what factors contribute to the success of some interest groups in texas over others?

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Explain how interest groups differ from political parties
• Evaluate the different types of interests and what they do
• Compare public and private interest groups
• Depict how interest groups influence the government through elections
• Explain how interest groups influence the government through the governance processes
• Identify the various courtroom cases, policies, and laws that outline what involvement groups tin can and cannot do
• Evaluate the arguments for and against whether contributions are a form of liberty of spoken communication

While the term involvement group is not mentioned in the U.Southward. Constitution, the framers were enlightened that individuals would band together in an try to utilise regime in their favor. In Federalist No. 10, James Madison warned of the dangers of "factions," minorities who would organize around issues they felt strongly about, possibly to the detriment of the majority. But Madison believed limiting these factions was worse than facing the evils they might produce, because such limitations would violate individual freedoms. Instead, the natural way to control factions was to let them flourish and compete confronting each other. The sheer number of interests in the United states suggests that many take, indeed, flourished. They compete with similar groups for membership, and with opponents for admission to conclusion-makers. Some people advise there may be too many interests in the United States. Others argue that some take gained a disproportionate amount of influence over public policy, whereas many others are underrepresented.

Madison's definition of factions can apply to both interest groups and political parties. But unlike political parties, interest groups practice not function primarily to elect candidates nether a certain party label or to directly command the operation of the government. Political parties in the United States are mostly much broader coalitions that represent a significant proportion of citizens. In the American two-party arrangement, the Democratic and Republican Parties spread relatively wide nets to try to encompass large segments of the population. In dissimilarity, while involvement groups may support or oppose political candidates, their goals are usually more issue-specific and narrowly focused on areas like taxes, the environment, and gun rights or gun control, or their membership is limited to specific professions. They may represent interests ranging from well-known organizations, such equally the Sierra Club, IBM, or the American Lung Association, to obscure ones, such every bit the Northward Carolina Gamefowl Breeders Association. Thus, with some notable exceptions, specific interest groups accept much more limited membership than do political parties.

Political parties and interest groups both piece of work together and compete for influence, although in different ways. While interest group activity oftentimes transcends party lines, many interests are perceived as being more supportive of i party than the other. The American Conservative Union, Citizens United, the National Rifle Clan, and National Correct to Life are more than likely to have relationships with Republican lawmakers than with Autonomous ones. Americans for Democratic Action, Moveon.org, and the Autonomous Governors Association all have stronger relationships with the Democratic Party. Parties and involvement groups do compete with each other, however, often for influence. At the state level, nosotros typically observe an inverse relationship between them in terms of power. Interest groups tend to have greater influence in states where political parties are comparatively weaker.

What Are Involvement Groups and What Practise They Want?

Definitions abound when information technology comes to involvement groups, which are sometimes referred to as special interests, interest organizations, pressure groups, or just interests. Most definitions specify that involvement group indicates whatever formal association of individuals or organizations that endeavour to influence authorities conclusion-making and/or the making of public policy. Often, this influence is exercised past a lobbyist or a lobbying firm.

Formally, a lobbyist is someone who represents the interest arrangement before authorities, is normally compensated for doing then, and is required to annals with the government in which he or she lobbies, whether state or federal. The lobbyist's principal goal is usually to influence policy. Most involvement organizations engage in lobbying activity to attain their objectives. As you might expect, the interest hires a lobbyist, employs one internally, or has a member volunteer to lobby on its behalf. For present purposes, we might restrict our definition to the relatively broad i in the Lobbying Disclosure Human activity.^[1] This act requires the registration of lobbyists representing any interest grouping and devoting more 20 pct of their time to it.^[2] Clients and lobbying firms must also annals with the federal authorities based on similar requirements. Moreover, campaign finance laws require disclosure of campaign contributions given to political candidates by organizations.

Lobbying is not limited to Washington, DC, however, and many interests anteroom there every bit well equally in one or more than states. Each state has its ain laws describing which individuals and entities must register, so the definitions of lobbyists and interests, and of what lobbying is and who must register to do information technology, also vary from state to state. Therefore, while a citizen contacting a lawmaker to talk over an issue is by and large not viewed every bit lobbying, an organisation that devotes a certain amount of time and resources to contacting lawmakers may be classified equally lobbying, depending on local, state, or federal police force.

