pinion Letter to the Editor: Let's Get Rid of the Lobbyists

Let's get rid of the lobbyists. They should not be regulated, they should be outlawed. Wikipedia defines a lobbyist as ”a person who tries to influence legislation on behalf of a special interest.“ I thought that is what we elected our legislators to do on our behalf. In this government of the people, by the people and for the people, should we not be their special interest?

However, it is one thing to communicate with and urge constituents to contact their legislator on issues, and quite another to hire a lobbyist to wine and dine our elected officials to influence legislation. The mere existence of a lobbyist implies a lack of popular support for whatever special interest is represented. If there is a lack of popular support, then it is most likely against our interest.

Some people will say that we the people do not always know what is in our interest, and others will say that we the people do not care about anything outside our narrow sphere of interest. This is wrong on both levels. If we analyze our narrow sphere of influence , such as our children’s and grandchildren’s  future, employment, health care, retirement, etc it is obvious our interest are universal.

As individuals, we have the right and opportunity to contact our elected officials and inform them of our position on various issues. Special interest groups have the same right, but they should not have greater rights and more importantly, greater access. Lobbyist spend money to influence our officials; they should be outlawed.

V. James Bonfiglio
Manatee County