I AM THE FORCE

I know I've been rather hard on the Wisconsin Legislature in the last couple of months, so in the holiday spirit, I'll turn to different matters.

Isn't it amazing how many ineffectual lobbyists there are in the state of Wisconsin? First, you have the association guys, like Roth or Benforado, who are either harmlesly incompetent or just secure enough in their jobs to basically never produce again. There are the younger contractors with bad judgment and worse results, like Bright and Bentley. Then, you have old contract lobbyists, like Hanson or Gerrard -- if he's still alive, with huge retainers who never even set foot in the Capitol of today. Another consistent problem is that virtually all of them treat staff as second-class citizens. Broydrick comes immediately to mind. They know you when they need you for something, but otherwise you're pretty much invisible to them. Speaking of Bill, we also have a few lobbyists that take any paying client regardless of obvious conflicts. Ethically challenged, one could say. I've also heard contract lobbyists who rejoice when the client's issue goes unresolved, because then they can retain the contract into the next session. Instead of trying to win, these guys just try to keep hanging on. It's too bad that many principals out there are so clueless that they never learn they're being hoodwinked by incompetent or unethical lobbyists. We also have those in the category of partisan hacks who kill their own agenda out of their own need to stay in the partisan spotlight -- Scholz, Schimming and Wineke are great examples. And, I mustn't forget to mention those local lobbyists who are laughed at for their combination of incompetence and irrelevance like Wadium and Serpe. And, I won't name names, but a Finance staffer in a position to know recently described the big boys at WMC, the Realtors, and WEAC as "soft, lazy and arrogant". They rely on Leadership of one persuasion or the other, and forget that the Legislature includes a few others who make decisions. Summing up, the majority of the Wisconsin lobbying corps is bad, bad, bad.

To be fair, there are actually some firms and individuals who do an exceptional job. But I don't feel the need to mention them because they're already making too much money.