Hoosier Lobbyist?
May 6, 2008 at 2:44 pm
Barack Obama at an Indianapolis rally last night:
We need the American people to have influence in Washington. We need the American people to listen to
That’s one of the differences we have, Senator Clinton and myself. She thinks that lobbyists represent real Americans. But I’ll bet in this crowd there aren’t a lot of people who are represented by lobbyists.
That’s a bet Obama would probably lose. The Indiana Registration Commission lists hundreds of state-level lobbyists. Meantime, Opensecrets.org lists 48 federally-registered lobbyists working on behalf of Indiana interests. And those are just Indiana-specific lobbyists.
Chances are most people in the Obama crowd last night have had their lives touched by the lobbyists, whether they know it or not. And whether that’s good or bad is a value for others to argue. But the fact remains: There are few Indianans, few Americans, whose are not represented in some way by lobbyists.
richarda said,
May 6, 2008 @ 6:15 pm
AARP? NRA? AFL-CIO/Teamsters/sundry breakaway unions? CASA? NAACP? AIPAC? Grange? Veterans groups ?
Who’s left?