Pass This Bill! A Lobbying Primer

Lobbying is relationship building.

A good lobbyist is a resource - a provider of honest, clear and accurate information. If you develop a relationship with legislators, they will not only take your calls, but will often call you for information or advice. To get to that point, you need to be mindful of several keys to success, most of which come down to Be Nice.

Direct lobbying works best when it is part of a larger, strategic effort that integrates grassroots action, press, coalitions, and other elements of political and issue campaigns.

This handout describes some of the most important elements to successful lobbying. It doesn't answer every question, discuss tactics, or have a lot of detail. Rather it is meant as a broad approach to getting elected officials to support your issues. This is meant as a general primer that applies to approaching elected officials at levels - local, state, and federal.

This guide is the result of ten years of experience both lobbying and being lobbied, and advice from current and former elected officials and staff from City Counsel to President, as well as with successful activists and lobbyists who have helped pass legislation regarding everything from the death penalty and civil rights, to the tax code and nuclear weapons policy.

Lobbying Is Part of a Campaign

Lobbying is part of a larger process of social and legislative change. To be successful, it should be just one part of a strategic campaign that includes working with the press, grassroots activism, letter writing, and litigation. Each of these elements should be integrated with direct conversations with legislators.

Your campaign team should develop a strategic approach to your issue. You should choose a message, and coordinate your delivery of that message. Legislators spend relatively little time thinking about an issue in the 15 or 30 minutes they spend talking about it with a lobbyist. Most of the thinking about an issue is done at breakfast over coffee and the paper, at town hall meetings, and in conversations with colleagues. Your position needs to be echoed in all of these places to be effective.

Your team should pick a venue in which you think you can win, and focus your efforts there. Identify the legislative committee that could claim jurisdiction over your issue, and in which you are most likely to get the most favorable hearing. Where an issue gets heard can have as big an impact on the outcome of the debate as what is said about it.

Pick Clear Goals

Be specific. Lobbying generally for, you know, stuff to help people and make things better, usually doesn't work. On the other hand, working to create parity in funding for prosecutors and defenders offices does.

Identify clear and measurable short and long term goals. Your short term goals should be logical steps to your ultimate end. You need to write down the final change you want, and the incremental steps it takes to get there. Work on incremental bills that, when taken together, add up to large change.

Your long term goal is the filter through which all of your work should be run. If a short term goal, strategy or tactic does not get you closer to your long term goal, don't do it.

Your short term steps should be identifiable, measurable, realistic, and limited. Legislative and social change doesn't happen all at once, it happens a piece at a time.

Target

To pass bills you need to get the legislation to the floor, a majority of votes in the legislature, and the approval of the governor or president.

It is easy to mistake editorial support, press conferences, rallies, and polls for legislative success. Unfortunately positive press, big turnouts at events, and public opinion don't pass bills - legislators do. There are a handful of people who usually control the fate of legislation - your job is to find out who they are, and focus your efforts on them.

Map the legislative path your bill must travel, and count votes at each step. Make a list of those votes you definitely have, those you definitely don't have, those who are persuadable, and those about whom you don't know. When you do your counting, be pessimistic - it's better to underestimate the votes you'll get and win by a lot, than it is to overestimate and lose by a little.

Legislatures have their own internal rhythms and rules. Know when committees meet, deadlines for bills to be introduced, which committees have jurisdiction over your issues, rules for introducing amendments, and anything else that can effect the life of your bill. Knowing the environment obviously increases your chances of success, and not knowing the environment brands you as someone not to be taken seriously.

What Do Your Targets Find Persuasive?

There tend to be a lot of reasons to support a bill. The goal is to find the one that works best with your targets - not the one that works best for you personally. If your mom thinks you're right, but the Committee Chairman thinks you're wrong, in lobbying terms you're wrong.

Research your targets. Find out where they grew up and went to college, who their former colleagues in the real world are, where they go to church, how they have voted on similar legislation in the past, and what they said about your issue in the campaign. Look up their campaign finance filings, learn about the racial and ethnic makeup of their districts.

Is there a local paper that is especially important? Are they sensitive to calls or letters from constituents?

Once you know who they are and what's important to them, you will have a better sense of how to move them. This may mean asking coalition allies and grassroots activists to send letters to the editor, to meet with the legislator in person, or call or fax the office.

A key to persuading legislators is behaving as if their intentions are good. No one gets up in the morning and says to themselves, "today I'm going to throw old people into the street, dash the hopes and dreams of children, and kick a dog." Most of us have what we think are good reasons for doing what we do, and telling us otherwise doesn't get you very far. Don't tell an elected official that he is evil or racist. Acknowledge differences and treat the person with the respect with which you would like to be treated. Legislation is about issues, not people. Argue the merits of the bill, not the soul.

