A blast of hot air from the Erie Times-News

The Erie Times-News contributed its share to the unseasonably warm Indian Summer weather today by discharging a blast of hot air with its lead editorial entitled “State lobbyists far outnumber lawmakers,” complaining that “More than 1,100 lobbyists are working tirelessly to influence the state’s 253 members of the House and Senate”

The catalyst for this lugubrious lament was the enactment of a disclosure law that went into effect last January just as the current session of the general assembly convened in Harrisburg. It required lobbyists to register and report to the state their lobbying expenses during the current session for the first time.” Now that we have one (a disclosure law),” the editorial said, “it confirms what we suspected all along. We have a huge, growing problem”.

“At least,” the editorial said, “you can see how out of hand the situation has become as Harrisburg lobbyists try to influence legislators. That’s more than four lobbyists to every lawmaker,” the editorial calculated, demonstrating once again the incurable political naivete which infects Times-News editorial writers.

“More than 1,100 working tirelessly?” Even if that were true, how in the world would the editorial writer know that? Is/are he/she/they there in the state capital to observe this supposed whirlwind of activity on a daily basis during the legislative session? I don’think so.

But in any event, it’s not true, not even close. The reality is most lobbyists register who never set foot in Harrisburg or talk to a legislator. Many of them are spokespersons for arcane interests who register in the event their interests may be addressed by pending legislation or committee hearings during the legislative session. In most cases they aren’t. But just in case they are, they’re ready to spring into action.

Even those lobbyists who regularly haunt the state capital’s hallowed hallways and chambers, local restaurants and lounges, receptions and cocktail parties rarely talk to legislators themselves. Mostly, they talk to their staff folks, of which every legislator nowadays has anywhere from three to five or more, which pretty much evens the odds, bodycount-wise.

Sure, some legislators are wined, dined and transported free to posh venues hither and yon by affluent interests hoping to gain preferred access and the legislator’s ear. One can hardly call that “tireless work.” But beyond that, lobbyists are an integral part of the legislative process, a symbiosis, which would be impossible without them.

Certainly, there are excesses, as in any enterprise. After all, legislators and lobbyists are only human. But the alternative, to limit lobbying and lobbyists as the Times-News suggests, is unacceptable, as well as unconstitutional. It’s called freedom of speech, the same constitutional provision which protects freedom of the press and enables newspaper editors to lobby legislators with no restrictions.

A “huge growing problem?” What’s the problem? The more lobbyists, the better. It simply means more citizens are participating, directly or indirectly, in the democratic process.