Tex Gov Interest Groups

we're now going to talk about interest

groups and lobbying in texas

first let's talk about interest groups

interest groups are able to form and to

be influential

in the united states because of the

first amendment to the constitution the

u.s constitution

the first amendment to the constitution

guarantees among other things

freedom of speech

and

the right of the people peaceably to

assemble

and to petition the government for

redress of grievances

that basically says you can complain

and you can attempt to influence you can

redress the government

uh

redress uh or petition the government

for redress of grievances basically

saying we don't like this about what

you're doing please do something else

and it implies the right to form

interest groups and lobby the government

on political issues

uh and also it applies to this whole

idea of competing ideas

in a free society the whole point of a

democracy is you have it's a marketplace

of ideas

that's why in general even if somebody i

disagree with somebody vehemently on

something i would never consider

you know

having them legally

you know censored because that violates

the whole concept if you can censor one

group well then if somebody else gets

into power they can censor you so you

have to be careful you know whether

deciding that you think somebody should

not be allowed to say what they want to

say or not be allowed to put forth ideas

that they want to put forth because the

only way

to uh to have a free society is to have

um competing ideas

so what are interest groups an initial

group is any formal group of individuals

or organizations that attempt to

influence government policy

it could be

just about

any issue

or you know any policy uh lobbyists

those the people that represent interest

groups are usually compensated

individuals who represent interest

groups before the government so you know

if you have an interest group of

you know

500 000 people 500 000 people all of

them can't show up at a representative's

office so you find somebody that that

that is good at and is qualified to

represent

the interests of the interest group and

put forth you know

towards policymakers be they the

governor the house representative

members whoever

talk to them and explain

you know why we want what we want why

it's a good idea that our interest group

is promoting this certain policy

so interest groups very important and

lobbyists are very important

so why form an interest group

why join an interest group

well there's

multiple reasons you might want to first

material benefits

economic societal or cultural benefits

things that make your life better in

your eyes

if more money is going to make um you

think will make your life better

rules regarding society

may like you may make your life better

or make you happy and then cultural

things promoting or protecting certain

cultural aspects of your society

is beneficial

solidarity solidary benefits

just working with others you know

bonding with people that do the same

thing you do that has the same interests

as you there's a great value in that to

just be around people that think like

you do

and then purposive benefits working

together for an important common cause

so you've got the idea the material

benefits you know what you want to do

you like you know the people that are

around but also there's something to be

said for the value of

working together to accomplish something

working together for a common cause

working together to think that look what

we did together made our world a better

place made our community a better place

so uh

those are the main reasons people join

interest groups and people form interest

groups

uh interest group typologies what kind

of interest groups are there

uh they're trade associations uh now

we're gonna kind of focus on texas here

uh for the most part uh

trade associations group of com groups

of companies

involved in the same business so you

have a bunch of realtors

they all kind of want the same things

they want laws that

you know on the books or no laws on the

books

you know that benefit them if there's a

law that makes it harder for realtors to

do their job as there's a very

likelihood that the interest group texas

associated realtors will come together

to try to

remove that law from the books texas

bankers association and on and on you

can think of any kind of you know

automobile dealers

restaurants

they all have their own trade

associations

that lobby government

for the purpose of

making their life better in their eyes

then you have professional associations

very similar to trade associations only

it's individual professionals and

individual careers instead of um

the trade so instead of realtors you

have nurses okay

uh so

the texas nursing association texas

society of professional engineers so

these are individuals who come together

all with the same

career all with the same

goals hopefully goals for that career

improving you know their pay their

benefits their their ability to work in

their careers

and then you have organized labor which

are basically workers much like

professional associations but these

workers

don't identify as generally don't

identify as specific professions they're

just

workers uh basic laborers they focus on

relations with employers

uh so labor unions basically is what

these are

and

the this came out of the uh the labor

movements of the late 1800s in the early

1900s where

workers in factories and coal mines and

places like that that were being

exploited

very low pay

horrible dangerous working conditions

having to work 12 hours a day seven days

a week well they finally had enough and

so they realized that there were there

was power in numbers that they could

what they call collectively bargain

