RE: Choice 2: Starting Questions

[joan johnson <joan@altair.com>]

To be sure many dollars are spent on lobbying, but to claim that this causes the politcal problems we have of the citizens being under represented is too bold. Lobbyists have been around forever. They are often knowledgable in their area; some understand how the political process works from personal experience. Many of them do necessary and excelent work to educate the legislators. To dismiss them would be a mistake. Not that corporate America is a bastion of excellence, it does make use of many persons as a form of "lobbyists" - the consultant. Often these individuals provide expertise not available anywhere else. (No, I am not either a lobbyist, nor a consultant, even though I do provide some expertise to my employer.)

Some regulations are most likely in order: gift-giving, under the table contributions (not sure how to accomplish this one), and other actions that would take on the look of undue influence. I suppose we could go the education route: if you want to be a lobbyist as a career, then you need a masters degree in the area you plan to lobby in (what a boon to educational institutions), and intern on the staff of a legislator of each major party to gain experience of the legislative process from all perspectives. In some ways this might increase the chances that lobbying efforts have some subject knowledge behind them. I'm not clear from the briefing material how a person becomes a lobbyist. If it merely is "registering" then, stronger requirements may be in order.

However, what does this do for the ordinary citizen who meets with his/her representative? Is that not also a form of lobbying?

In Michigan, we have the ability to have initiatives from the citizens as well as the legislature. One experience I have had was an tax funding issue that our legislature couldn't agree on. What they did was craft a referendum for the voters that advocated one path with a fall-back position that if the referendum lost the other path became law. There was no "none of the above" for the citizen to choose! So the legislature got what it wanted and could then say "We gave the voters a voice."

Michigan also got term limits by initiative. The result has been a loss of some very fine legislators and much turn-over. I haven't noticed an increase in fine law-making. Getting term limits over-turned would be nearly impossible.

Firing legislators shouldn't be easy, no more than firing an employee should be easy. If it is, then a legislator might be fired over a single issue when the job he/she does overall is very good. Accountability should be required, but that means defining what it means to be a "good, capable representative". Try writing your own job description in a way that might allow an outsider to determine from your actions if you deserve to be retained.

Joan