Yes, there are dedicated lobbyists who earnestly supply raw, unbiased data about their issue to clueless freshman legislators. But the archetypal lobbyist is an adroit puppet master, using the promise of future campaign contributions to move legislators around the political stage. Voters have grown wary of such influence. Some elected officials now automatically return token gifts and reimburse even for a hot dog, just to keep a zero balance posted with the Missouri Ethics Commission. Although, if they’re paying with the per diem the state gives them, that means it’s actually the taxpayers who are paying special-interest lobbyists to wine and dine legislators…
Missouri politics can get a little convoluted. We asked a former lobbyist to speak freely—on condition of anonymity—about how the system really works.
“In Missouri, we don’t have campaign contribution limits, and we do have term limits. That creates more elections, with more money in each election. And Joe Voter cannot keep up with the business PACs.
“The way it ends up working in Jeff City is, lobbyists who work for nonprofits and citizen advocacy groups, don’t have PACs. For them to play in the big boys’ game, they have to make contributions out of their own pocket. The real big money guys go to their client’s PAC—in some cases they’re the treasurer of that PAC—and recommend a contribution. People wanting ‘to support candidates for their ideas’ sounds great academically, but these are businesspeople, and they only donate if they think they’ll get a return on investment. They see how well the candidate performs as a legislator, and if he’s a good boy, the next time he runs they will give him a bigger check. So, because of term limits, the candidate can’t ignore the lobbyist after he’s elected.
“Lobbyists giving gifts and food? That’s all smoke and mirrors. People say, ‘I want to end lobbyists’ gifts to legislators’—well, nobody’s going to vote yes or no because of a steak dinner. It’s campaign contributions that have impact.
“Campaign finance is totally a lobbyist’s job. A lobbyist goes to their clients—each of these major groups has a PAC—and the lobbyist makes recommendations to the board about who they should invest in. Then the PAC cuts a check and mails it to the lobbyist, who sets up a lunch or dinner or just mails it to them saying, ‘This is from the insurance agents.’
“The committee chairs are owned by big lobbyists. Or by people in leadership who are owned by big lobbyists. The lobbyist dumped a bunch of money into that candidate’s race, or maybe into the leadership, saying, ‘I think so-and-so would do a great job in Rules.’ It’s all very suggestive. And if you’ve been in that building long enough, you know how to translate.
“Thanks to term limits, all the institutional knowledge lies with the lobbyists. They know how the law was written 10 years ago, and they know how to manipulate it. A lot of them are former legislators—what else are they going to do?
“The biggest organization that lobbies but doesn’t lobby is Rex Sinquefield. The big ones that actually lobby are AIM (Associated Industries of Missouri), the Missouri Chamber of Commerce, and the insurance, hospital, pharmaceutical, energy, and communications industries. They might want lower taxes, less government, influence on regulations or licensure… But it all comes down to money.”
