With insight to read political tea leaves, who better than lobbyists to explain how and why the 2010 midterm elections are shaking the current political structure?
Gathered Thursday at their Florida Association of Professional Lobbyists Convention in Orlando, many lobbyists acknowledged the effect the current anti-incumbent political climate, personified by the tea party movement, is having on state government.
"There is a sense across the country and in Florida of unhappiness, bitterness, that's angry and anti-establishment," said Mike Hightower, a lobbyist for Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Florida.
Hightower noted that today's movement of disillusionment and anger comes from a different segment of the population than the student protests of the Vietnam and Watergate eras.
"This is not a bunch of college kids, or flower kids who are unhappy. These are people who have invested in the system and they believe that the system is broken," he said.
While lobbyists are in danger of being seen as part of the problem, and consequently, of being shunned by freshmen legislators and long-term incumbents alike, Hightower sees the current political climate as an opportunity for his profession.
"We need to be listening to what they're saying because if we don't, we could be part of what gets thrown out. It's a wake-up call," Hightower said.
No other candidate has embodied the anti-establishment mood on the state level like gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott. After defeating the Republican establishment candidate Bill McCollum in the primary, Scott will feel less obliged to the traditional party bigwigs. Hightower said Scott, regardless of whether he beats Democrat Alex Sink in November, has already rearranged the agenda at the state level.
"There's been a hierarchy in place since the Republican leadership took over, and the business lobby and the special interests have built around that. If (Scott) wins, it's a flat field. It gives everyone an opportunity to redefine themselves," he said.
But the lobbyists also have a word of warning to new legislators: Beware of good intentions. They say laws and ethics rules governing lobbyists that were implemented in the 1980s were designed to dilute the influence of special interests, but had only the effect of pushing smaller, less well-funded interests away from the bargaining table.
"The big change was when we did away with a system that allowed a lobbyist to take a legislator to dinner. That was a workable system," said Jack Peoples, a long-time Florida lobbyist currently representing the City of Hialeah and the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida.
"Now it's OK to give $50,000 to a (political) party, but if you buy a (public official) a cup of coffee, that's not all right," he said.
Reach Gray Rohrer at grohrer@sunshinestatenews.com, or at (321) 759-3152.
