1. Interest Groups 11/28/2011

2. Clearly Communicated Learning Objectives in Written Form Upon completion of this course, students will be able to: – discuss and critically analyze political events in the United States government – students will be able to identify and explain the role of informal institutions and their effect on policy.

3. Office Hours and Readings Pp 130-151 Office Hours – Tuesday 8-12 – Wednesday 8-10:30

4. Resources of Interest Groups Money and Size Intensity Cohesion Access

5. TACTICS OF INTEREST GROUPS Direct Lobbying

6. Traditional Interest group tactic All about making contacts Exchanging Resources

7. Direct Lobbying An Exchange of Resources What Resources do interest groups have for legislators? What resources do legislators have for interest groups

8. The Revolving Door 1 year moratorium People move out of Congress and on to “K” Street

9. Why former Congressmen? Familiarity Ability to get access

10. Direct Lobbying is not Cheap

11. INDIRECT LOBBYING Tactics of Interest Groups

12. What is Outsider/Indirect Lobbying Pressure from outside the beltway Pressure without direct contact

13. Tactics of Indirect Lobbying Electoral Threats Using the media to shape opinionmedia Reports and publications

14. Politicians dislike indirect tactics

15. ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL Interest groups and the electoral connection

16. Why Get involved? You want to keep people you trust in position You want to control the agenda

17. Getting the membership active Encouraging members to donate Hitlists Scorecards

18. How Much Can Members Give?

19. SPENDING MONEY

20. Money is a form of Political Speech Buckley v. Valeo At the federal level, fundraising is not capped Neither are expenditures

21. Political Action Committees The Money Giving Arm of an Interest Group Can Give $5,000 per candidate per election

22. Different PACs have different Goals Issue PACS Labor PACS Ideological PACS Leadership PACS

23. PACS Give to Safe Seats Money flows to safe seats Giving money to losers has no return on investment If I wanted to buy seats, I would give to underdogs and closer races

24. Pacs Give To Incumbents I care about the issues, not the label I want to keep my supporters in office Keep my enemies out

25. PACS Give to People Who Already Support them “Corporations Love Everyone” You want them to get reelected You want them to continue to support your ideas

26. PACS do not Give To Undecided Members Money could convince them to vote my way But what if it doesn’t Its safer to hang on to it

27. PACS do not give to their enemies My money is not going to change their votes They won’t take my money anyway

28. The Goal Of PAC Money Access A chance to meet with legislators Ensure my views are represented

29. UNCONVENTIONAL STRATEGIES

30. What are Unconventional Strategies Things outside of traditional lobbying Using events and media coverage to gather support Can border on legality

31. Why Groups Use Unconventional Strategies Lack the Traditional Resources of powerful interest groups Convential strategies may not work The group is committed to the message

32. Problems of Unconvential Strategies Wrong CoverageNo Coverage

33. Unconventional Strategies Can Backfire

34. 9 out of 10 times Grassroots is a euphemism for poor or unorganized

35. Astroturf Movements “fake grassroots” Sponsored by a few donors, a union, or a corporation Ross Perot was one of the first

36. PROBLEMS OF INTEREST GROUPS

37. The System is Biased It is not a fair system All components of interest group power are not distributed evenly

38. Representational Inequality

39. Access Inequality Benefits Matter Some Groups will never form Some groups will form easily

40. Resource Inequalities Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission Communications can include the magic words Cannot be in conjunction with a candidate or party

41. Independent Expenditures in 2010 From The RightFrom The Left

42. “The Flaw in the pluralist heaven is that the heavenly chorus sings with a strong upper class accent”.