D.C. Day 3: Lobbying and Advocacy

Today we ventured to two separate advocate/lobbying groups, both with diverging interests in the public and private sectors. We had a chance to listen to a presentation at TechAmerica, a trade organization that fights for the interests of the entire technology industry on a more “horizontal” level. Representing 1,200 companies, TechAmerica is the industry's largest advocacy organization and is dedicated to helping members' top and bottom lines, according to their website. TechAmerica, although limited in staff, stood by the position that they would only advocate and lobby for the better interest of the technology industry as a whole, which mainly focused on fighting against the “demonization” of technology in certain states that were attempting to pass legislation blocking the growth of certain technological products and fields. A prime example TechAmerica gave was a successful attempt to block a bill in Maine which based legislation off of the claim that cell phones caused cancerous tumors. There was only anecdotal evidence to support that claim, and TechAmerica worked on developing a case against the legislation, which was eventually blocked.
More information on TechAmerica can be found at www.itaa.org
Our second stop was at mCapitol, a lobbying group with private clients—as opposed to TechAmerica’s “industry advocacy.” I was under the impression that mCapitol served as a more traditional example of the D.C. lobbying role. mCapitol would be hired by a company who needed representation in Washington, and mCapitol’s partners all had specific talents and experience within the Beltway. Possibly because mCapitol did not want to divulge specific information about their clientele, the answers given were generally vague or described as a “case by case” situation. More information could be found on what mCapitol actually did on their website, which divided the company strategy for their clientele into these categories: Administrative/Regulatory Assistance, Business Development/Procurement, Fundraising, Government Relations, Grassroots/Grasstops, International Representation, Lobbying, New Media, PAC Development/Management, Political and Public Policy Strategy, Political Management, Public Affairs, Research/Intelligence.
More information on mCapitol can be found on www.mcapitol.com
Visiting these lobbying groups gave one more perspective on the Insider mentality that exists in D.C. Both organizations made it evident that they wanted to break away from the “lobbyist mercenary” stereotype that they feel mainstream America holds against lobbyists. TechAmerica may have had the better argument against the “mercenary” label in that they advocate for an entire industry as opposed to individual clients. On the other hand, mCapitol made it apparent that lobbying for a client is similar to working a campaign for an aspiring elected official; hence, most of the mCapitol partners have political backgrounds. Both organizations will fight for the interests of their industry or clients, much like an attorney will support his client or a campaign staff will support the individual running for an elected position.
Although the day was not specifically tailored to the communications field in the organizations we visited, it was still an opportunity to gain more firsthand knowledge of how Washington runs as an interconnected network of individuals and organizations on the private and public side of policy and advocacy.