Largely for this reason, there is no comprehensive list of all interest groups to tell us how many there are in the United States. Estimates of the number vary widely, suggesting that if we apply a broad definition and include all interests at all levels of authorities, there may exist more than 200,000.^[3] Following the passage of the Lobbying Disclosure Act in 1995, we had a much better agreement of the number of interests registered in Washington, DC; however, it was non until several years later that we had a complete count and categorization of the interests registered in each of the fifty states.^[4] Political scientists accept categorized interest groups in a number of means.^[5]

First, involvement groups may have the grade of membership organizations, which individuals join voluntarily and to which they unremarkably pay ante. Membership groups often consist of people who take mutual issues or concerns, or who desire to be with others who share their views. The National Rifle Association (NRA) is a membership group consisting of members who promote gun rights. For those who advocate greater regulation of access to firearms, such as background checks prior to gun purchases, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence is a membership organization that weighs in on the other side of the result.^[6]

A Florida member of the NRA proudly displays his back up of gun rights (a). In December 2012, Credo, a San Francisco telecommunications company that supports progressive causes, chosen on the NRA to stop blocking Congress from passing gun control legislation (b). (credit a: modification of work by Daniel Oines; credit b: modification of work past Josh Lopez)

Involvement groups may too form to represent companies, corporate organizations, and governments. These groups practice not have individual members merely rather are offshoots of corporate or governmental entities with a compelling interest to be represented in front of 1 or more branches of regime. Verizon and Coca-Cola will register to lobby in club to influence policy in a way that benefits them. These corporations will either accept one or more than in-house lobbyists, who work for one involvement group or business firm and represent their organization in a lobbying capacity, and/or will hire a contract lobbyist, individuals who piece of work for firms that represent a multitude of clients and are frequently hired because of their resources and their ability to contact and lobby lawmakers, to represent them before the legislature.

Governments such equally municipalities and executive departments such as the Department of Didactics register to lobby in an effort to maximize their share of budgets or increment their level of autonomy. These authorities institutions are represented by a legislative liaison, whose task is to nowadays bug to decision-makers. For instance, a state university unremarkably employs a lobbyist, legislative liaison, or government diplomacy person to stand for its interests before the legislature. This includes lobbying for a given university's share of the budget or for its continued autonomy from lawmakers and other country-level officials who may attempt to play a greater oversight role.

In 2015, thirteen states had their higher education budgets cut from the previous year, and nearly all states have seen some cuts to higher education funding since the recession began in 2008.^[seven] In 2015, equally in many states, universities and community colleges in Mississippi lobbied the legislature over pending budget cuts.^[8] These examples highlight the demand for universities and state academy systems to have representation before the legislature. On the federal level, universities may foyer for inquiry funds from government departments. For example, the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security may be willing to fund scientific enquiry that might better enable them to defend the nation.

Interest groups also include associations, which are typically groups of institutions that bring together with others, frequently within the same trade or industry (trade associations), and have similar concerns. The American Potable Association^[nine] includes Coca-Cola, Red Bull North America, ROCKSTAR, and Kraft Foods. Despite the fact that these companies are competitors, they have common interests related to the manufacturing, bottling, and distribution of beverages, every bit well as the regulation of their business activities. The logic is that in that location is forcefulness in numbers, and if members can entrance hall for tax breaks or eased regulations for an entire manufacture, they may all benefit. These common goals practice not, however, prevent private association members from employing in-house lobbyists or contract lobbying firms to correspond their own concern or organisation also. Indeed, many members of associations are competitors who also seek representation individually before the legislature.

Finally, sometimes individuals volunteer to correspond an organization. They are chosen apprentice or volunteer lobbyists, and are typically not compensated for their lobbying efforts. In some cases, citizens may lobby for pet projects because they care about some consequence or crusade. They may or may non be members of an interest group, only if they annals to lobby, they are sometimes nicknamed "hobbyists."

