Dr. Moshe ben Asher
SOC 426, Social Legislation and Social Policy
CSUN, Department of Sociology
LECTURE NOTES ON INFORMATION-AGE LOBBYING
THE SUBJECT FOR TODAY’S CLASS IS “LOBBYING IN THE INFORMATION AGE.”
• If you’ve read Chapter 2 in the Richan text, you know that much has
changed in the arena of information technology and Internet communication since the book was published a decade ago.
• But for the most part, its basic message is still apropos—information
technology is more a critical dimension of lobbying than ever.
• The emergence of Internet-based organizations such as TrueMajority,
MoveOn, and ActForChange have undoubtedly changed the political
lobbying landscape, particularly in terms of increasing citizen influence.
• So one question we might ask ourselves is whether, on balance, the playing field between corporate influence and citizen influence is substantially more level than it was a decade ago.
WE’RE GOING TO SEE A VIDEO TODAY ENTITLED, “THE PEOPLE
AND THE POWER GAME—THE UN-ELECTED: THE LOBBIES,”
WHICH SHOULD HELP US ANSWER THAT QUESTION.
• Afterwards we’ll discuss it.
• As you’re watching, you might want to pay attention to three things in
particular—and take some notes:
1. What are the most critical resources of corporate lobbying power?
2. How are those resources obtained?
3. How is that power exercised practically?
[SHOW VIDEO: “The People and the Power Game—The Un-elected: The
Lobbies” (42 minutes)]
HOW DID TOM DELAY BUILD HIS INFLUENCE IN THE CONGRESS?
• Formed a small group of large corporate contributors
• Used their contributions to help Republican newcomers get elected
• Distributed $2 million to Republican challengers
WHAT’S WRONG WITH CORPORATE LOBBYISTS DRAFTING LEGISLATION?
• Has the effect been to corrupt the legislative process from one of serving
the commonweal to serving corporate profits?
• Has the effect been to undermine the role of Federal regulatory agencies,
e.g., the FDA, OSHA, and FCC?
IS THERE A MEANINGFUL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LABOR UNION
AND CORPORATE LOBBYING INFLUENCE?
• Corporations have substantially more resources and lobbyists at their disposal—it’s not anywhere near a level playing field.
• Corporations are primarily driven by their desire to monopolize markets
and increase profits.
WHAT IS THE DEFINITION OF “OUTSIDE LOBBYING” (IN CONTRAST TO “INSIDE LOBBYING”)?
• Lobbying by seeking to influence political decision-makers indirectly
through influencing public opinion
• Influencing public opinion by well-financed media saturation ad campaigns
• Targeting ad campaigns to Congressional representatives whose votes are
pivotal on a particular issue
WHAT DO YOU IMAGINE ARE THE LIMITS OF SUCH “OUTSIDE
LOBBYING”?
• Usable for only a handful of the hundreds of issues facing legislative
bodies at any particular time
• Can be undermined when the corporate sponsorship of the campaign is
publicly revealed by the media
HOW HAS THE TOBACCO INDUSTRY MANAGED TO BE SO INFLUENTIAL IN SWAYING CONGRESS?
• Contributes heavily to the most powerful members of congress
• Who are the most powerful members? [COMMITTEE CHAIRS, ETC.]
• Swamps representatives with lobbyists and experts
• Distributes contributions at the time of critical votes
• Calls in their favors at the time of critical votes by reminding representatives who their “friends” are
WHAT IS “STEALTH LOBBYING”?
• Initiatives and other campaigns that are designed to look like they’re consumer-oriented but actually are sponsored by and aimed to serve corporate interests
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• What was the primary stealth tactic used in the Proposition 188 Campaign in California? [USED MISLEADING LANGUAGE THAT ACTUALLY CREATED LOOPHOLES IN THE LAW]
• How was Proposition 188 defeated in California? [ITS CORPORATE
SPONSORSHIP WAS REVEALED TO THE PUBLIC.]
• What’s the lesson here? [MAY BE BETTER TO FOCUS ON SPONSORSHIP RATHER THAN THE ISSUE.]
