Chapter 12
Lobbyists: Ten Myths
About Power and Influence
Rogan Kersh
© 2008 Delmar Cengage Learning.
Myth #1 – “Health
Care Is Different”
• Popular image of health care as a species
apart is specious
– Health care is a big business
– It attracts a full complement of lobbyists
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© 2008 Delmar Cengage Learning.
Myth #2 – “Here Today,
Gone Tomorrow”
• Lobbying on health policy has become
unpredictable and chaotic
– Supremely fluid “issue networks”
• Kersh suggests health care lobbying
functions around somewhat more stable,
semi-permanent “issue regimes”
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© 2008 Delmar Cengage Learning.
Myth #3 – “It’s a Man’s World”
• Lobbying has traditionally been assumed to
be monopolized by men
• In health policy, more female lobbyists have
entered the business
– Nearly matching the number of male lobbyists
in this issue area
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© 2008 Delmar Cengage Learning.
Myth #4 – “K” is for Republican
• Republican-led “K Street Project”
– Assumed lobbyists had switched allegiance en
masse to the GOP
• In terms of campaign contributions and
organizational practice
– Such claims seem to be exaggerated
– Particularly in the area of health policy
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© 2008 Delmar Cengage Learning.
Myth #5 – “Lobbying
Targets as Rational Choices”
• Longstanding assumption holds that
lobbyists carefully select “targets” of
lobbying
– Based largely on their supposed position on an
issue
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© 2008 Delmar Cengage Learning.
Myth #5 – “Lobbying
Targets as Rational Choices”
• Evidence suggests inherent legislative
chaos and the pooling of resources under
lobbying coalitions makes individual
decisions of this sort rare
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© 2008 Delmar Cengage Learning.
Myth # 6 – “Clients Are King”
• It is commonly thought that lobbyists
merely serve to transmit the preferences of
client firms to decision makers
– Thus affecting policy outcome
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© 2008 Delmar Cengage Learning.
Myth # 6 – “Clients Are King”
• In actuality:
– Lobbyists often act somewhat independently in
order to burnish overall reputation in policy
community
– Or push for policy outcome in which one truly
believes
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© 2008 Delmar Cengage Learning.
Myth #7 – “The Revolving
Door Corrupts Completely”
• Many believe a revolving door exists
between policymaking and lobbying
– Creating numerous conflicts of interest
• Many former officials go into lobbying
because of the passion they feel for certain
issues
– Not purely out of opportunism
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© 2008 Delmar Cengage Learning.
Myth #8 – “Donations
Buy Access (Or Even Votes)”
• It is often assumed PAC/lobbyist
contributions “buy” access to officials, or
even policy outcomes
• Rationales for such contributions are more
varied
– Many lobbyists contribute as a form of
“insurance” with members of Congress
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© 2008 Delmar Cengage Learning.
Myth #9 – “Everybody
Does It Abramoff-style”
• Corruption on the scale of the Abramoff
scandal is assumed to be rife on K Street
• Evidence suggest Abramoff is the
exception
– Rather than the rule on many counts
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© 2008 Delmar Cengage Learning.
Myth #10 – “It’s All
About the Spin”
• “Information” lobbyists provide to members
of Congress is assumed to be repackaged
depending on the member’s ideological
leanings
• In actuality, most members received the
same information from lobbyists, with only
minor differences
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© 2008 Delmar Cengage Learning.