Lobbyists representing a variety of organizations utilise unlike techniques to achieve their objectives. Ane method is inside lobbying or direct lobbying, which takes the interest group'south bulletin directly to a government official such as a lawmaker.^[ten] Inside lobbying tactics include testifying in legislative hearings and helping to draft legislation. Numerous surveys of lobbyists have confirmed that the vast majority rely on these inside strategies. For example, nearly all report that they contact lawmakers, prove earlier the legislature, assist draft legislation, and contact executive agencies. Trying to influence government appointments or providing favors to members of government are somewhat less common insider tactics.

Many lobbyists as well employ outside lobbying or indirect lobbying tactics, whereby the interest attempts to get its bulletin out to the public.^[11] These tactics include issuing printing releases, placing stories and manufactures in the media, inbound coalitions with other groups, and contacting interest group members, hoping that they volition individually pressure lawmakers to support or oppose legislation. An environmental involvement group similar the Sierra Society, for example, might event a press release or encourage its members to contact their representatives in Congress nearly legislation of business concern to the group. It might as well use exterior tactics if there is a potential threat to the environment and the group wants to enhance sensation among its members and the public. Members of Congress are likely to pay attention when many constituents contact them about an issue or proposed bill. Many involvement groups, including the Sierra Lodge, will apply a combination of within and outside tactics in their lobbying efforts, choosing whatever strategy is most likely to assist them achieve their goals.

In February 2013, members of the Sierra Club joined a march on Los Angeles City Hall to demand activeness on climatic change and protest the evolution of the Keystone pipeline. (credit: Charlie Kaijo)

The principal goal of well-nigh interests, no matter their lobbying approach, is to influence decision-makers and public policies. For case, National Right to Life, an anti-ballgame interest group, lobbies to encourage government to enact laws that restrict abortion access, while NARAL Pro-Selection America lobbies to promote the correct of women to have prophylactic choices nigh abortion. Environmental interests like the Sierra Club lobby for laws designed to protect natural resources and minimize the apply of pollutants. On the other hand, some interests anteroom to reduce regulations that an system might view as crushing. Air and water quality regulations designed to improve or protect the environs may be viewed every bit onerous by industries that pollute equally a byproduct of their production or manufacturing process. Other interests lobby for budgetary allocations; the farm lobby, for example, pressures Congress to secure new farm subsidies or maintain existing ones. Subcontract subsidies are given to some farmers because they grow certain crops and to other farmers so they will not grow certain crops.^[12] As expected, whatsoever bill that might try to alter these subsidies raises the antennae of many agricultural interests.

Interest Grouping Functions

While influencing policy is the primary goal, interest groups likewise monitor government activity, serve every bit a ways of political participation for members, and provide information to the public and to lawmakers. According to the National Conference of Land Legislatures, by November 2015, thirty-six states had laws requiring that voters provide identification at the polls.^[13]

A civil rights group like the National Association for the Advocacy of Colored People (NAACP) volition keep track of proposed voter-identification bills in state legislatures that might accept an effect on voting rights. This organisation volition contact lawmakers to voice approval or disapproval of proposed legislation (within lobbying) and encourage group members to take action past either altruistic coin to it or contacting lawmakers nigh the proposed bill (outside lobbying). Thus, a member of the organization or a citizen concerned about voting rights demand not be an expert on the legislative process or the technical or legal details of a proposed bill to be informed about potential threats to voting rights. Other interest groups function in similar ways. For case, the NRA monitors attempts by country legislatures to tighten gun control laws.

Interest groups facilitate political participation in a number of ways. Some members become active within a group, working on behalf of the organization to promote its agenda. Some interests work to increase membership, inform the public most issues the group deems important, or organize rallies and promote get-out-the-vote efforts. Sometimes groups volition employ events to mobilize existing members or encourage new members to join. For example, post-obit Barack Obama's presidential victory in 2008, the NRA used the election as a rallying weep for its supporters, and information technology continues to attack the president on the issue of guns, despite the fact that gun rights accept in some ways expanded over the form of the Obama presidency. Interest groups as well organize letter-writing campaigns, phase protests, and sometimes agree fundraisers for their cause or fifty-fifty for political campaigns.

