WP,p.1:(Lobbies)Seek New Faces for Top Rank (Rep or Dem?)

Interest Groups Seek New Faces For Top Ranks

By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum and Thomas B. Edsall
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, March 29, 2004; Page A01


K Street is headed for a major changing of the guard.

Leaders of several of the nation's largest and most influential interest groups -- in both business and labor -- are expected soon to leave their jobs, some willingly, others perhaps not. Their successors will take the helm at one of the most turbulent times in the history of lobbying.

Trade associations that represent manufacturers, automakers, trial lawyers, biotechnology firms, prescription-drug companies and movie studios are all actively searching for new chiefs. In addition, the largest small-business lobby is in the midst of writing a new succession plan for its senior officers....

(The article adds that the AFL-CIO may also be electing a new president.)

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....GOP activists have been pressuring interest groups to hire Republicans for upper-echelon lobbying positions. The K Street Project, spearheaded by Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, has been widely criticized by Democrats for strong-arming interest groups into filling vacancies with GOP stalwarts....

("Given what could be a hair-breadth-close election this year," the article asks the question whether interests will continue to select Republican lobbyists, or "hedge their bets," and select Democrats.)

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The lobbyists' clout has grown so much that D.C. decision-makers regularly rely on their information and insight to write new laws and regulations. As a result, (Douglas G. Pinkham, president of the Public Affairs Council, a nonpartisan group that studies lobbying) says, "interest groups of all types have greater influence than they did 20 years ago."


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31902-2004Mar28.html