K Street Cafe

By Anne D. Darconte

For over a year now, grassroots practitioners in Washington, DC have been discussing the pros and cons of adopting an ethics code for conducting grassroots advocacy campaigns. While this is not a new issue by any means, it gained renewed attention after the infamous Abramoff lobbying scandal and the presidential election of Barack Obama who promised greater transparency in government. Last summer, more fuel was added to the fire when angry citizens voiced their displeasure at congressional town hall meetings with the health care reform debate. Then the disclosure that bogus letters had been sent to several members of Congress by an employee of a grassroots advocacy firm on behalf of its client resulted in a congressional hearing.

The latest panel to address this issue convened on this week at the George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management. About 75 people turned out to hear the panel participants discuss the pros and cons of a grassroots code of ethics. While most agreed that adopting such a code would be worthwhile, the devil continues to be in the detail. (more…)

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From Stephanie Vance, Advocacy Guru:

I want to let you know about an important upcoming event that may have the potential to change how you conduct citizen-based advocacy campaigns. On Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 from 8:30am to 12:30pm, George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management will be hosting a forum on the ethics of grassroots. In light of recent advocacy-related events, including the sending of fake “grassroots” letters to Capitol Hill, angry citizens yelling at members of Congress during town hall meetings, and policy persuasion campaigns based on inaccurate or misleading information, this forum will address the question “is it time to consider an ethical code of conduct for grassroots advocacy practitioners?” As one of the organizers of the event, I can tell you that we want and need your opinions on this topic. You can view a draft code of ethics at the registration site, which is www.gspm.org/ethics. Attendees will have an opportunity to review the proposed code and share their views before, during and after the forum — as long as you do it nicely with no yelling .

Among the sponsors are ASAE, the Public Affairs Council, Women in Government Relations, the American Association of Political Consultants, the Congressional Management Foundation and a host of others. Speakers include Dave Wenhold of the American League of Lobbyists, Brooks Jackson of factcheck.org and Frank Sesno of the GW School of Media and Public Affairs. In addition to an interesting topic discussion, this event will offer government relations practitioners the opportunity to network with others in the field and get up to speed on the latest developments in the field of grassroots.

Anyone involved in the practice of grassroots advocacy should plan to attend this event. It is free and open to the public and will be held at the Jack Morton Auditorium at 805 21st Street NW in Washington, DC. Again, there is more information at www.gspm.org/ethics.

We hope this will prove to be a groundbreaking conversation and we sincerely hope you’ll be a part of it.

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This morning at the Public Affairs Council’s National Grassroots Conference, former Member of Congress J. C. Watts spoke on what makes an effective grassroots advocacy strategy. Obviously, every Member of Congress has their own unique perspective, but it was helpful to hear from someone on the “inside” who advocacy organizations are trying to influence.

One interesting point Watts made was that he and his staff took notice of the volume of communications from constituents on any given issue:

“When I ask my staff, ‘Have we heard from constituents about an issue?’ and they say that we have received 47 calls, that does not impress me. But, if we receive 547 calls, then everyone sits up and takes notice. I think there must be something legitimate going on. We need to take notice.”

And then later, during a question and answer period he said:

“When the staff tells me we received 721 communications on an issue it makes me say, ‘Something is going on here – we need to find out more and take notice.’ ”

Watts then outlined some tips for Grassroots practitioners who are trying to influence Congress. He spoke about the good, the bad and the ugly:

(more…)

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