Well, guess what? At least in California, the NRA is by far the most effective organization.
Here's what's up: The NRA/ILA (National political lobbying wing) has a pair of *very* good lobbyists in Sacramento, full time when the legislature is in session. These guys are paid by the NRA/ILA. Now, it isn't really part of their job but they're in constant contact with the Member's Councils. They know exactly which arguments will sway exactly which swing votes, they pass that out to the Member's Council via a private invitation-only mailing list that goes out to about 100 "core people", mostly member's council officers. Each of them knows who's willing to do a flood of phone calls from their own group.
It's a masterful "orchestrated" grass-roots lobbying effort.
The best example of how it works came on the last day of the legislature in '97. There was a HUGE flood of anti-gun bills that hadn't yet been dealt with. By state law, at 5:00pm on the last day bills die if they haven't been finished out...well, they traditionally stop the clock at 4:59 and keep right on trucking. It's illegal, but who's gonna bust 'em?
The "member's council machine" knew this, so at 2:00am the next morning, that lobbyist could goto a key swing vote, get a sense that he's gonna screw us, make one phone call to a guy in LA ready to broadcast EMail to the core 100 and within 5 minutes of that lobbyist walking out the door, the phone lines and faxes in that legicritter's office would go bananas. Because the core people were all blitzed on coffee trying to stay awake.
The ability to harness that level of "grassroots power" at 2:00am was "beyond impressive". They killed off every serious threat that night, and there was a bunch.
In '98 they got caught out a bit, because the barsterds held session open long after midnight for the several days PRIOR to the last day, specifically to "dodge the machine". Pete Wilson saved our bacons by vetoing the worst, including an "affordable gun ban" and a "sport utility rifle ban".
This year "the machine" will be running late for up to a week prior to close.
Guys, it's an NRA machine. True, the link between the lobbyists and member's councils is NOT something created by the national org.
If you've got problems with the NRA leadership, fine, cool. But without question there are usable elements of this "800lbs Gorilla".
And THAT means that slamming it so hard it breaks is maybe a bad idea...
Jim March
Here's what's up: The NRA/ILA (National political lobbying wing) has a pair of *very* good lobbyists in Sacramento, full time when the legislature is in session. These guys are paid by the NRA/ILA. Now, it isn't really part of their job but they're in constant contact with the Member's Councils. They know exactly which arguments will sway exactly which swing votes, they pass that out to the Member's Council via a private invitation-only mailing list that goes out to about 100 "core people", mostly member's council officers. Each of them knows who's willing to do a flood of phone calls from their own group.
It's a masterful "orchestrated" grass-roots lobbying effort.
The best example of how it works came on the last day of the legislature in '97. There was a HUGE flood of anti-gun bills that hadn't yet been dealt with. By state law, at 5:00pm on the last day bills die if they haven't been finished out...well, they traditionally stop the clock at 4:59 and keep right on trucking. It's illegal, but who's gonna bust 'em?
The "member's council machine" knew this, so at 2:00am the next morning, that lobbyist could goto a key swing vote, get a sense that he's gonna screw us, make one phone call to a guy in LA ready to broadcast EMail to the core 100 and within 5 minutes of that lobbyist walking out the door, the phone lines and faxes in that legicritter's office would go bananas. Because the core people were all blitzed on coffee trying to stay awake.
The ability to harness that level of "grassroots power" at 2:00am was "beyond impressive". They killed off every serious threat that night, and there was a bunch.
In '98 they got caught out a bit, because the barsterds held session open long after midnight for the several days PRIOR to the last day, specifically to "dodge the machine". Pete Wilson saved our bacons by vetoing the worst, including an "affordable gun ban" and a "sport utility rifle ban".
This year "the machine" will be running late for up to a week prior to close.
Guys, it's an NRA machine. True, the link between the lobbyists and member's councils is NOT something created by the national org.
If you've got problems with the NRA leadership, fine, cool. But without question there are usable elements of this "800lbs Gorilla".
And THAT means that slamming it so hard it breaks is maybe a bad idea...
Jim March