Some interests are more than broadly focused than others. AARP (formerly the American Clan of Retired Persons) has approximately thirty-seven million members and advocates for individuals fifty and over on a variety of issues including wellness care, insurance, employment, financial security, and consumer protection.^[fourteen]

This organization represents both liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans, and many who practice not identify with these categorizations. On the other hand, the Association of Black Cardiologists is a much smaller and far-narrower organisation. Over the concluding several decades, some interest groups have sought greater specialization and have even fragmented. As yous may imagine, the Association of Blackness Cardiologists is more specialized than the American Medical Clan, which tries to stand for all physicians regardless of race or specialty.

Health intendance is an important concern for AARP and its members, so the organization makes sure to maintain connections with key policymakers in this area, such as Katherine Sebelius, secretary of Health and Human Services from 2009 to 2014, shown hither with John Rother, director of legislation and public policy for AARP. (credit: modification of piece of work by Chris Smith, HHS)

Public vs. Private Interest Groups

Involvement groups and organizations correspond both private and public interests in the United States. Private interests normally seek particularized benefits from government that favor either a unmarried involvement or a narrow fix of interests. For instance, corporations and political institutions may foyer authorities for tax exemptions, fewer regulations, or favorable laws that benefit individual companies or an industry more than more often than not. Their goal is to promote private goods. Private goods are items individuals tin can own, including corporate profits. An automobile is a private good; when y'all purchase it, you receive ownership. Wealthy individuals are more probable to accumulate private goods, and they can sometimes obtain private appurtenances from governments, such as tax benefits, government subsidies, or government contracts.

On the other paw, public interest groups attempt to promote public, or collective, goods. Such commonage goods are benefits—tangible or intangible—that help virtually or all citizens. These goods are oftentimes produced collectively, and considering they may not exist assisting and everyone may not agree on what public goods are all-time for society, they are often underfunded and thus will be underproduced unless there is government interest. The Tennessee Valley Say-so, a government corporation, provides electricity in some places where it is not profitable for private firms to do and so. Other examples of collective goods are public rubber, highway safety, public education, and environmental protection. With some exceptions, if an environmental involvement promotes make clean air or water, most or all citizens are able to enjoy the result. So if the Sierra Lodge encourages Congress to laissez passer legislation that improves national air quality, citizens receive the benefit regardless of whether they are members of the organization or even support the legislation. Many environmental groups are public interest groups that lobby for and raise awareness of issues that touch large segments of the population.^[15]

Equally the make clean air example to a higher place suggests, commonage goods are more often than not nonexcludable, significant all or most people are entitled to the public skillful and cannot be prevented from enjoying information technology. Furthermore, collective goods are mostly not subject to crowding, so that even as the population increases, people even so take access to the unabridged public good. Thus, the military machine does not protect citizens merely in Texas and Maryland while neglecting those in New York and Idaho, only instead it provides the collective good of national defence equally to citizens in all states. As another example, even as more than cars employ a public roadway, under almost circumstances, additional drivers yet accept the option of using the same road. (High-occupancy vehicle lanes may restrict some lanes of a highway for drivers who exercise not car pool.)

Influence in Elections

Interest groups support candidates who are sympathetic to their views in hopes of gaining access to them one time they are in office.^[16] For example, an organization like the NRA will back candidates who support Second Subpoena rights. Both the NRA and the Brady Campaign to Foreclose Gun Violence (an interest group that favors groundwork checks for firearm purchases) have grading systems that evaluate candidates and states based on their records of supporting these organizations.^[17]

To garner the support of the NRA, candidates must receive an A+ rating for the group. In much the same way, Americans for Autonomous Action, a liberal involvement group, and the American Conservative Matrimony, a bourgeois interest group, both charge per unit politicians based on their voting records on bug these organizations view as important.^[eighteen] These ratings, and those of many other groups, are useful for interests and the public in deciding which candidates to support and which to oppose. Incumbents have electoral advantages in terms of name recognition, experience, and fundraising abilities, and they often receive support because involvement groups want access to the candidate who is likely to win. Some interest groups will offer support to the challenger, specially if the challenger amend aligns with the interest'south views or the incumbent is vulnerable. Sometimes, interest groups fifty-fifty hedge their bets and give to both major party candidates for a particular office in the hopes of having access regardless of who wins.