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE METHODS OF CORPORATESPONSORED “GRASSROOTS CAMPAIGNS”?
• Use patch-through phone banks to agitate and selectively generate immediate constituent contact with elected officials
• Use strategies to make constituent contacts seem spontaneous, rather than
the result of a high-priced selective corporate initiatives
• What’s the cost of these campaigns?
• What’s wrong with such campaigns? [THEY DISTORT THE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS TO SERVE CORPORATE PROFITS AT THE EXPENSE OF THE COMMONWEAL.]
FROM THIS VIDEO DO YOU CONCLUDE THAT THE PLAYING
FIELD BETWEEN CORPORATE AND CITIZEN INFLUENCE IS MORE
OR LESS LEVEL NOW?
• This video and others we have seen make it clear that the democratic
process has been materially corrupted by well-financed corporate lobbying practices.
• What are some of the long-term political, economic, and social implications of this corruption?
• What options do we have in how we respond to it?
1. Become demoralized and give up
2. Join the corporate bandwagon and promote our own personal welfare
3. Join with authentic large-scale grassroots efforts to organize and lobby in the public interest
• The upcoming class sessions will focus on the practical how-to of grassroots efforts to organize and lobby in the public interest
LET’S LOOK AT SOME ORGANIZING AND LOBBYING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY.
• The sine qua non of information technology for political purposes is
email.
• Any organized effort to influence the political process should begin to
build an email list at the earliest possible moment.
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• How can you build an email list of people who may support your issue or
cause at a critical moment if you already have an organization?
1. This should be obvious, but it’s amazing—maybe appalling—how often organizations fail to include space for an email address on every
membership form, petition, sign-up list, response card, etc.
2. Train members of your organization to always ask people they contact
for their email address.
3. If you have a printed newsletter, use it to publicize within your organization that electronic communication is a key part of your internal
communication strategy to enable timely action on critical issues.
4. Presumably you’ve already done so, but if not, add an email field to
your organizational database—which is as important as phone and fax
numbers.
5. Publicize your organization’s email address on business cards, brochures, fact sheets, press releases, newsletters, etc.
• How can you build an email list of people who may support your issue or
cause at a critical moment if you do not already have an organization?
1. Purchase selected email lists from commercial vendors—many are
highly targeted.
2. Borrow lists from allied organizations (if possible).
3. Build lists from publicly available email addresses (e.g., university
faculty, city and county employees, corporate employees, etc.).
• What do you do with the email list once you’ve developed it sufficiently
to use it with some impact?
1. First, begin sending useful information that, for the most part, is
needed and not otherwise readily available to recipients.
2. Second, don’t broadcast so many “action alerts” that you overload
recipients.
• Once you’ve developed one or more email lists, one of the ways to communicate with them is by establishing one or more “listservs,” such as:
1. Board member listserv
2. Staff and leader listserv
3. Core activist listserv
4. General membership listserv
• Listservs are an excellent way to facilitate online discussion within the
organization.
• Here are some basic rules for setting up listservs:
1. Start small and, if possible, keep the list to fewer than 50 people
working on a specific issue or within a specific geographic area.
2. Stay focused on a specific topic that will appeal to the interests of the
majority of list members.
3. Moderate the list to keep messages short and to the point.
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4. Avoid “action alert” overloading.
• Here’s the most important point of all: Listservs are not a substitute for
in-person or other forms of communication, and treating them as such inevitably leads to disappointing outcomes.
WHAT ARE THE LIMITATIONS OF EMAIL AS A POLITICAL TOOL?
• The most appealing features of email—that it’s cheap, easy, and fast—
are the very reasons why, name for name, it has the least impact on political targets.
• Handwritten letters, faxes, telegrams, phone calls, and in-person visits all
have greater impact.
• And, as a matter of course, political staffers check each piece of email to
ensure:
1. It includes the name, address, and telephone number of the sender
2. That the sender is a constituent of the elected official
3. Whether the sender is a member of an organized constituency
• Emails from senders who are not within the representative’s district are
typically ignored—that is, the effort to collect and send them is wasted.
