Author Archive | Jeff Milyo

It’s been my pleasure to guest blog this week on the topic of grassroots lobbying regulations. In the four previous posts, I’ve summarized the lessons from Mowing Down the Grassroots:  existing lobbying regulations in 36 states are so broad as to cover situations in which individuals or groups communicate to other citizens about public issues […]

The benefits and costs of mandatory disclosure for grassroots lobbying campaigns are not limited to the question how much does the public need to know about a speaker versus how important is the safe harbor of anonymity for some speakers.  The process of disclosure has its own costs, a point that is not well-appreciated by […]

Grassroots lobbying involves communicating to the public about public matters; so what justifies government intervention in this area? Statements of intent from lobbying statutes in the states indicate that the primary rationale espoused for regulating grassroots lobbying is that the public has a “right to know who is speaking” and an interest in preserving “the […]

Ross Perot famously characterized lobbyists as “these guys with alligator shoes”; indeed, few vocations are less esteemed than lobbyists, especially since cable television has romanticized bail-bondsman, tattoo artists, and pawn shop owners.  In contrast to conventional lobbying, which involves paid actors communicating directly with public officials, grassroots lobbying is any effort to organize, coordinate or […]

The two pillars of representative democracy are free and open elections and free and open debate.  Every schoolchild is taught not only that the Bill of Rights enshrines citizens’ rights to speech, association and petition, but that America is great because citizens speak out on issues of public concern and bring their arguments directly to politicians. […]