Some interests groups form political action committees (PACs), groups that collect funds from donors and distribute them to candidates who support their issues. As the chart below makes apparent, many large corporations like Honeywell International, AT&T, and Lockheed Martin form PACs to distribute money to candidates.^[19] Other PACs are either politically or ideologically oriented. For case, the MoveOn.org PAC is a progressive group that formed following the impeachment trial of President Neb Clinton, whereas GOPAC is a Republican PAC that promotes state and local candidates of that political party. PACs are limited in the corporeality of money that they can contribute to individual candidates or to national political party organizations; they can contribute no more than $v,000 per candidate per election and no more than $15,000 a year to a national political party. Individual contributions to PACs are also limited to $five,000 a year.

Corporations and associations spend large amounts of money on elections via affiliated PACs. This chart reveals the amount donated to Democratic (blue) and Republican (red) candidates by the top ten PACs during the most recent election cycle.

PACs through which corporations and unions tin spend nearly unlimited amounts of money on behalf of political candidates are called super PACs.^[20] As a result of a 2010 Supreme Court decision, Citizens United 5. Federal Election Commission, there is no limit to how much coin unions or corporations can donate to super PACs. Dissimilar PACs, withal, super PACs cannot contribute coin directly to individual candidates. If the 2014 elections were any indication, super PACs will continue to spend large sums of money in an attempt to influence future election results.

Influencing Governmental Policy

Involvement groups support candidates in order to have admission to lawmakers once they are in role. Lawmakers, for their part, lack the time and resource to pursue every issue; they are policy generalists. Therefore, they (and their staff members) rely on involvement groups and lobbyists to provide them with information nearly the technical details of policy proposals, as well as almost fellow lawmakers' stands and constituents' perceptions. These voting cues requite lawmakers an indication of how to vote on issues, particularly those with which they are unfamiliar. Merely lawmakers also rely on lobbyists for information near ideas they tin can champion and that will benefit them when they run for reelection.^[21]

Interest groups likely cannot target all 535 lawmakers in both the House and the Senate, nor would they wish to practise and then. At that place is petty reason for the Brady Campaign to Forestall Gun Violence to vestibule members of Congress who vehemently oppose whatsoever restrictions on gun access. Instead, the system will ofttimes contact lawmakers who are acquiescent to some restrictions on access to firearms. Thus, interest groups first target lawmakers they think volition consider introducing or sponsoring legislation.

Second, they target members of relevant committees.^[22] If a company that makes weapons systems wants to influence a defense bill, it will lobby members of the Armed Services Committees in the House and the Senate or the Firm and Senate appropriations committees if the bill requires new funding. Many members of these committees represent congressional districts with military bases, and so they often sponsor or champion bills that allow them to promote policies popular with their districts or state. Interest groups attempt to use this to their advantage. Only they likewise comport strategic targeting because legislatures function by respectfully considering fellow lawmakers' positions. Since lawmakers cannot possess expertise on every issue, they defer to their trusted colleagues on issues with which they are unfamiliar. Then targeting committee members as well allows the lobbyist to inform other lawmakers indirectly.

Tertiary, interest groups target lawmakers when legislation is on the floor of the House and/or Senate, merely once more, they rely on the fact that many members will defer to their colleagues who are more familiar with a given consequence. Finally, since legislation must past both chambers in identical grade, interest groups may target members of the conference committees whose task information technology is to iron out differences across the chambers. At this negotiation stage, a one percentage difference in, say, the corporate income tax charge per unit could hateful millions of dollars in increased or decreased revenue or taxation for diverse interests.

Interest groups also target the budgetary process in order to maximize benefits to their group. In some cases, their aim is to influence the portion of the budget allocated to a given policy, program, or policy area. For example, interests for groups that represent the poor may foyer for boosted appropriations for various welfare programs; those interests opposed to government assistance to the poor may vestibule for reduced funding to sure programs. It is likely that the legislative liaison for your university or higher spends time trying to advocate for budgetary allocations in your state.

