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The Interest Group—Staff Connection in Congress: Access and Influence in Personal, Committee, and Leadership Offices

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 2008

Jessica C. Gerrity ,
Nancy S. Hardt  and
Kathryn C. Lavelle
Jessica C. Gerrity
Affiliation:
2007–2008 Congressional Fellow
Nancy S. Hardt
Affiliation:
2007–2008 Congressional Fellow
Kathryn C. Lavelle
Affiliation:
2007–2008 Congressional Fellow
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Extract

One manual for lobbyists in Congress warns those new to the trade that “winning the confidence of staff—and maintaining it thereafter—is a prerequisite to an ongoing, successful political relationship with any political office (Wolpe 1990).” The author then details the organization and loyalties among personal and committee staffs. One thing staffers have in common is that each specializes in an issue area and thus develops expertise over the issue, the players and politics of the committee, the legislative process, the interest groups, and the constituencies involved with the legislation (Wolpe 1990). Despite the wide-ranging literature on interest group activity in Congress, few distinctions are made between the efforts of lobbyists to influence staff, or ways in which the staff-interest group relationship varies in different types of offices.

Type
Association News
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 41 , Issue 4 , October 2008 , pp. 913 - 917
Copyright
Copyright © The American Political Science Association 2008

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