Bloggers, email lobbyists catching eye of regulators

• Published November 13, 2008

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Don't expect bloggers to go quietly into the night on this fight. If there is a fight.

The state Public Disclosure Commission held an around-the-table discussion with “stakeholders” yesterday about the thorny question of when to require lobbyist-activity reporting by groups that mainly sent out emails or do advocacy on blogs or on web sites.

Is there a cost? Is anyone paid to do the chores? What about web site services and what about the possibility some large moneyed interests could hire someone on the sly to engage in what appears to be low-cost lobbying through mass emails?

There were plenty of questions.

It was far from clear after a nearly two-hour discussion — much of which I listened to — what recommendations the commission’s staffers will send to the five-member citizen commission at its Dec. 4 meeting.

PDC lawyer Nancy Krier and agency executive director Vicki Rippie spoke of existing requirements that lobbying be reported if it exceeds $500 in costs in a month or $1,000 in a three-month period.

A number of people raised interesting points from a lot of perspectives. They included blogger David Goldstein of horsesass.org, Michael Reitz of conservative Evergreen Freedom Foundation, Jim Oswald of Service Employees International Union’s state council, media consultant Jay Arnold, Associated General Contractors’ lobbyist Van Collins and contract lobbyists Steve Gano and Nancee Wildermuth.

Gano gave a hypothetical example of a large group that might engage in nearly invisible lobbying by avoiding any physical contacts at the Capitol but would hire someone to do low-cost email campaigning that would not be reported. He questioned whether that might need to be disclosed, so people could know the lobbying was being carried out.

He also wondered why the names of “members” of such a group could not be disclosed as well as the money spent.

Gano said he’s heard from many people in the last legislative session who were noticing a lot of emails from the left-leaning advocacy group Fuse. Fuse has a political action committee, Fuse Votes, but is not registered as a lobbying firm.