for lower weight higher wages and

shorter work days and better working

conditions and so they would uh all come

together all of the mine workers

and a coal miner or all of the factory

workers at a steel mill they would all

come together and negotiate together

and so with power comes numbers and

leverage and so um

organized labor

they were it was

very dominant in our economy organized

labor and labor unions

late 1800s early 1900s and into the

1960s and 70s

but starting in the 1970s in the early

1980s there was a concerted effort by

government to

delegitimize and dismantle labor unions

then you have agricultural groups people

farmers

and their interests they have the texas

farm bureau that that represents their

interest

in government

racial ethnic and minority groups the

naacp which focuses on what's national

association for the advancement of

color people focusing on the issues for

black americans lulac

focuses on issues for hispanic latin

american

population

now national organization of women

and

lgbtq groups that focus on

the issues regarding

dealing with

homosexuality and homosexuals and their

rights

and others

religious groups they work on behalf of

their religion or doctrine to try to

get that implemented within or at least

some of the overarching philosophies

implemented

or focused on within government

now local governments these are very

powerful interest groups they're

relatively unknown you don't hear about

them

but uh they have a lot of influence

cities have their own interest group

counties the texas association of

counties has their own interest groups

and then you have cause groups social

issues that are specific if you've got

the racial and ethnic minority type

groups that uh well uh they their social

issues

their their larger overarching social

issues that deal with a category of race

or ethnicity or sexuality whereas uh

social issue groups deal with specific

issues and they can be very influential

the national abortion rights action

league texas right to life mothers

against drunk driving

sierra club which is an environmental

group

so uh

all of those groups uh

do their best to try to influence

government

to bring about policies that uh they

prefer

now how interest groups influence

government

uh electioneering

how do they get the things done that

they want to get done

in texas groups can form political

action committees that can receive and

spend unlimited amounts of money towards

campaigns

so basically it's a free market out

there if you're if you if you're an

interest group

and you form yourself a political action

committee

you can raise money and spend money as

much as you want

so um

now there's certain there's some rules

there

you can't give directly to a candidate

but you can run as many ads

supporting that candidate

or supporting a policy that you want as

long as you don't work in conjunction

with

that candidate

there's also the friendly incumbent rule

challengers rarely win elections so you

have your person that's a member of

congress

they're likely to win re-election

so most interest groups donate to

campaigns of incumbents even though the

challenger might be more in line

with that group so even if the person in

office

is not inclined to support your position

on

you know

nurses or whatever it is your uh

your uh group wants the environment if

the person you still want to give them

some campaign donations to at least keep

them keep you on their radar and you

might make some headway down the line

in the future

and then there's lobbying we've talked

about that already advocating for the

group's interest

generally when we first talked about

lobbying it was about hiring a person or

a few people to represent you to

government there's also grassroots lobby

mobilizing large numbers of individuals

to act on behalf of the group getting

them to uh to a vote getting them to

post on social media getting them

potentially to protest to march things

like that

now interest group regulation in texas

there are few regulations

uh it's pretty much a wild west of uh

interest groups and raising money and

spending money

but

if you're an interest group you can

raise all that money you want and spend

all that money you want but it requires

disclosure you have to

put it out there

for people to see

who are you raising money from and who

are you giving that money to

now interest groups may give unlimited

money to political campaigns but they

must close disclose contributions to the

texas ethics commission which makes the

information available to the public

because it's only fair if i'm going to

go vote for a candidate or vote for

political party

and that person that i that is going to

get in office is going to make decisions

well i need to know if those decisions

are based on the fact that they got

millions and millions of dollars from an

interest group

that's the only way a democracy works is

to be able to have access and knowledge

of

who helped elect these people and if

they vote

you know for a certain policy is it be

we can decide for ourselves as voters if

it's because they were given tons of

money or not or whatever

uh

lobbyists also must register with the

texas ethics commission so if you are a

one of those lobbyists that work for an

interest group you have to register if

you're going to go talk to

a member of congress a member of the

state legislature

and you must report all gifts

to officials that you give them that

valued over 50

so you go in and you want to

you know make nice and get on the good

side of some member of the senate so you

might bring them a gift

well if it's anything worth more than 50

bucks

you um

you have to report that so

the public can know

these are just kind of rules to kind of

keep the game

somewhat you know

transparent and fair