Is Wearing Two Hats Wrongheaded?

Politics in this country commands the passions of professionals and bystanders alike. On behalf of the United Farm Workers, an organization with which I have a long personal history and which is a lobbying client I care passionately about, I recently got into a high-decibel argument with two legislative staffers. It was after a state Capitol vote on a UFW-sponsored bill to repeal a tax break for big growers and use the revenue to fund tax credits for employers who provide health benefits for their farm workers.

I lost my temper with a few heat-of-the-moment remarks for which I have apologized both publicly and privately.

Now some in the media and several lawmakers say this encounter is so sinister that it warrants a new law prohibiting political consultants from lobbying politicians they helped elect.

Media coverage on the issue has painted me as the poster child in the push for "reform" because I am the one campaign consultant who has also registered as a lobbyist. Am I the only campaign consultant who lobbies? Of course not. I'm just the only one who has registered as a lobbyist. In fact, other campaign consultants routinely lobby legislators on behalf of their non-campaign clients, but they do it on an "informal" basis. A proposed ban on campaign consultants serving as registered lobbyists would simply perpetuate an existing underground, off-the-public-record practice. It's a wrongheaded approach.

Setting aside the question of whether such a prohibition would pass constitutional muster -- do they really have the right to tell me that I may not lobby on behalf of a cause I care about? -- the best approach to this situation and, indeed, to all instances of potential conflicts of interest is full disclosure in the public record. All political consultants who lobby should be pressured to register, as I do, rather than do their lobbying outside of public scrutiny.

Moreover, the willingness of some in the media to believe that men and women who hold public office are merely putty in the hands of political consultants is a blanket insult to the integrity of all those who navigate the shoals of public and private interests regularly and well.

Many California newspapers, including The Times, employ lobbyists in Sacramento. They appear in force whenever proposals are advanced that affect their clients' interests, such as increases in the tax on publications.