Becoming a Lobbyist

[NNNNOOOOONAN]

I just finished watching "Thank You For Smoking."

Not a great movie, but I liked it and definitely saw a lot of myself in the main character.
Now, I'm sure this movie glorified the life of a lobbyist, but it got me thinking that it would be a challenging, rewarding and fun job if you get in with the right group.

I googled some different things about becoming a professional lobbyist and all I really ran across was the median salary ($92k) and some other mumbo jumbo that I didn't really understand.

So, anyone have any insight or information about what it takes to become a professional lobbyist, and how to go about doing it?

[BCPVP]

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So, anyone have any insight or information about what it takes to become a professional lobbyist, and how to go about doing it?

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[GoodCallYouWin]

Step #1 - Bribe congressman
Step #2 - Have congressman give huge amounts of public money to your client
Step #3 - Client pays you big dollars (this can also be step #0)

[iron81]

Its my understanding that many lobbyists are former staffers for Congressmen. However, these jobs are tough to get as well and I think there is a "revolving door" waiting period after you leave Congress before you can be hired as a lobbyist.

[Copernicus]

Develop expertise in an area, become recognized for that expertise and then sell your services to a company/organization that wants their position on that area to be recognized in any legislation in that area.

Several companies Ive worked for and organizations I am a member of, including the current one, frequently lobby Congress on matters of retirement policy and Social Security. Certain sections of the Pension Protection Act of 2006 come directly from lobbying efforts on behalf of our clients and reflect positions that we developed for them.

[Nielsio]

Professional briber?



Challenging, fun and rewarding?



WOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

[DVaut1]

Most lobbyists are paid for their abilities to network in the area of their specialty. Iron's essentially right: if you want to be a lobbyist for groups/firms/trades/industries that lobby the federal government, you'll pretty much need to know everyone on the Hill; you'll need to be especially friendly with all of the members on the appropriate committee relative to whatever your lobbying interest is. Not only will you need to know the Congressman and Senators, you'll also need to know their CoS, their Deputy CoS, etc. as well. You'll need to know the major party players, campaign professionals, etc. as well. The best way to create this network is, of course, to be a Congressional staffer yourself. The same advice applies at the state level as well.

As a caveat, these aren't exactly "easy" jobs to acquire; and much of your success in the lobbying industry is predicated entirely upon who you know, your contacts within the industry and in government, etc. In all honesty, I doubt many of the highest paid lobbyists actually began with the career goal of "lobbying" -- and I doubt it's something that could easily be accomplished just by "hard work" and "merit" alone.

As iron noted, lobbying is *mostly* a job for former and retired Senators, Congressman, Congressional staffers, campaign professionals, and other career politicians who all run in the same cliques -- a lobbyist's "real value" to industries, firms, trade orgs and interest groups who hire them comes from their ability to get access to people in power -- and you really only get that kind of access through years of network building. It's not one of those careers where you're judged based on meritorious accomplishments, general intelligence, hard work, etc. -- unless we count "ability to call a Congressman and get put on his schedule with the drop of a hat" as something that signifies hard work, merit, and pluck. It's typically more indicative of something like "you played in a foursome with him last month", "had drinks with his Chief of Staff the night before", or "your kids are in a frat together at Georgetown". For most lobbyists, most of the "work" involved in developing a successful lobbying career happens long before they were ever hired as a lobbyist.

tl;dr summary: lobbyist shouldn't really be a career goal, because you'll only be valued as a lobbyist if you work in government doing something else for a while first

[NNNNOOOOONAN]

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thanks guys

[elwoodblues]

I don't want to glorify lobbyists, but I think the whole "professional briber" criticism is misplaced. Lobbyists perform a valuable function. For practical purposes, it is impossible for any member of Congress to be "experts" on the various issues that come across their desks. We cannot expect them to write quality legislation on a topic that is, mostly, foreign to them. Lobbyists are industry experts who assist with drafting legislation, responding to proposed legislation, etc. Of course they are biased toward their particular cause, but that doesn't mean that there is no value in their opinions.

[mosdef]

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For practical purposes, it is impossible for any member of Congress to be "experts" on the various issues that come across their desks. We cannot expect them to write quality legislation on a topic that is, mostly, foreign to them.

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This is an argument against representative democracy, not an argument for lobbyists.