• The impact of email messages can be increased by printing them and delivering them at in-person meetings with elected representatives.
• Keep in mind that email is just one component in a campaign that should
include faxes, letters, phone calls, in-person visits, and media visibility.
• Incidentally, on the subject of letters sent to members of Congress by
regular mail: it now takes 21 to 30 days to reach their destination because
of safety and security precautions.
THERE ARE A NUMBER OF GOOD RESOURCES FOR ONLINE PETITIONS.
• But keep in mind:
1. Conveying “public opinion” to elected representatives by online petition has little meaning or impact if the politicians have good reason to
think that the petition won’t translate into votes or media visibility.
2. “Signing” petitions feeds the illusion that one has “done something,”
which can have the undesirable effect of discouraging direction action, which tends to be much more effective.
• Withal, there are a number of free and low-cost options for circulating
online petitions:
1. CitizenSpeak offers free petitioning capability that is easy to set up
and does not require technical expertise.
2. eAdvocacy from Action Studio has more features than CitizenSpeak,
but costs $49.99 a month) and requires more technical savvy to set up.
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3. Democracy in Action offers list management, petitions, surveys, and
other capabilities for a $200 setup fee and $100 a month charge.
4. If you can only afford free software, there are several free online public petition sites, e.g., ThePetitionSite, PetitionsOnline.com, and Petitions.org.
IT MAY BE THAT THE MOST VALUABLE USE OF EMAIL IS NOT
PETITIONING OR DIRECT LOBBYING, BUT FUNDRAISING.
• The key to effective email fundraising, not unlike designing effective letters, fliers, and newsletters for the same purpose, is in form and format as
much as content.
• With email we have two elements:
1. Subject line
2. Body of the email
• Regarding the length and format of the subject line entry:
1. Limit the entry to 50 characters or less
2. Avoid using all caps
3. Avoid landing in spam filters by staying up-to-date on words to avoid,
which are listed at www.emailsherpa.com and www.clickz.com.
• Regarding the style of the subject line entry:
1. If the issue is timely and you have a well-developed relationship with
the potential contributor, tell what’s happening and what’s needed as
briefly as possible—like, “Send food packages to Darfur refugees.”
2. If you do not have a proven relationship with the potential contributor,
the subject line should agitate and tease—like, “President Bush has
done it again!” or “Another Democrat stubs his toe.”
• Parenthetically, what is political agitation? [REMINDING PEOPLE OF
THE INJURIES AND INJUSTICES THEY HAVE SUFFERED AS A
WAY OF MOTIVATING THEM TO TAKE ACTION]
• The subject-line entry should, whenever possible, call recipients to timely
direct action—like, “Tell big tobacco to stop selling to LA children”
(which is not quite 50 characters).
• Parenthetically, what constitutes direct action? [WHEN CITIZENS
ACTING TOGETHER DIRECTLY CONFRONT A DECISIONMAKER WITH ACTIONABLE DEMANDS.]
• Now we get to the first principle governing the body of the email: Make
it scan-able, which means:
1. Short sentences
2. Short paragraphs separated by spaces
3. Bulleted highlights
4. Numerous links to the donation page
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5. Graphic insets directing recipients on what to do
6. Include all essential points in the one or two inches of the “preview
pane”
• Other guidelines:
1. Don’t retell the history of the cause or issue
2. Selectively use bold and italic type
3. Use no more than two typefaces (for headlines and body text)
4. Use a less formal tone than regular letters (e.g., “Hello . . .” rather
than “Dear . . .” for the salutation).
ONE LAST POINT ABOUT USING EMAIL:
• There are a number of ways to ensure that your emails are not flagged
and disposed of as spam.
• The details are too complex and varied to cover in class, but the important point is that many individuals and organizations are using various
forms of email authentication to prevent spam, spoofing, phishing, and
hoax messages.
• So if you’re going to do any serious email distribution, it’s essential to
implement some kind of authentication.
• Typically, it means that the servers from which your organization sends
email needs to comply with certain authentication protocols.
• So you’ll want to check into that.
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