Capitol Clout
Access, information equal power for lobbyists in Illinois

BY RICH FREDERICK AND PAT GUINANE
STATE CAPITOL BUREAU

June 29, 2003

In one head-spinning week in May, state lawmakers furiously passed legislation allowing SBC Communications the right to nearly double the price its competitors pay to offer local telephone service in Illinois.

Consumers were inundated by a barrage of high-profile television and newspaper ads from SBC and its competitors. But the real war was waged in the back hallways and around the third-floor brass rail outside the House and Senate chambers, where armies of lobbyists sought to curry legislative favor.

Despite a payroll with more than two dozen lobbyists, SBC brought in reinforcements. The Texas-based company hired six professional lobbying firms to let lawmakers know just how many SBC jobs are in their districts and how many could be eliminated if the rate increase failed.

Of course, competitors AT&T and MCI also added a bevy of hired guns. But in the end, the rate hike whisked its way through the General Assembly in four days and won Gov. Rod Blagojevich's signature less than four hours later.

"Everybody I know was on one side or the other," said Alice Phillips, a partner in Government Affairs Specialists Inc., a Springfield lobbying firm she and Loretta Durbin established in 1998. "Those things happen, and it's turf wars. It's free enterprise, and whoever's got the most clout and whoever can get it done gets it done."

Lobbyists, for better or worse, wield considerable power at the Capitol. They are often stereotyped as slick insiders who can influence public policy with a well-rehearsed sales pitch or complementary round of golf. Many see lobbying as an opportunity for special interests to cozy up with decision-makers.

But many lawmakers and seasoned staffers will say that, for the most part, lobbyists provide representation for groups that can't camp out in Springfield themselves.

"Sometimes I may go to a lobbyist, even though it isn't their issue, and ask them for their thoughts on a given subject because I know they are extremely well-versed, well-read, can immediately tell what the good and bad things are," said Rep. Don Moffitt, R-Gilson. "The ones that are here for the long haul are very important to the process."

Lobbyists attempt to persuade lawmakers to enact policy that is favorable to the entities the lobbyists represent. Like the reporters who work in the Capitol press room a few steps down from the third floor, the lobbyists' job is specified in the First Amendment of the Constitution as "the right to petition the government." Every day, lobbyists inform lawmakers how certain issues relate to their districts.

But the SBC rate hike reminded the public just how swiftly and effectively a well-coordinated lobby can strike in Springfield.

"This is a like a dead fish; it doesn't get better with age," said Dave Doty, AT&T's top Illinois lobbyist. "They knew that the issue of a rate increase would not be easier to pass as time went on, so they had to do it very quickly and to short-circuit a lot of input from the public or consumer groups."

SBC's onslaught drew comparisons to another high-profile lobbying battle in the liquor industry that played out in the legislature in 1999.

Phillips and Durbin, the wife of U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., played a minor role in that dispute. They lobbied for William Wirtz, the Chicago mogul who won legislation making it nearly impossible for beverage makers to switch distributors. Like the telecom war this spring, both sides of the liquor dispute provided Springfield lobbyists with lucrative employment.

Lobbyists' pursuit of such high-profile special-interest causes conjures up images of smoky back rooms where fat cigars get lit by $100 bills.

That tilted perception makes lobbyists an easy target for the type of reform rhetoric for which Blagojevich has become known.

In his April 9 budget address, the first-year Democratic governor pledged to stand up to special interests by eliminating corporate tax breaks.

"I know each of these loopholes has its own team of lobbyists," Blagojevich said. "They will tell you that it will drive business away. Don't believe them."

Yet when the legislature passed the state budget less than two months later, industry groups had carved comfortable exemptions into a number of the governor's proposals. For example, they whittled a plan to eliminate a $70 million natural-gas loophole until the state's take shrank to $42 million.

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The foundation of all lobbying is strategy: selecting which issues to tackle; which lawmakers to lobby; which bills to push or kill. In the case of the corporate loopholes, industry groups bent the ears of Republicans, their traditional allies. They knew that many of the governor's proposed revenue sources were not palatable enough to garner unified support from the Democrats who control both the House and Senate, so the GOP would have some say.

Jim Fletcher, a lobbyist to Illinois government for 35 years, cited fundamentals as the main key to success.

