Voices that carry:
Lobbyists say it all
LOBBYISTS from page 1
on his district, he might ask a lobby
ist for his or her opinion. In fact, he
said, about half the time he talks to
lobbyists, it’s because he has ap
proached them. Lobbyists can be ex
perts on certain bills and constituents’
opinions about the bills, he said.
But he hasn’t always felt that way.
During his first year in the Legisla
ture, he had a much different attitude
about lobbyists.
“I was told that lobbyists were all
slimy,” Pederson said. “There are a few
arm-twisters, but more are educators.”
Just meeting lobbyists and under
standing what their job was really
about changed his mind, he said.
Besides, he said, there’s nobody in
the state of Nebraska who doesn’t have
a lobbyist.
On charges that lobbyists buy off
legislators with little perks like free
food, Pederson said the only reason the
food was around was they were talk
ing about business during lunchtime.
“If there’s a meal, there’s a bill to
talk about,” Pederson said.
Living for the law
There are 290 lobbyists registered
in Nebraska, and every day the Legis
lature is in session, about 30 of them
—sometimes more, sometimes less—
mill around the Rotunda, peering
through the glass wall that separates
them from senators, waiting to get a
few minutes to talk to senators about
how a bill might affect their client.
Lobbyists are not allowed on the
floor of die Legislature, so they spend
a lot of time sending messages to sena
tors through the red-coated guards of
the Legislature doors—the sergeants
at-arms. The lobbyists are often seen
escorting senators down long corrida's
of the Capitol; providing resdafBi on
constituents’ possible views on a bill.
And they do present both negative
and positive effects of a bill, Radctiffe
said. But it’s the spin they put on a
bill that counts.
you oaiance u in sucn a way mat
the scales tipin your direction,” he said.
Lobbyists seem to be into the busi
ness for two reasons: money and the
sense of being involved in government.
Radcliffe is blunt about most of the
bills he lobbies for; he wants them to
pass not because he believes in them,
but because he’s getting paid by some
one to push them.
“Nobody pays me to implement
good public policy,” he said. “If some
one has a financial interest in legisla
tion, I expect to get paid.” 7
And no one’s hiring him because
he is an expert on something the bill
might deal with. When he was hired
by St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, for in
stance, it certainly wasn’t because he
had a medical degree, he said.
“They didn’t hire me because I knew
a ... thing about surgery — they hired
me because I know how to talk to
people,” he said. “It’s up to the client to
tell me what their interest in a bill is.”
But occasionally, Radcliffe will
volunteer to lobby for bills he believes
in. He lobbied pro-bono last year for a
bill that would have repealed the death
penalty, he said.
Only about a dozen lobbyists are
the “hired-gun, contract” lobbyists like
Radcliffe. The rest are volunteers or
they do it part time. This means cor
porations or groups that have more
money to hire full time, professional
lobbyists get better representation of
their interests in the Legislature.
And although Radcliffe admits
several groups are under-represented,
lobbyist-inequity is all a part of the job.
“Life isn’t fair,” he said.
Other lobbyists profess more ide
alistic views.
Richard Lombardi took his first
lobbying job for the Sierra Club in
1979 for $ 1,000 a year.
He said he spends much of his time
talking to the people of Nebraska, try
ing to motivate them to get involved
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... -....
“The major thing I do is give hope
that if you get involved in the legisla
tive process, you can make a differ
ence. Lobbyists don’t have power,
people have power,” Lombardi said.
Radcliffe agrees.
“The most effective lobbyist in the
world is the constituent,” he said. “It’s
the people at home.”
Shark-like solicitors?
Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha
suggested during a floor debate that
the official state lobbyist be named the
Carcharodon carcharias, or the great
white shark, described in the dictio
nary as a man-eater.
“They’re voracious predators,"
Chambers said. If a senator has any
oppositions to a certain bifl, Cham
bers said, a lobbyist would try to “con
sume” their arguments and get them
to vote for the bill.
v-namoers saiu loooyisis anemaieiy
“bully,” then “stroke” senators to get
them to vote their way on a bill. But
“stroking” doesn’t always come in the
form of campaign contributions from
the lobbyists’ principal, Chambers said.
“They might buy (senators) some
meat loaf or a chicken sandwich,”
Chambers said. “Sometimes you can
make a person feel obligated by do
ing them little favors even if they
would never give a vote if ypu put
money in their hand.”
Chambers said be didn’t like to use
lobbyists for information, but if they
came to him, he would listen.
“I treat them tike human beings,
but I don’t seek them out and I don’t
take favors from them.”
But Lombardi and Radcliffe don’t
agree with Chambers. They both feel
they have a job to do, and believe it is
a necessary occupation.
As both Lombardi and Radcliffe
said: “Democracy is not a spectator
sport.”
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