Tuesday, February 06, 2007

More Grassroots Campaigns to Come

An article in The Hill discusses how ethics rule changes will generate an even greater reliance on grassroots campaigns. Grassroots lobbying and lobbying firms are becoming increasingly more important, and will continue to do so. Lobbyists are not required to report grassroots campaigns to the federal government making them difficult to monitor, while traditional lobby firms will growingly partner with independent grassroots firms. "Lobbyists escaped having to disclose their grassroots activities when the Senate in January narrowly approved an amendment to strip such a provision from the ethics reform package."

As old-style lobbying has lost its potency, scores of lobbying firms have sold themselves to big public-relations conglomerates with robust grassroots operations in recent years.

In light of ethics rule changes that will increase lobbyists' use of grassroots campaigns, should such activity be disclosed? Fill out our survey and let us know.