Olympia, Wash. - Citizens walking to meet their legislators
What do you call it when 500 lobbyists - all in one room - are planning strategies to convince politicians to support one thing? Some might argue the end of our democratic system. But on Jan. 26, these lobbyists represented the true essence of democracy.
Citizen activists flexed their muscles Tuesday when 500 citizens descended on Olympia Wash., to lobby their elected officials in support of the environment.
In a church several blocks from the dome-shaped legislative building in Olympia, pews were filled with people wearing green scarves at 8:30 a.m., patiently waiting as the last few people trickled in. Standing at the altar was the founder of People for Puget Sound, and the creator of Lobby Day - Kathy Fletcher.
The Environmental Priorities Coalition, an organization in Washington made up of many other environmental groups, facilitated the Lobby Day event by scheduling meetings and training sessions for citizens to lobby their representatives.
The Coalition provided material support and strategies on the three priorities for this year’s Lobby Day to citizens from various legislative districts that make up Washington: Clean up polluted stormwater and waterways; ban the endocrine disruptor Bisphenol-A used in materials for baby bottles, food and beverage containers; and sustain environmental protections in the budget.
Before founding People for Puget Sound, Fletcher worked for the government agency Puget Sound Water Quality Authority, which has evolved into the Puget Sound Partnership. Fletcher is passionate about citizen involvement so she started Lobby Day in 1992 to advocate for direct democracy and citizen action in policy decisions regarding the environment.
“The only thing that was going to save Puget Sound was getting citizens together,” Fletcher said.
Petitions show a large group of people care but they have little impact on government decisions, Jessica Steinberg from the People for Puget Sound said. What’s more effective is visiting the offices of Washington’s elected officials with a group of people echoing the same position.
“Everybody here is an individual, if each one didn’t come than you're missing an important voice,” Mark Johnston from the Sierra Club said.
Naomi Botkin, volunteer for the People for Puget Sound, took the day off of work to travel to Olympia and lobby her representatives. Botkin said she would much rather take the day off of work to lobby and contribute to the voices of citizens generally unheard among the mass of business lobbyists whom do it every day.
“That’s their 9 to 5,’ Botkin said, “to lobby for or against bills that are good or not for the corporation.”
Business lobbyists work hand and hand with campaign contributions, which creates policy on an uneven playing field because businesses can spend vast amounts of money on political campaigns, Mike Sato from the People for Puget Sound said.
Sometimes these lobbyists don’t even live in Olympia, or even work for the same company. These individuals are contract lobbyists, flown in to Washington to lobby against a proposed pollution tax one day, then flown somewhere else to lobby for proposed tax cuts in another state the next.
Environmental organizations have lobbyists too. Although, their paychecks come from subscriptions and donations to the organizations so they’re generally paid less than business lobbyists who can make up to a half a million dollars or more a year, Sato said.
“The paid guns are plentiful out here,” said Jerry Joyce, a Washington resident who participated in Lobby Day.
Environmental lobbyists for the organizations in the Coalition work together by following the drafting process of bills that could impact the environment, Chris Miller, from the People for Puget Sound said.
If provisions in the bill work counter to the organization’s principles, then the lobbyists provide necessary information to craft messages for the organizations to inform citizens to come together as one voice and speak out to their legislators, Miller said.
The nearly 500 Washington citizens were not paid to participate in Lobby Day, but paid $30 for the food, materials and transportation that brought them all together in Olympia to meet their elected representatives.
Many of the Lobby Day participants were pleased with the responses from their elected officials toward the three priorities, even though they were given grim news about budgeting for certain environmental protections, such as toxic cleanup.
State Sen. Kevin Ranker from the 40th district was sympathetic to the ten constituents who crowded around his conference table, but was honest about the state’s economic situation and said more cuts to environmental protections are likely.
This year, the Coalition set up a large tent near the legislative building where they had information and even a baby-bottle-toss game to raise awareness about the harmful chemical bisphenol-A.
The work of these part-time lobbyists/citizens is far from over. The goal next year will be to broaden the presence of the Lobby Day group by tapping into the Coalition’s membership bases to get better citizen representation from districts in central, east and southeast Washington, said Rein Atteman, organizer of the Lobby Day event.
The nearly 500 people – green scarves wrapped around their necks – walking around the legislative buildings and squeezing into their representatives offices was hard to miss, even for legislators who didn’t have any visitors from the Lobby Day group.
The quantity of citizen lobbyists carried meaning far beyond the initiatives the group had went to Olympia for, it gave reassurance that individuals can have a voice in their governance.
“For [the representatives] to see a huge group of people come here to say that we support them is really inspiring,” said Jihan Grettenberger, a sophomore at Pacific Lutheran University “My voice in large numbers may matter.”