Interest groups also try to defeat legislation that may be detrimental to their views. For example, when Congress considers legislation to improve air quality, it is not unusual for some industries to oppose it if information technology requires additional regulations on factory emissions. In some cases, proposed legislation may serve equally a disturbance, resulting in grouping formation or mobilization to aid defeat the bill. For instance, a proposed revenue enhancement increment may issue in the formation or mobilization of anti-tax groups that will lobby the legislature and attempt to encourage the public to oppose the proposed legislation. Prior to the election in 2012, political activist Grover Norquist, the founder of Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), asked all Republican members of Congress to sign a "Taxpayer Protection Pledge" that they would fight efforts to raise taxes or to eliminate any deductions that were non accompanied by tax cuts. Ninety-v percent of the Republicans in Congress signed the pledge.^[23] Some interests arise solely to defeat legislation and go fallow later on they attain their firsthand objectives.

Once legislation has been passed, interest groups may target the executive branch of regime, whose job is to implement the police. The U.S. Section of Veterans Affairs has some elbowroom in providing treat military machine veterans, and interests representing veterans' needs may pressure this department to accost their concerns or issues. Other entities inside the executive co-operative, like the Securities and Exchange Commission, which maintains and regulates financial markets, are not designed to be responsive to the interests they regulate, because to make such a response would be a conflict of interest. Involvement groups may lobby the executive co-operative on executive, judicial, and other appointments that require Senate confirmation. As a upshot, interest grouping members may be appointed to positions in which they can influence proposed regulation of the industry of which they are a office.

In add-on to lobbying the legislative and executive branches of government, many interest groups besides lobby the judicial branch. Lobbying the judiciary takes ii forms, the first of which was mentioned above. This is lobbying the executive branch about judicial appointments the president makes and lobbying the Senate to ostend these appointments. The second form of lobbying consists of filing amicus briefs, which are also known as "friend of the courtroom" briefs. These documents present legal arguments stating why a given court should take a case and/or why a court should rule a certain style. In Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), the Supreme Court instance that legalized same-sexual activity marriage nationwide, numerous interest groups filed amicus briefs.^[24]

For instance, the Human Rights Campaign filed a cursory arguing that the Fourteenth Amendment's due procedure and equal protection clauses required that aforementioned-sexual practice couples be afforded the same rights to marry as opposite-sex couples. In a 5–4 determination, the U.Due south. Supreme Court agreed.

Members of the Human Rights Campaign, an interest that supports LGBT rights, march toward the Supreme Court on June 26, 2015, the 24-hour interval that the Obergefell five. Hodges decision is announced. (credit: modification of work by Matt Popovich)

Measuring the effect of interest groups' influence is somewhat difficult considering lobbyists support lawmakers who would likely accept supported them in the beginning identify. Thus, National Right to Life, an anti-ballgame involvement grouping, does non mostly lobby lawmakers who favor ballgame rights; instead, it supports lawmakers and candidates who take professed "pro-life" positions. While some scholars note that lobbyists sometimes attempt to influence those on the fence or fifty-fifty their enemies, nigh of the time, they support agreeing individuals. Thus, contributions are unlikely to sway lawmakers to alter their views; what they do purchase is admission, including time with lawmakers. The problem for those trying to appraise whether interest groups influence lawmakers, and then, is that we are uncertain what would happen in the absenteeism of interest grouping contributions. For example, we tin can only speculate what the ACA might accept looked like had lobbyists from a host of interests not lobbied on the issue.

How are lobbying and involvement group activity regulated? As nosotros noted earlier in the chapter, James Madison viewed factions as a necessary evil and thought preventing people from joining together would be worse than any ills groups might cause. The First Subpoena guarantees, among other things, liberty of voice communication, petition, and assembly. Yet, people have different views on how far this freedom extends. For example, should freedom of speech as afforded to individuals in the U.S. Constitution as well apply to corporations and unions? To what extent can and should government restrict the activities of lobbyists and lawmakers, limiting who may lobby and how they may do it?

