It is the season for well-paid public minded advocates for all types of self-centered causes such as pharmaceutical companies, insurance conglomerates, trial lawyers and bar associations, municipalities, etc. to their retained representatives to Nashville, Washington, and each state legislature. Their purpose is to educate the duly elected legislative representative of their public minded interests in either enacting or defeating proposed laws that may affect their employers.
The origin of the public-minded term came from the earliest days of the British Parliament.
The physical layout of said building involves a large corridor between the two branches of British government, the House of Commons and the Chamber of Lords.
This was the corridor where the general public was allowed to congregate in the lobby to contact their elected representatives in each chamber to try and influence their votes on legislation that might be pending or might come before the two chambers.
Because of the location of the political maneuvering the practice became known as a “lobby.”
A spin off of General Douglas MacArthur’s famous resignation speech that “old soldiers never die, they just fade away” has been updated and adopted to lobbyists.
“Old Congressmen/Legislators never die, they just become well-paid lobbyists!”
Behind every good or bad legislation is usually a small army of influential lobbyists attempting to use their influence or finances (campaign contributions) trying to convince the elected officials of their worthwhile value to the public.
(Excerpts from “The Little Book of Answers” – Author – Doug Lennox – (2003) – MJF Books – New York, NY 1001.)