Citizen activists flexed their muscles Tuesday when 500 citizens descended on Olympia Wash., to lobby their elected officials in support of the environment.
In a church several blocks from the dome-shaped legislative building in Olympia, pews were filled with people wearing green scarves at 8:30 a.m., patiently waiting as the last few people trickled in. Standing at the altar was the founder of People for Puget Sound, and the creator of Lobby Day - Kathy Fletcher.
The Environmental Priorities Coalition, an organization in Washington made up of many other environmental groups, facilitated the Lobby Day event by scheduling meetings and training sessions for citizens to lobby their representatives.
The Coalition provided material support and strategies on the three priorities for this year’s Lobby Day to citizens from various legislative districts that make up Washington: Clean up polluted stormwater and waterways; ban the endocrine disruptor Bisphenol-A used in materials for baby bottles, food and beverage containers; and sustain environmental protections in the budget.
Before founding People for Puget Sound, Fletcher worked for the government agency Puget Sound Water Quality Authority, which has evolved into the Puget Sound Partnership. Fletcher is passionate about citizen involvement so she started Lobby Day in 1992 to advocate for direct democracy and citizen action in policy decisions regarding the environment.
“The only thing that was going to save Puget Sound was getting citizens together,” Fletcher said.
Petitions show a large group of people care but they have little impact on government decisions, Jessica Steinberg from the People for Puget Sound said. What’s more effective is visiting the offices of Washington’s elected officials with a group of people echoing the same position.
“Everybody here is an individual, if each one didn’t come than you're missing an important voice,” Mark Johnston from the Sierra Club said.
Naomi Botkin, volunteer for the People for Puget Sound, took the day off of work to travel to Olympia and lobby her representatives. Botkin said she would much rather take the day off of work to lobby and contribute to the voices of citizens generally unheard among the mass of business lobbyists whom do it every day.
“That’s their 9 to 5,’ Botkin said, “to lobby for or against bills that are good or not for the corporation.”
Business lobbyists work hand and hand with campaign contributions, which creates policy on an uneven playing field because businesses can spend vast amounts of money on political campaigns, Mike Sato from the People for Puget Sound said.
Sometimes these lobbyists don’t even live in Olympia, or even work for the same company. These individuals are contract lobbyists, flown in to Washington to lobby against a proposed pollution tax one day, then flown somewhere else to lobby for proposed tax cuts in another state the next.
Environmental organizations have lobbyists too. Although, their paychecks come from subscriptions and donations to the organizations so they’re generally paid less than business lobbyists who can make up to a half a million dollars or more a year, Sato said.
“The paid guns are plentiful out here,” said Jerry Joyce, a Washington resident who participated in Lobby Day.
Environmental lobbyists for the organizations in the Coalition work together by following the drafting process of bills that could impact the environment, Chris Miller, from the People for Puget Sound said.
If provisions in the bill work counter to the organization’s principles, then the lobbyists provide necessary information to craft messages for the organizations to inform citizens to come together as one voice and speak out to their legislators, Miller said.
The nearly 500 Washington citizens were not paid to participate in Lobby Day, but paid $30 for the food, materials and transportation that brought them all together in Olympia to meet their elected representatives.
Many of the Lobby Day participants were pleased with the responses from their elected officials toward the three priorities, even though they were given grim news about budgeting for certain environmental protections, such as toxic cleanup.
State Sen. Kevin Ranker from the 40th district was sympathetic to the ten constituents who crowded around his conference table, but was honest about the state’s economic situation and said more cuts to environmental protections are likely.
This year, the Coalition set up a large tent near the legislative building where they had information and even a baby-bottle-toss game to raise awareness about the harmful chemical bisphenol-A.
The work of these part-time lobbyists/citizens is far from over. The goal next year will be to broaden the presence of the Lobby Day group by tapping into the Coalition’s membership bases to get better citizen representation from districts in central, east and southeast Washington, said Rein Atteman, organizer of the Lobby Day event.
The nearly 500 people – green scarves wrapped around their necks – walking around the legislative buildings and squeezing into their representatives offices was hard to miss, even for legislators who didn’t have any visitors from the Lobby Day group.
The quantity of citizen lobbyists carried meaning far beyond the initiatives the group had went to Olympia for, it gave reassurance that individuals can have a voice in their governance.
“For [the representatives] to see a huge group of people come here to say that we support them is really inspiring,” said Jihan Grettenberger, a sophomore at Pacific Lutheran University “My voice in large numbers may matter.”
The goal next year will be to broaden the presence of the Lobby Day group by tapping into the Coalition’s membership bases to get better citizen representation from districts in central, east and southeast Washington.
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