We are looking for new and experienced lobbyist familiar with Lobbying on a Shoestring willing to share a lobbying story as a reviewer of the 4th Edition. Maybe we have been working side by side for years practicing a much misunderstood and maligned profession called “lobbying.” Maybe we worked together developing a strategic plan for your organizations lobbying campaign. Maybe you were given Lobbying as a text in political science class and launched a lobbying career using Lobbying as a guide.

The two goals in the first edition of Lobbying were to stress the importance of building a campaign infrastructure composed of a district-based grassroots network of trained affected constituents and to expand the traditional role of a lobbyist to trainer and facilitator.

We developed two rules:

1. Elected and appointed officials make different decisions when watched by affected constituents, and 2. Lobbying is just getting the right information to the right person at the right time.

In later editions we added the concept of the Hero Opportunity and a 3rd rule acknowledging that:

3. Elected and appointed officials making decisions weigh opinion as equal to fact.

In this 4th Edition I have been joined as coauthor by Margaret Monsell, an attorney who has served as legislative counsel at Mass Law Reform and, before that, General Counsel at Senate Ways and Means. She has been able to update (as well as clarify, deepen and translate into plan English) the important and often confusing rules that govern the legislative process.

Would you be willing to read some portions of the 4th Edition of Lobbying on a Shoestring and give us a comment (a short paragraph or whatever you feel is appropriate) that we can use to promote the book? Indicate your willingness in a comment or response here and we can follow up.

Lobbying is still being published and distributed by Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education in soft cover and on line to hundreds of legal service programs, public policy educators and advocates for low income people across the country, and we’re eager to supply them with the most up-to-date information.

Neither Margaret nor I have be paid or reimbursed for our work on this edition. Our goal is to help MCLE get this book out to the hundreds of folk out there who are committed to social, racial and economic justice and want to learn how to enter the policy arena and make positive change .

Peace in these hard times,

Judy.