Interest Groups and Free Speech

Most people would concord that involvement groups accept a right under the Constitution to promote a particular indicate of view. What people do not necessarily agree upon, however, is the extent to which certain interest group and lobbying activities are protected under the First Amendment.

In add-on to complimentary spoken language rights, the First Amendment grants people the right to assemble. Nosotros saw in a higher place that pluralists fifty-fifty argued that assembling in groups is natural and that people will gravitate toward others with similar views. Nigh people acknowledge the right of others to assemble to voice unpopular positions, simply this was non e'er the instance. At various times, groups representing racial and religious minorities, communists, and members of the LGBT community have had their Commencement Amendment rights to speech and assembly curtailed. And as noted above, organizations like the ACLU support gratis spoken communication rights regardless of whether the speech is popular.

Today, the debate about involvement groups often revolves effectually whether the Starting time Amendment protects the rights of individuals and groups to give money, and whether government can regulate the use of this money. In 1971, the Federal Election Campaign Act was passed, setting limits on how much presidential and vice-presidential candidates and their families could donate to their own campaigns.^[25] The law also allowed corporations and unions to form PACs and required public disclosure of campaign contributions and their sources. In 1974, the act was amended in an try to limit the amount of money spent on congressional campaigns. The amended law banned the transfer of union, corporate, and trade clan money to parties for distribution to campaigns.

In Buckley v. Valeo (1976), the Supreme Court upheld Congress's right to regulate elections by restricting contributions to campaigns and candidates. Even so, at the same fourth dimension, it overturned restrictions on expenditures past candidates and their families, as well equally full expenditures by campaigns.^[26] In 1979, an exemption was granted to get-out-the vote and grassroots voter registration drives, creating what has become known as the soft-money loophole; soft money was a way in which interests could spend money on behalf of candidates without being restricted by federal police. To close this loophole, Senators John McCain and Russell Feingold sponsored the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act in 2002 to ban parties from collecting and distributing unregulated money.

Some continued to argue that campaign expenditures are a class of spoken language, a position with which two recent Supreme Court decisions are consistent. The Citizens United 5. Federal Election Committee ^[27] and the McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission ^[28] cases opened the door for a substantially greater flow of money into elections. Citizens United overturned the soft money ban of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act and immune corporations and unions to spend unlimited amounts of coin on elections. Essentially, the Supreme Court argued in a 5–4 decision that these entities had free speech communication rights, much like individuals, and that gratuitous speech included campaign spending. The McCutcheon decision further extended spending allowances based on the First Amendment by hitting down aggregate contribution limits. These limits put caps on the total contributions allowed and some say accept contributed to a subsequent increase in groups and lobbying activities.

With his Harper'due south Weekly drawing of William "Boss" Tweed with a moneybag for a head, Thomas Nast provided an indelible paradigm of the corrupting power of money on politics. Some denounce "fat cat" lobbyists and the effects of large sums of money in lobbying, while others suggest that interests have every right to spend coin to reach their objectives.

Regulating Lobbying and Involvement Group Activity

While the Supreme Court has paved the style for increased spending in politics, lobbying is all the same regulated in many ways.^[29] The 1995 Lobbying Disclosure Act defined who can and cannot vestibule, and requires lobbyists and interest groups to register with the federal government.^[30] The Honest Leadership and Open Regime Human action of 2007 further increased restrictions on lobbying. For example, the human activity prohibited contact between members of Congress and lobbyists who were the spouses of other Congress members. The laws broadened the definition of lobbyist and crave detailed disclosure of spending on lobbying activity, including who is lobbied and what bills are of interest. In addition, President Obama's Executive Order 13490 prohibited appointees in the executive co-operative from accepting gifts from lobbyists and banned them from participating in matters, including the drafting of any contracts or regulations, involving the appointee'southward erstwhile clients or employer for a flow of two years. U.s.a. also accept their own registration requirements, with some defining lobbying broadly and others more than narrowly.

