Lobbyists are now "strategic advisers"

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Lobbying Follows Political Activity Into Dark Money
By Kent Cooper, January 1, 2014

Just as more political activity is shifting from disclosed accounts to dark money unregulated accounts, some currently disclosed lobbying activities are shifting to unregulated full service public relations/advertising/social media operations.

For some, the term ‘strategic adviser’ may replace the term ‘lobbyist.’  Even the American League of Lobbyists has changed its name to the Association of Government Relations Professionals.

In an op-ed article in the New York Times, Tom Edsall provides more examples of how the changing nature of politics has reshaped lobbying. Comments from Carter Eskew of the Glover Park Group, Ed Gillespie of Ed Gillespie Strategies, Lawrence O’Brien of the OBC Group, and Ed Rogers of the BGR Group, help describe the broadening scope of lobbying for 2014.

Edsall states, “When lobbying is merged into a behemoth of this scope, it is no longer lobbying as your parents understood the concept. It is now an integral part of a much broader system of corporate leverage and control, a system that has left the federal regulations of this new breed of influence strategists far behind.”
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