TRENDS Attends: American League of Lobbyists installs officers, honors LCP recipients at annual meeting
American League of Lobbyists installed its new officers and honored those who passed the Lobbying Certificate Program at the ALL annual meeting in Washington this week.
New officers include president - Monte Ward, Advanced Capitol Consulting; first VP - James Hickey, Day & Zimmerman; second VP - Paul Kelly, The Federal Group; secretary - Wright Andrews, Andrews & Andrews; and treasurer - Paul Kangas, Assurant. New board members include Amy Showalter, Showalter Group; Omar Franco, Becker & Poliakoff; and Carrie Bachner, Mission Concepts.
ALL also honored the 17 recipients of the 2012 Lobbying Certificate Program. Seven attended the ceremony: from left, James Warner, State and Federal Communications; Randall Jefferson, Factotum Business Solutions Government Relations; Robert Whittemore, 4Site; William Christian, Austin Copelin and Reyes; Paul Kelly The Federal Group; and Tammie Logan, National Telecommunications Cooperative Association. Association lobbyists who received the LCP this year are Logan, Jody Ruskamp-Hatz, Nebraska Children and Families Foundation; Jennifer Hernandez, First Five Nebraska; George Lynch, NYSA-ILA Training Center; and from the Southwest Airlines Pilots' Associaton, Harry Freeman, Joseph Hanson and Kevin Henry. [Editor's note: Columbia Books, parent company of Association TRENDS, is a partner in the Lobbying Certificate Program.]
Also, Mike Fulton of Arnold Agency was named the ALL Volunteer of the Year.
Political analyst Charlie Cook was the keynote speaker, and he discussed the 2012 elections and President Obama's challenge with lobbyists.
He said, "If the Republican Party were a business, you would say they have an unsustainable business model," explaining that Republicans are stronger with older than younger voters, with males than females, and with whites than with growing demographic groups of Latinos and Asians.
Also, Republicans are concerned "more with their primaries than with the elections" as most are elected into "safe seats."
"They are looking over their right shoulder, not their left," he said. But the "brand damage" is primarily at the federal level, given the strength of Republicans in state governorships and at the state government level.
In a nod to his audience, Cook said Obama might not be able to fix many problems because "his fundamental problem is not working with lobbyists or congressional staff - on either side."
"Can a president really outsource congressional liaison to Nancy (Pelosi) and Harry (Reid)? Lyndon Johnson would be turning in his grave," Cook said. He asked if anyone in the room has had a substantive conversation with the White House, and only one participant raised his hand.
"The challenges demand a better president than he was for the last four years," Cook concluded.
Howard Marlowe, outgoing president of the American League of Lobbyists, Washington, called for more action by the lobbying industry to combat "reflexive criticism" of lobbyists. "ALL will stand agains the reflexive criticism of lobbyists," he said. "Silence is not an option. We cannot accept this hostility."
In the group's effort to have lobbyist registration requirements applied more fairly and widely, ALL is working with groups such as American Bar Association, Women in Government Relations and public interest groups. Details: www.alldc.org.
