“Often the Playing Field Isn’t Level”: The Lobbying Behavior of Rural Local Officials

• In Event: State and Local Politics

Abstract

In the US, many communities hire professional lobbyists to represent their interests at higher levels of government. Some communities, particularly those with more financial resources, are more likely to hire professional lobbyists than others, which leads to an uneven distribution of resources (Payson 2020, 2021). Do communities that do not hire professional lobbyists still engage in lobbying? If so, what strategies do they use to do this work? Are certain types of communities better able to represent their interests without hiring lobbyists?

Using lobbying registration data, local news reports, and interviews with municipal and county officials in Pennsylvania, my preliminary findings suggest that despite rarely hiring registered lobbyists, many local officials in small communities do engage in lobbying behavior. I investigate when and how local officials in rural counties and small communities (townships and boroughs of less than 10,000 people in Pennsylvania) engage in advocacy work. Local officials invite state and federal officials to community events and meetings regarding local projects, travel to meetings with state officials, and develop personal relationships with state and federal officials to advance the interests of their communities. Bertrand, Bombardini, and Trebbi (2014) find that one function of lobbyists is to provide personal connections and access to legislators for the interest groups that hire them, and I find that small town officials are trying to replicate that work on their own. I find that knowledge about effective lobbying techniques could help other communities better represent their interests.

Author

• Charlotte Ridge, Juniata College