Second, the federal and land governments prohibit certain activities like providing gifts to lawmakers and compensating lobbyists with commissions for successful lobbying. Many activities are prohibited to prevent accusations of vote buying or currying favor with lawmakers. Some states, for instance, take strict limits on how much coin lobbyists tin spend on lobbying lawmakers, or on the value of gifts lawmakers tin accept from lobbyists. According to the Honest Leadership and Open up Regime Deed, lobbyists must certify that they have not violated the police force regarding gift giving, and the penalty for knowingly violating the police increased from a fine of $50,000 to i of $200,000. Also, revolving door laws too foreclose lawmakers from lobbying government immediately after leaving public office. Members of the Business firm of Representatives cannot annals to lobby for a year later they leave function, while senators have a two-year "cooling off" menstruation before they can officially lobby. Former cabinet secretaries must wait the same period of time later leaving their positions earlier lobbying the section of which they had been the head. These laws are designed to restrict former lawmakers from using their connections in government to give them an advantage when lobbying. Still, many one-time lawmakers do become lobbyists, including erstwhile Senate majority leader Trent Lott and former House minority leader Richard Gephardt.

Third, governments require varying levels of disclosure about the amount of money spent on lobbying efforts. The logic here is that lawmakers will think twice about accepting money from controversial donors. The other advantage to disclosure requirements is that they promote transparency. Many accept argued that the public has a right to know where candidates get their coin. Candidates may be reluctant to accept contributions from donors affiliated with unpopular interests such equally hate groups. This was i of the key purposes of the Lobbying Disclosure Act and comparable laws at the state level.

Finally, there are penalties for violating the constabulary. Lobbyists and, in some cases, regime officials can be fined, banned from lobbying, or even sentenced to prison. While state and federal laws spell out what activities are legal and illegal, the attorneys general and prosecutors responsible for enforcing lobbying regulations may be understaffed, have limited budgets, or face backlogs of work, making it difficult for them to investigate or prosecute alleged transgressions. While most lobbyists do comply with the police force, exactly how the laws change behavior is not completely understood. We know the laws preclude lobbyists from engaging in sure behaviors, such as past limiting campaign contributions or preventing the provision of certain gifts to lawmakers, but how they modify lobbyists' strategies and tactics remains unclear.

The need to strictly regulate the actions of lobbyists became specially relevant later on the activities of lobbyist Jack Abramoff were brought to calorie-free. A prominent lobbyist with ties to many of the Republican members of Congress, Abramoff used funds provided by his clients to fund reelection campaigns, pay for trips, and hire the spouses of members of Congress. Between 1994 and 2001, Abramoff, who then worked as a lobbyist for a prominent law firm, paid for eighty-five members of Congress to travel to the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.Southward. territory in the Pacific. The territory's government was a client of the firm for which he worked. At the time, Abramoff was lobbying Congress to exempt the Northern Mariana Islands from paying the federal minimum wage and to allow the territory to continue to operate sweatshops in which people worked in distressing conditions. In 2000, while representing Native American casino interests who sought to defeat anti-gambling legislation, Abramoff paid for a trip to Scotland for Tom Delay, the bulk whip in the Firm of Representatives, and an aide. Before long thereafter, Filibuster helped to defeat anti-gambling legislation in the Firm. He as well hired DeLay'southward wife Christine to inquiry the favorite charity of each member of Congress and paid her $115,000 for her efforts.^[31] In 2008, Jack Abramoff was sentenced to iv years in prison for tax evasion, fraud, and corruption of public officials.^[32] He was released early, in December 2010.

Jack Abramoff (eye) began his lifetime engagement in politics with his involvement in the 1980 presidential campaign of Ronald Reagan (left) while an undergraduate at Brandeis University and continued information technology with his ballot to chair of the College Republican National Committee in a campaign managed by Grover Norquist (right). Abramoff thus gained unique access to influential politicians, upon which he capitalized in his after piece of work equally a DC lobbyist. Since his release from federal prison in 2010 after being convicted for illegal lobbying activity, Abramoff has become an outspoken critic of the lobbying industry.[footnote]http://gawker.com/5856082/corrupt-lobbyist-jack-abramoffs-plan-to-finish-corrupt-lobbying (March 1, 2016).[/footnote]

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Source: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/odessa-texasgovernment/chapter/interest-groups/

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