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Using data from more than 19,000 reports filed under the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995, we analyze the distribution of lobbying on a random sample of 137 issues and find a tremendous skewness. The median issue involved only 15 interest groups, whereas 8 of the issues involved more than 300 interest groups. The top 5% of the issues accounted for more than 45% of the lobbying, whereas the bottom 50% of the issues accounted for less than 3% of the total. This distribution makes generalizations about interest group conflict difficult and helps explain why many scholars have disagreed about the abilities of lobbyists to get what they want. We also confirm and expand upon previous findings regarding the tremendous predominance of business firms in the Washington lobbying population.

Policy advocates in many states may pursue their policy agendas either by traditional legislative politics or by direct legislation. I show that this choice matters: policy outcomes resulting from direct legislation often reflect different interests than policy outcomes resulting from the legislative process, even on similar issues. Using data from California statewide elections, I analyze policies that were considered in both the legislative process and the direct legislation process, and for which the two processes led to different outcomes. I demonstrate that features of the legislature, especially party organization, can induce individual legislators to vote against their district majority preference. In the aggregate, these influences are shown to lead legislative and direct legislation outcomes to diverge.

Empirical studies on the ability of interest groups to influence legislative voting behavior are mixed. Most legislative researchers, however, have avoided studying culture war issues, such as abortion, school prayer, or homosexuality These issues often exhibit extreme levels of conflict and low levels of public and/or legislative support, precisely those conditions under which interest group influence should be weak. My research fills this gap by examining the influence of lesbian and gay interest groups on legislative voting behavior from the 95th to 104th Congresses. I use an exchange theory of interest group/legislator relationships to construct empirical models of House and Senate voting on lesbian and gay issues. I hypothesize that legislative voting is driven by partisanship, ideology, religious beliefs, and constituency opinion, with interest group influence occurring at the margins. The results of multiple regression analysis suggest that interest groups may be able to influence legislative voting behavior even when conditions are sub-optimal. I suggest that interest group influence on culture war issues is conditional, but may be more visible simply because support has been relatively low.

The Coalition for Effective Change (CEC) has been actively advocating the interests of federal managers and professionals. The organization's efforts have slowly been rewarded as the administration and Congress began intensifying its consultations with the CEC on federal service matters. CEC is currently lobbying against the enactment of the House Resolution 1185, sponsored by Rep. John Mica, which aims to increase the retirement benefit deductions of federal employees. It is also pushing for revisions in the Federal Personnel Manual's Chapters 251 and 252., The Coalition of 28 associations of federal managers and professionals has become an integral player in reinvention. The Coalition for Effective Change (CEC) has been busy in 1995, and the [...]

The tobacco lobby has been very successful in stopping anti-smoking legislation and protecting its interests in Washington, D.C.. Contributing large donations to political candidates is one way the tobacco lobby seeks to maintain its influential presence. In 1990, tobacco political action committees (PACs) donated more money in the House and Senate elections than any other agricultural PAC. The tobacco industry also contributes money to the Republican National Committee (RNC) and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and sponsors fundraising events for political candidates.