In certain ways, lobbying is like a game of baseball. You must understand: (1) the rules, (2) how the field and players are organized, and (3) how to keep score. Mastering the fundamentals won’t make you a star, but without knowing them you can’t play the game.
Like in sports, good lobbyists bring to the game certain talents. But beyond talent, the athlete and the lobbyist must each develop a cultivated sense of the fine-drawn points of their professions.
Lobbyists must understand the legislative process, they must learn the steps in the passage of a bill and the pressure points scattered over the path.
When all is said and done, your success may depend on: (a) knowing the best place and time to push or ambush a bill, and (b) knowing who to see about helping you do that.
Understanding the process and the people behind the process allows you to stay ahead of a bill to protect or ambush it at the next stop.
Most lobbyists are professional bushwhackers, which comes with the territory. Defense is half of the game and easier to do than passing a bill. ...
A foundation of law and order
While the gantlet that bills go through to become law may seem whimsical and capricious most of the time, enacting a new law is accomplished, believe it or not, on a firm foundation of law and order. Much of the procedure is mandated by the state Constitution, and by the rules adopted before each session by the House and Senate. In other words, the General Assembly’s operating procedure is largely defined and definite. ...
The record-keepers
A good lobbyist knows the committees: the members, the staffs, the meeting schedules and each committee’s jurisdiction. And he or she knows, in addition to the record-keeping process, the record-keepers — where to go and who to see to get copies of bills, amendments, the daily record of events and so forth.
[More in the book.]
