Lobbying

Consumer advocate Ralph Nader and Proposition 103 author Harvey Rosenfield released charts Monday showing that insurance industry lobbying costs in California in 1989 and 1990 exceeded $19 million, not including campaign contributions to legislators or the cost of lawyers engaged in anti-Proposition 103 lawsuits. Spending by insurers vastly exceeded lobbying costs of the California Trial Lawyers Assn., with which Nader and Rosenfield are aligned in fighting proposals for no-fault auto insurance.

Re "GOP Puts Lobbying Scandal in Bull's-Eye," Jan. 9 Putting Rep. David Dreier (R-San Dimas) in charge of the House's lobbying reform is like putting Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio) in charge of a seminar on ethics in the House. Let's reframe the term by calling it "elected officials breaking gift rules." The lobbyists are going to do their jobs in getting our representatives to vote in their clients' interests. If a lobbyist offers more than the $50 gift allowed to a member of Congress, then it is up to the elected official to know the law and turn the gift back.

Washington's political gridlock has at least one advantage: It allowed businesses and interest groups to reduce their lobbying spending last year, the first time that's happened in more than a decade. Overall lobbying expenditures were $3.27 billion in 2011, down from $3.51 billion the year before, according to a preliminary analysis of disclosure forms by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. It marked the first time since 1999 that year-over-year lobbying spending dropped in Washington.

  Washington's political gridlock has had at least one advantage: It allowed businesses and interest groups to reduce their lobbying expenses last year, the first time that's happened in more than a decade. Overall, the amount spent on lobbying was nearly $3.3 billion last year, down from $3.5 billion the year before, according to a preliminary analysis of disclosure forms by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. It marked the first time since 1999 that spending on lobbying, year-over-year, dropped in Washington.

The grandmothers of Elian Gonzalez on Friday called on two California Democrats, Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Rep. Maxine Waters of Los Angeles, as they concluded a week of intense and emotional lobbying to return the 6-year-old boy to his father in Cuba. So far, their campaign is bearing fruit on Capitol Hill. Legislation to declare Elian a U.S. citizen appears stalled, if not dead. Numerous lawmakers from both parties in recent days have declared their opposition.

Artists and representatives from statewide arts organizations are gathering today and Friday in the state capital to support continued government arts funding. The Joint Congress of the Arts represents the first opportunity for arts organizations scattered throughout the state to meet with their state representatives, as well as California Arts Council officials, said Adam Gottlieb, a spokesman for the arts council.

City officials, trying to spare residents the more unsightly aspects of cellular technology, are now under pressure from some homeowners to allow wireless antennas to proliferate at a more rapid pace. City Council members were prepared last week to vote on a revised zoning law permitting antenna towers to sprout in some nonindustrial areas, but not in residential neighborhoods.

Of all the special interests vying for the new mayor's attention, one group hopes to gain momentum by drafting behind Richard Riordan's passion for cycling. The Bicycle Advisory Committee, set up by former Mayor Tom Bradley 19 years ago to promote cycling as a transportation alternative, has made some gains, including the installation of hundreds of miles of bicycle paths and lanes throughout Los Angeles, committee Chairman Alex Baum said.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday asked University of California officials to consider building campuses in Diamond Bar and the Antelope Valley. "Diamond Bar would seem to be a logical area for this new Southern California campus, inasmuch as it is physically located at the mid-point between the three existing UC campuses in the Los Angeles Basin," said Supervisor Pete Schabarum, whose district includes Diamond Bar.

One of the costliest lobbying wars in memory will crank into high gear this week as the Senate begins debate on the most sweeping overhaul of financial industry regulation in more than half a century. Wall Street and other critics are flooding the halls of Congress and mounting multimillion-dollar advertising campaigns to argue that the legislation would discourage innovation, reduce profits and harm U.S. competitiveness in the global economy. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce alone reported spending $30.9 million on lobbying in the last three months, much of it on financial regulation, with major industrial and other corporations weighing in too. President Obama and congressional Democrats, meantime, are seizing every opportunity to warn that failure to create more effective financial oversight could bring on a repeat of the economic crisis that has cost millions of ordinary people their homes, jobs and financial security.