A growing number of professional associations today are adopting a hybrid model when it comes to getting their messages before lawmakers. Scott Pace, partner at Little Rock-based Impact Management Group, said industry groups are increasingly combining staff personnel with third-party lobbying groups to ensure members’ concerns are heard in the statehouse.
“There are really three models that can exist in the association world,” said Pace, former CEO of the Arkansas Pharmacists Association. “You’ve got the model where the association just outsources all of its advocacy to a lobbying group, which makes sense for super-small organizations that don’t have the resources to have somebody full time in-house. Then there is the model where the association does it all themselves and has all of the expertise and lobbying activity in-house.
“Then there’s the hybrid, which is how it was when I was at the Pharmacists Association and how they still operate today. They have both in-house government relations people, but they also use contract lobbying, as well. I think that’s the most common today.”
Pace said the popularity of the hybrid model starts with the experience and strategy that third-party lobbyist firms offer. Working together with on-staff subject matter experts, the firms generally provide a solid track record of results that have created needed connections with lawmakers along the way.
“I think the key word is relationships,” Pace said. “People don’t just need relationships when they need something; they need to maintain relationships all the time to know where all the pieces fit together. The dynamics of state government are changing daily, and having someone who understands those relationships and the dynamics that are going on within the legislature or within the agencies or within the executive branch is just very, very valuable.
“You can’t get up to speed on that in a timely manner very easily if you’re in the middle of fending off an issue or trying to advance an issue. It’d be like asking a surgeon to go and perform a procedure that they’ve never done before or haven’t done in four or five years without understanding how things have changed. That’s really what we do; we monitor the landscape on issues, on personalities, on relationships. That’s what a good lobbying team will do.”
As for the work itself, Pace said while individual strategies vary according to the issue and goals, the way such lobbying is carried out often follows some tried-and-true steps.
“Some of the general processes are the same [among clients] because the process of creating a piece of legislation is the same,” he said. “It’s still Schoolhouse Rock — you know, how a bill becomes a law. You have to have an idea, you have to have a draft, and you have to go through the process. Those things are static.
“What informs those processes is unique to each individual client, so, for example, if a client comes in and says, ‘We want to accomplish X no matter what,’ it could mean our No. 1 job is to help people understand what is possible under whatever framework currently exists. The political climate changes day to day, and what issues are of highest importance changes over time, as well. Part of our job is to help folks understand what the climate is and how their issue fits into that climate.”
Pace said just like in the marketplace, the more flexible and nimble a client is in adapting to changing legislative winds, the better they can adjust when inevitable hurdles appear.
“What you might want to have happen for your company may be possible but not in the way that you want it to happen,” he said. “Part of what we do is to try to help tweak the client’s wants within the framework of what we think is achievable, what legislators are interested in or what the executive branch is interested in.
“That’s not to say that happens 100 percent of the time, but the most effective lobbying efforts are when the client is willing to be malleable to on-the-ground intelligence to help shape their request into something that is not just sellable but is something that is meaningful for the members.”
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