Rules for Effective Lobbying – Part 8 – Don’t Ignore the Minority Party

In today’s podcast, I talk about my eighth rule for being an effective lobbyist: don’t ignore the minority party.  There are a number of reasons supporting this rule, among them: common courtesy, you may need their votes and not realize it, you will need them on some future issue, they may raise issues that you may not have thought out, and no one likes to be ignored.

Another point I focus on in this podcast is the role of committee consultants. Every committee in the Legislature has a staff of consultants who serve the full committee. Their role is primarily to work with the chair of the committee and the majority party members of the committee as well as to analyze every bill that is referred to the committee. The minority party also has committee consultants. I’ve said previously that committee staff is your best friend in Sacramento. Well, right behind them is the minority party staff.

In the rest of the podcast, I explore the many difference between the work and role of the committee staff and the minority party consultant.  Listen to the podcast to learn the details about the many differences that can be critical to your success as an advocate. Among those differences are the bill load of the consultants, whether their bill analyses are objective and non-partisan or subjective and partisan, and if their bill analyses are public record or not.

For more advocacy tips from the faculty at McGeorge School of Law, please visit CAP·impact’s In Practice Archive. For more advocacy tips from myself, you can refer back to my previous Rules for Effective Lobbying podcasts or attend one of the next sessions of Capitol Seminars, which are hosted at the McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento.