It is no secret I am an engineer. And not one of those new fangled software designer type “engineers” but an old school physics and math type engineer, specifically a chemical engineer. But because I volunteered for everything at work (one of my similarly afflicted friends and I have co-labeled this as pathological volunteering syndrome) my career took me off onto a number of rabbit trails that were decidedly not the norm for an engineer.
One of those was becoming a lobbyist. A perfect storm of circumstances converged to put me into that world for seven years of my career. First my only long-time rival in the corporate world, ironically a guy whose job I had saved early in his career, succeeded in moving me out of managing the chemical complex I ran. For reasons I still do not understand he moved me off into the area of government affairs so he could put someone else in my former position. He was not trying to do me any favors but in fact he did me a solid without intending to. Second, I had become over time, our company’s main representative for our national trade association which was the lobbying arm for our industry and third, my chairmanship of the state chamber of commerce automatically put me in the middle of representing all the large businesses in our state when it came to regulations and legislation. So, I went from being the Vice President of my division to being the Vice President of Governmental Affairs.
I had responsibility for defeating any legislation on the state level that was bad for my company and for helping to do the same through our trade association on the national level. That meant being a witness at hearings of committees and subcommittees both in our state capital and in Washington D.C. Since Arkansas does not have a full-time legislature that work focused around the legislative sessions that occurred every two years and the meetings that occurred between sessions. In D.C. Congress meets pretty much all the time so I spent more time there than in Arkansas. We generally only tried to defeat bills rather than to create our own legislation because we did not have the public or congressional support to pass our own bills. Our industry stayed in a very defensive posture.
If you think about the Hollywood version of lobbying you think of lavish golf outings, cruising around on yachts and “fact finding” junkets to Morocco or the French Riviera. In reality, not so much. The ethics rules in D.C. are crazy strict to the point that you can’t even buy a lowly staffer of a congressman a cup of coffee, much less treat the legislators themselves to fancy meals or entertainment. In fact, in seven years of working in D.C. I spent a grand total of $0 on meals, drinks or entertainment for congressmen or their staff. The job, instead, entailed meeting with legislators or their staff and presenting them our side of the story when it came to proposed regulation or legislation that we disagreed with. Sometimes they agreed with me and sometimes they basically threw me out of their offices but my job was to show them the unintended consequences of passing what my industry felt were bad laws.
On occasion I testified before House or Senate committees about proposed legislation. For a period of time I was basically the voice of the industry because of one thing that separated my company from the pack. We were family owned and did not have shareholders and were not publicly traded like other large corporations. That meant our owner did not fear stockholder backlash from negative publicity and because he was a feisty guy who had built an empire from nothing, he authorized me to go out and tell the truth even if it wasn’t popular. The mega-corporation members of our industry were terrified of being seen unfavorably in press coverage of hearings so as the only volunteer I was the guy who got to be on camera with the bright lights shining in my face. Personally, I loved it. I’ve always been an adrenaline junky and it doesn’t get much more intense than having an anti-oil, anti-chemical Senator berating you when you are sworn in as a witness. I always had the facts to back up my statements and as an engineer I understood the science much better than the politicians did. Those guys deal with a myriad of issues and we always used to say they were a mile wide and an inch deep. They and their staffers just did not have time to really learn the issues all the way through, and in fact they often voted on legislation they had not even had the time to read.
On the state level it was similar but it was less factious. Votes did not always go down party lines and state legislators really do understand that their constituents are the ones they represent. It is much closer to what our founding fathers intended government to be like, with volunteer legislators that have real jobs in the real world they do when the legislature is not in session. They see themselves as regular people, not as celebrities and will always make time to listen to you.
I hate to make it sound so mundane but for the most part it was just like any other white collar job. Lots of meetings, perhaps a few more social gatherings. Lots of dry time studying documents, reports and proposed legislation. Lots of time building PowerPoints and writing position papers. A few interviews with the press, an occasional appearance on a Sunday morning news talk show and writing opinion pieces for magazines or newspapers. It was very easy compared to running a chemical complex. Emergencies did not occur on weekends or nights so you could plan your life better than a complex manager can. You were not on call like I had been for the previous 20 years. Was it fun? Yeah, it was. But so was running the plant. The thing that I really liked the most about the lobbyist job is that it let me build a whole new network of contacts and it helped me build a skill I could turn into a fun post career side gig.
After the seven years of doing that work our corporation was absorbed into a much larger publicly traded entity. They did not need a VP of Government Affairs because they already had one, so I expected to be part of the collateral damage that accompanies any change of ownership. To my surprise the new company was being run by a couple of old friends of mine and they moved me back into my former site VP job where I stayed until I slightly early retired.
I no longer need an income but I enjoy doing some meaningful work so I side gig in a few consulting areas. Three of the five types of consulting I’ve experimented with so far have included lobbying as a core part of the job. Having testified to the Big’s in D.C. adds seriously to my street cred in the lobbyist community and having also worked the state level for years makes me one of the more recognizable faces in that world. Interesting projects have tended to seek me out in spite of my not advertising myself, and I owe a lot of that to my seven year detour into the world of influencing others. It taught me a couple of things. First, just because something happens to you that looks like a step down it might turn out to be one of the best things to ever happen to you so always give it a try before you get mad and quit. And secondly, every detour in life is a chance to learn something new and meet new people. I’ll always be grateful for that period in my life because it adds value to my retired side gigging life every day.
So tell me:
Do you see lobbyists as the devil?
Have you ever been assigned a job you didn’t want that turned out to be the best thing since ice cream?
And remember if you’d like to comment just click on the title of this post!
Another great tidbit I did not know about you. You are correct that sometimes what seems like a demotion can actually lead to further advancement than the path you had wanted to take in the first place.
I think the refusal to see change as inherently bad is a great life skill, I always approached new assignments optimistically and that helped me be successful.
You are making me rethink what I thought I “knew” – that all lobbyists were lawyers leeching off of society and paying off congressman, team big oil and big chemical are evil and that many c level execs are out of touch with the common man. Thanks for a dose of reality.
It is always easy to demonize people but when you get up close almost everyone wants to be providing a useful service to the world and wants to feel proud about what they do. Most of the lobbyists I know are wonderful caring people and politicians from Harry Reid to Nancy Pelosi to Bill Clinton are genuinely nice people who honestly do care about the people they represent. They are not a bit more perfect than the rest of us but you’d be hard pressed to find a nicer group to have a beer or a cup of coffee with.
I think that lobbyists are like most other professions…there is both “good” and “bad” to the profession and the truth is a bit of a mixture. I appreciate the interesting perspective you’ve provided. And I think keeping an open mind to change is important. It can lead you to some interesting paths like it did for you.
Thanks, Gary, I agree. Keeping an open mind is kind of related to gratitude or optimism. Not everything, even things intended to do you harm turn out to be harmful!
Your job sounds important. I bet that’s a nice feeling. The closest I got to lobbying was working as a temp for the Humane Society of America in suburban DC. DC is such a cool place to be part of something bigger. Do you live there?
No, the seven years I worked up there a lot, I still lived in Arkansas. I think I added up that I spent 240 days out of 365 on the road during a typical year while I was doing that work but I’ve always been a fan of travel so it did not bother me. I did enjoy DC, the restaurants and the buzz of activity in that place. Plus I loved running on the river trail and down to the monuments.
I am surprised that a lobbyist can bring real and genuine issues to Congressmen’s attention without bribing them. I am not American and all I have heard about lobbyists is that they are only interested in their bottom line, have no morals and bribe the powers that be. Of course, I guess that happens also, but I never thought lobbyists can be ethical. One learns something new every time.
I can’t imagine very many people would risk prison to bribe a congressman. After all it is just a job and there aren’t many people willing to risk their reputation and freedom to help their employer out. Actually most of the lobbyists I know are very moral and friendly people. They generally will explain both sides of the issue to legislators and their staff because they lose credibility if the act like there aren’t two legitimate sides to most issues. The process of government is slow and cumbersome but most of the people involved are just like the rest of us and are trying to do the right thing. But the few bad actors get all the press coverage so it really distorts things to the public. Thanks for commenting!