Elected officials like their jobs, and work hard to keep them. For legislators, that means factoring politics into every decision. Don't ask a legislator "to put politics aside and do the right thing." First, it's your job to make the right thing the politically expedient thing, and second, it's deeply unpersuasive - it's asking someone to risk getting fired for you. You need to understand and appreciate that all votes may turn up in a political ad in the next campaign, and tailor your message accordingly. Explain why this vote may seem politically risky, but it's really not. Tell the legislator that you will give political cover for the vote in the form of letters to the editor or other public thanks (be sure to ask if they want it - some may want to vote your way, hoping no one notices).

Legislators assume your position is good for you and your group. Your job is to explain why it's good for them. The easiest way to do this is demonstrate, clearly and simply, how the bill will benefit their constituents. Tip O'Neil said it best - all politics is local.

The Messenger Matters

Who says it is as important as what is said.

Different people have different levels of credibility both on subjects, and with people. To whom do your targets turn for political and policy advice? Who do they trust on your issue? It may be your target only votes on justice issues with the "ok" of the local district attorney, in which case you need to either get the DA on board, or find a way to overcome the DA's opposition. Maybe your target is especially close to political party leadership, in which case having a party leader lobby on your behalf will help. Major campaign contributors are always good messengers.

Tell a Good Story

Lobbying, like all persuasion, is story telling.

All good stories have a beginning, a middle and an end. They all have a good story teller, sympathetic characters, and speak to broad themes. The most successful stories involve hope, tragedy and triumph (boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl in end).

When you lobby, tell a good story. Put a face on the issue, preferably a face from the legislator's home district. Also put the story in a larger context - your example is but one story among many. Talk about a world in which your problem doesn't exist, lay out the existence of your problem, and why the target is the key to the solution.

Be Brief

When meeting with a legislator or staff, be brief. Your handout should be one page. It should have bullet points. It should be simple. It should be clear.

Your oral presentation should be short. State the problem, identify the solution, say why your target is the key to the solution, indicate why the solution is good for the target. Four thoughts, four sentences.

The temptation is to add a lot of information, footnotes and details that are critical to an understanding of the issues at hand. Your goal is not for your targets to have a deep understanding of the issues. The goal is to get them to vote for your bill. If they understand all the nuances, they might reach their own conclusions - which might not be yours.

Know Your Opposition

There are people who either currently, or soon will, disagree with you. Spend time determining who they are, what they will say about you, and what they will say about themselves. Craft your approach with the opposition in mind - pre-empt some of their arguments, take advantage of areas in which you and your opposition agree, enlist the support of those who would normally be associated with your opposition, and be prepared to give honest answers when asked who your opponents are and what they say. Treat those who disagree with you with respect, and take their position seriously. Doing otherwise appears flip, and does little to advance your own position.

Build Relationships

At its core, lobbying is relationship building. You want to be the person a legislator calls for advice on your issues. You want to be the one other lobbyists call when trying to get to your targets.

This means you have to keep in touch, keep them informed about news your issue is generating, share support for the issue from other sources, and be supportive. Periodically send over editorials or stories about your issue that the legislator might find interesting. Come up with ideas to promote your agenda and the legislator's agenda. Offer your support in research and writing. Attend events the legislator is attending and say nice things about him or her. Offer to send letters to the editor applauding legislative action, attend town hall meetings and publicly thank the legislator for supporting a bill or voting a certain way (check first to see if the legislator wants this - sometimes they would rather not get attention for an action. Asking demonstrates you know how the game is played, and that you want to be an active ally).

Build relationships with staff as well as legislators. Staff control the flow of information and access - that's a lot of power. Whether or not your faxes and calls - and those from your opponents - make it to the legislators desk is entirely up to the staff. Staff often last longer than legislators, moving from office to office over years or decades. A young staff member to whom you are nice today could be a power broker tomorrow.

Relationships require trust. Never lie to legislators.

First, lying is wrong. Second, you'll get caught - probably when a legislator repeats something you said and a reporter points out it isn't entirely true, usually on the front page of the local paper. This is a mistake you get to make once. If your client is guilty but was treated unfairly, don't say he's innocent. Don't be afraid to admit weaknesses in your position. When asked about who your opponents are, and what they say about your position, tell the truth; they are going to find out, and if they find out from you, you can put the opposition comments in context, and your credibility increases because you are being honest and upfront.