The preceding pages on how to effectively work with the state legislature were three decades in the making, beginning in the early 1970s when I joined the staff of the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce and we held seminars on lobbying. A quote by Bert T. Combs and Joe Clarke, included in this writing, are from my noted during one of those seminars.
Lobbying is an honorable profession, my profession for 17 years as a staff executive with three state chambers of commerce: Kentucky, South Carolina and Arizona.
Lobbyists are partners in government's most noble role — writing public policies for the state and nation. I have written about the Kentucky General Assembly for nearly two decades as editor and publisher of Kentucky Roll Call and The Kentucky Gazette, publications I founded in 1990 and 1995 respectively.
I wrote a series of articles on lobbying for The Kentucky Gazette, which I have updated and reprinted here under the title, "The Art and Craft of Lobbying." This 83-page narrative is a companion to "Mr. Butler's Classic Quotations: Wisdom from the Wild for Lobbyists" — a book of 1,942 nature quotations that apply the laws of nature to lobbying.
Understanding the process, the culture and the personalities involved in making our public laws is an ongoing learning effort. It is my hope that I have contributed to the storage of information about it.
