Lobbying - the Price of Influence

By: Daniel Ostrovsky
Daily Business Review
May 25, 2007

What does it cost to influence the executive branch in Florida?

Gulf Power Co. paid Fowler White Boggs & Banker $75,000 to lobby the executive branch on its behalf. Broward County paid the same firm between $10,000 and $20,000 and Volusia County between $30,000 and $40,000 to conduct executive branch lobbying.

The University of Miami paid the Fort Lauderdale-based lobbying shop Blosser & Sayfie between $10,000 and $20,000 to lobby the executive branch.

And the executive branch lobbying arm of Holland & Knight counted match-making Web site eHarmony.com among its lobbying clients.

Those are some of the highlights of compensation reports that have recently been made available for the first time over the Internet by the Florida Commission on Ethics.

Under state law, law firms and lobby shops only have to report fee amounts within certain ranges, not exact dollar amounts.

The commission has previously made reports showing how much firms collect for lobbying the Legislature available online, but the executive branch lobbying numbers were only available by going to the agency’s Tallahassee office.

Now, anyone may pull up the agency’s Web site and check how much each lobbying firm received from each of its clients for work done to influence the executive branch.

"I think it’s important for the press and the public to see how money is being used to influence the Legislature and state government," said Ben Wilcox, the executive director of Common Cause Florida. "The fact that they are extending it to the executive branch — I think it’s important for the public to see how money is being spent to influence public policy at that level."

Wilcox’s assessment is not shared by some lobbyists. Aventura-based lobbyist Ron Book unsuccessfully attempted to persuade a federal judge in Tallahassee to stop the state from enforcing the law requiring him to disclose client fees by arguing that the law was unconstitutional.

But he and his lobbying colleagues have appealed that decision and also have a challenge pending in Leon Circuit Court.

"I don’t think disclosure of fees is an appropriate or reasonable thing to do, nor do I think it’s a legal thing to do," Book said.

A random sampling of the compensation reports for the first three months of the year submitted by the state’s high-profile lobbying firms shows that many firms are collecting similar amounts of money for lobbying the executive branch as they are for lobbying the Legislature.

Leading lobbying firms Smith & Ballard, Dutko Poole McKinley, Johnson & Blanton, GrayRobinson and Fowler White all collected between $500,000 and $1 million for executive lobbying activities. They received similar amounts or more than $1 million for lobbying the Legislature.

Tew Cardenas collected between $250,000 and $500,000 for lobbying the executive branch and both Greenberg Traurig and Holland & Knight made between $100,000 and $250,000 for executive branch lobbying, according to the firm’s compensation reports. That was in line with the firm’s compensation for lobbying the Legislature.

Lobbyists say that attempting to influence the executive branch is different from lobbying the Legislature. For instance, while legislators are politicians who have to wage election campaigns, agency heads tend to be business people who are less concerned with politics.

Furthermore, the executive branch tends to deal with a different set of issues than the legislative branch and lobbyists sometimes attract different clients to influence

"I don’t think disclosure of fees is an appropriate or reasonable thing to do, nor do I think it’s a legal thing to do," Book said.

A random sampling of the compensation reports for the first three months of the year submitted by the state’s high-profile lobbying firms shows that many firms are collecting similar amounts of money for lobbying the executive branch as they are for lobbying the Legislature.

Leading lobbying firms Smith & Ballard, Dutko Poole McKinley, Johnson & Blanton, GrayRobinson and Fowler White all collected between $500,000 and $1 million for executive lobbying activities. They received similar amounts or more than $1 million for lobbying the Legislature.

Tew Cardenas collected between $250,000 and $500,000 for lobbying the executive branch and both Greenberg Traurig and Holland & Knight made between $100,000 and $250,000 for executive branch lobbying, according to the firm’s compensation reports. That was in line with the firm’s compensation for lobbying the Legislature.

Lobbyists say that attempting to influence the executive branch is different from lobbying the Legislature. For instance, while legislators are politicians who have to wage election campaigns, agency heads tend to be business people who are less concerned with politics.

Furthermore, the executive branch tends to deal with a different set of issues than the legislative branch and lobbyists sometimes attract different clients to influence each branch of government

Some lobbyists say that a successful lobbying practice depends on having a staff that’s experienced in both legislative and executive lobbying.

"At Holland and Knight we strive to offer from A to Z —anything that our clients might need as it deals with government," said Garrett Blanton, a public policy adviser at the firm.

Blanton said clients who retain the firm to lobby the executive branch tend to do so based on an annual retainer arrangement. He said many legislative clients hire lobbyists to represent them only for the length of the legislative session.

Thus, lobbyists say, while legislative lobbying peaks during the session, executive lobbying takes place all year.

Lobbyists say clients who need to lobby the executive branch are those who are concerned about state procurement or state licensing and regulation.

Legislative clients, on the other hand, are more concerned with passing or blocking legislation or being included in the state budget.

"The Legislature has such an enormous impact and discretion over so many issues that it’s natural that much of the lobbying activity is going to take place in the legislature," said Justin Sayfie, a founding shareholder of Blosser & Sayfie. Sayfie’s firm took in between $100,000 and $250,000 in both executive and legislative lobbying categories.

Some lobbying firms make great money by choosing to focus their lobbying efforts on one branch of government.

Book, for instance, reported collecting between $50,000 and $100,000 in fees for lobbying the executive branch and over $1 million in fees for legislative lobbying.

"My practice is obviously more heavily weighted to the legislative side but over the course of the year my fees increase on the executive side," Book said.

Akerman Senterfitt also collected a lot more money for lobbying the Legislature than the executive branch. The firm took in between $50,000 and $100,000 for executive branch lobbying and between $250,000 and $500,000 for legislative lobbying.

As with other professions, there is specialization in the field of lobbying. Sayfie says that some lobbyists lobby both the executive and legislative branches, but in other cases experience dictates which type of lobbying a person decides to do.

"There are some people that do both," Sayfie said, "although in some cases people that lobby the legislature are former legislators and former legislative staffers and likewise the executive branch lobbying you will find very strong lobbyists who are former executive branch staffers."

Nelson Diaz, a lobbyist at Becker & Poliakoff, said it is sometimes harder to establish relationships in the executive branch than it is in the Legislature.

"Top heads of agencies are harder to see and oftentimes are not politicians in the normal sense of the word," he said.

Diaz said that while Gov. Charlie Crist has been open to different points of view, in general, gaining access to the governor can be an especially tough task.

Election campaign contributions can often translate to access to the candidate, Diaz said. But he said the contributions one needs to make tend to be greater in a gubernatorial campaign than in a local race.

"Those people who are able to contribute the most during a very expensive campaign process were able to spend more time with candidates before they got elected and so they were able to build a relationship early on," Diaz said.

Diaz said that executive lobbyists tend to be older than their legislative counterparts.

"Generally it’s not really the young guys," he said. "Generally [executive lobbyists are] people who have been lobbying for a long time. With this governor, it’s people who started lobbying when this governor was senator and knew him from back then."

But other lobbyists say it’s harder to build relationships in the Legislature.

"On the legislative side, there is a whole lot more relationship building that you’ve got to do," Book said. "Simply having that gubernatorial access isn’t going to get you where you need to get."

Richard McFarlain, a lawyer with Carr Allison in Tallahassee who formerly was chief lobbyist for The Florida Bar, agreed.

"Executive branch, you have agency heads and cabinet people with all kinds of aides that you can lobby," he said. "When you are working the Legislature you need the members themselves." n

Web Extra:
Interactive Lobbying Firm Compensation Report

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