes in which we happen to believe.

We don’t agree with the lobbying efforts of many organizations, but we do recognize that some who are fighting for these changes are motivated by what they believe is good for the public interest. We don’t agree with them, but we do respect their commitment to their belief system.

Public-interest lobbyists are especially concerned with incorporating the views of people who are not normally part of the process.

Finding ways to organize and amplify the voices of constituents is one of the most satisfying and challenging aspects of being a public-interest lobbyist.

Seeing people who never participated in anything become engaged and empowering themselves — seeing their lives change — is extremely gratifying.

Indeed, the ability to generate sustained grass-roots public participation has been one key distinction between public-interest and special-interest lobbying.

That distinction has been blurred in the past, and certainly is today, by various techniques that use money to distort the process. Special interests almost always have big money. The policies they pursue usually make a big financial difference for certain industries or individuals, so that money can easily be justified as an investment that may lead to a big payoff.

This simply isn’t true for most public-interest lobbying campaigns. We may believe that a certain policy change will have a big payoff for society as a whole, but such a change will seldom make a big difference in any corporate or individual bank accounts. As a result, we rely on broad public participation. Generating informed grass-roots participation is a crucial role of a public-interest lobbyist and it can be one of the job’s greatest satisfactions.

As we reflect on our careers, it is the sense that we were part of some extraordinary changes, changes that have brought this country a little closer to what it ought to be — that makes us proud that we chose this career. The victories aren’t permanent and the work is constant. And, sadly, there is also a constant need to inform about the good that lobbying can do, amidst the damage and disgust of today’s headlines.

David Cohen
Co-Founder
Advocacy Institute
Washington

Bob Smucker
Founder
Center for Lobbying in the Public Interest
Washington