"Learn your substance thoroughly; develop your strategy based on your substance," he said. "You develop coalitions around your substance. You usually start early with your bill, you work staff and all members, first of the committee and then the floor."

The most important commodity a lobbyist can have is access. If he or she can talk to a lawmaker or a legislative leader anytime, then the job becomes much easier. Access means time to get the point across. For lawmakers, time can be a scarce resource. They have legislative committees, meetings with constituents, events to attend, floor debates, not to mention families at home. Frequent and quality access can sometimes be in short supply.

One of the ways lobbyists build access is by contributing to campaign funds. In 2002, lobbyists and other special-interest groups gave more than $65 million to office-holders and candidates for constitutional offices, the General Assembly and the Supreme and appellate courts, according to the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform.

Another method lobbyists use to gain access is to deliver votes and provide volunteers for campaigns, which is acceptable if the candidate shares the same values and principles, according to Dan Burkhalter, chief lobbyist for the Illinois Education Association.

"All of that ... combines clearly to a relationship where if you call in, and they know who you are in a list of 50 calls, they're probably going to call back the people they know more than the people they don't know. Whether that's the contributions or the grass-roots efforts probably depends on the individual," said Burkhalter, whose group gives more campaign contributions than any other.

Diane Brown, executive director of Illinois Public Interest Research Group, said grass-roots lobbying organizations such as hers are sometimes at a disadvantage because they don't support specific candidates and don't give campaign contributions.

"When an individual or organization takes a legislator out to lunch or puts a nice-size campaign contribution in their coffers, they definitely have access that groups like Illinois PIRG or an average citizen might not have," Brown said.

Other lobbying avenues exist aside from campaign donations, political work and face-to-face meetings with lawmakers. Unions often flood Capitol hallways with hordes of their members, who stage rallies to share their cause with legislators.

The Service Employees International Union Illinois Council won a symbolic battle this spring, passing legislation entitling union home-care workers to a $1-an-hour pay raise. But the General Assembly never appropriated any money for the raises, and the workers' paychecks will remain stagnant for now.

SEIU's effort to establish a voice in Springfield began well before the legislative session convened in January. Three years ago, union members ratified a substantial dues increase, which among other measures, allowed SEIU to establish a lobbying team.

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The virtually unchecked influence that the state's nearly 3,000 lobbyists wield contributed to Illinois ranking 45th among the states in a study of ethics rules released last month by the Center for Public Integrity in Washington, D.C.

With the support of Blagojevich and House Minority Leader Tom Cross, R-Oswego, the legislature launched a comprehensive effort this spring to clean up state government.

The idea was to substantially build upon 1999 legislation that forced lobbyists to disclose how much they spent wining and dining politicians each year. The so-called Gift Ban Act was considered a baby step toward reform in a state where just six years earlier, a riverboat casino lobbyist called legislators off the House floor to hand them campaign checks.

Illinois now does a better job detailing campaign contributions and lobbyist expenditures, but state lawmakers still accepted more than $1.1 million in meals and gifts in 2002. The initial ethics package that was floated this past legislative session contained language to tighten those standards, but the version that passed was watered down. The legislation prohibits lobbyists from serving on state boards and commissions, but it leaves most other practices intact.

Blagojevich has attempted to strengthen the ethics bill by issuing an amendatory veto to restore some of the original controls. But lawmakers would have to sign off on any changes during their fall session, and some experts suggest the governor's proposal oversteps his constitutional authority.

Blagojevich's plan would raise the $50 annual registration fee for lobbyists to $500, limit gifts of food and drinks to $75 a day and close a loophole allowing lobbyists to provide lawmakers with an unlimited number of free tennis and golf outings.

Despite some appearances to the contrary, ethics and trust are the cornerstones of a lobbyist-lawmaker relationship. A lobbyist who misleads a lawmaker could essentially be blackballed from the General Assembly.

"Because this is such a small culture, everybody eventually gets to know what everybody else is really like," Fletcher said. "Your word, your character and your ethics are crucial to all of your relationships with other lobbyists, staff and the legislators themselves.

"Ethical behavior is probably the primary criteria for staying down here for a long period of time."

Rich Frederick can be reached at _544-2819 or richard.frederick@sj-r.com and Pat Guinane at 782-6883 or patrick.guinane@sj-r.com.