• All the increasing restrictions on lobbyists are a disincentive to be a lobbyist, and those who think they can deregister are eagerly doing so. It is creating some apparent contradictions.
• Veteran political lawyer Jan Baran • Regarding the apparent push for lobbyists to be lobbyists in everything but name. Essentially, legal restrictions on what lobbyists can do is creating something of a black market for lobbying. By leaving “lobbyist” as a hard-and-fast definition, many policy advocates choose to simply not register and avoid the oversight. Why are there always loopholes when it comes to the business of political influence? It creates vacuums like this one. source

Posted by Ernie Smith • Permalink