At first glance it looks totally off base. But Gary Andres, vice chairman of research at Dutko Worldwide, has written an excellent piece in The Weekly Standard arguing that Barack Obama's Washington -- marked by the huge and rapid expansion of government -- is a gift to the lobbying and advocacy professions.
Among other things, Andres points out that the White House's rhetoric demonizing lobbying is causing an important behavioral change on K Street. Andres writes: "...some government relations executives who previously registered as lobbyists are now 'delisting' -- causing a growing number of former interest group advocates to move out of the federal disclosure regime entirely."
The article includes this quote from an executive at a major company: "Why should I take all the cheap shot criticism for being a 'lobbyist' when I spend most of my time doing other things, like managing my staff and giving advice to senior management about public policy?"
Ring true, readers?
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Responded on June 2, 2009 10:02 AM
A lobbyist
It used to be that there was little downside to registering as a lobbyist (no one really paid attention to disclosure and the requirments/liability for the registrant weren't that great), so a lot of individuals registered out of an abundance of caution. HLOGA and the increased scrutiny on lobbyists has led a lot of people who didn't really lobby anyway to delist.