12
the Ur heel
Thursday June 5. 1975
ob.byists:
Of mercenaries and saints,
private versus public interests
by Greg Porter
Features Editor
Lobbyists comprise a segment of the
political spectrum for which the press
has traditionally suffered a blindspot.
Private interest lobbyists are paid
politicians, mercenaries, who politick
not for exposure of 507, but for
legislative results and monetary
Compensation in that order. These
wraiths float through the legislative
corridors daily, playing politics as a
profession, dealing the massive
influence of private corporations and
interest groups from 9 to 5. never to
suffer a flashbulb or an interview.
Traditionally theirs has been a presence
of great impact and of little exposure,
for they deal from strength, from
political power which is best
sequestered from the public eye.
Yet the Nader era of public interest
has modified the once-unshakeable
axiom of behind-the-scenes lobbying.
The public interest lobbyists have
descended on legislatures in every state
in small numbers but with great fanfare.
While the traditional private interest
lobbyist adroitly avoids the press, the
public interest lobbyist seeks the press
with religious fervor. Projecting the
image of St. George rescuing the
modern damsel in distress the lady in
the supermarket, the man on the street,
the consumer the public interest
lobbyist wields Dress exoosure as his
j A a
greatest weapon.
Thus the public interest lobbyist is a
new animal in the political arena. Of the
more than 300 lobbyists registered at the
N.C. Legislature, only six are public
interest lobbyists. One of those six
legislative crusaders for the young but
much heralded consumer movement
(and possibly the legislative lobbyist in
the state with the most press exposure),
is Lillian Woo, the head of her own N.C.
Consumer Center and a former assistant
to the Attorney General for consumer
affairs. Woo has gained notoriety in
North Carolina as a vociferous
consumer advocate and an outspoken
member of the Milk Commission.
my third session to build a kind of
credibility with the men in this
building.
Private interest lobbyists in the
legislature are paid handsomely andean
easily identify for legislators the people
and the dollars they represent. Lillian
Woo, like most public interest lobbyists,
can boast neither of these advantages.
TllUS her motivation is often
questioned. That challenge to the
legitimacy Of her representation of the
people elicits from Woo a rare
America has gone from the town
meeting, basically a democratic
process, to one in which the individual
citizen has very little voice, if any,
anywhere ...
Although Woo's term on the Milk
Commission has expired, she continues
her forays into state government as a
full-time proponent of what she
considers the people's interest.
"In the past, only private interests
have been represented here," said Mrs.
Woo as she waited to testify before a
House committee. "It used to be nobody
ever heard of a public interest lobbyist.
What fool was going to come down here
totally unpaid or on a very small salary
to lobby on behalf of the public? Very
few. So its taken us a few years this is
ft
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GOOD NEWS FROM
THE UNION:
The Carolina Union hours
have been extended for first session:
Sunday
Saturday
Weekdays
12:00 noon-ll:00 p.m.
10:00 a.m.-1 1:00 p.m.
7:30 a.m.-l 1:00 p.m.
Union management greatly appreciates the cooperation of
Student Government that has provided opinion input for this
experimental revision of hours.
SPECIAL SUMMER BOWLING RATES
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"limit 5 per lane
emotional response a response that
stands out among her other more
calculated replies.
"Nobody, as far as I know, in this
movement has gained personally from
it. One's motives are always suspect as
many cynical people are apt to think:
'Why does anybody do this (lobby) for
the principle or ideal of itT I can only
reply by saying if I decided to save all the
wildflowers of North Carolina, or if 1
was going to save all the stray cats and
dogs, no one would question what kinds
of motives we had. But because we are
dealing with human suffering,
deprivation and we're trying to improve
that lot, all of a sudden people say 'why
are you doing itT. That is a sad
commentary on society today. Nobody
can imagine that . anybody can do
anything for principle's sake."
Woo, a thin woman in a staid blue
plaid business suit, stood amidst a
milling crowd in the lobby,
orchestrating a protest against the food
tax and preparing for her committee
testimony. She was more definitive and
calculated in her justification of public
interest lobby.
"In the two hundred years of
American history, we have gone from
the town meeting which was basically a
democratic process to one in which the
person, the individual citizen, has very
little voice if any, anywhere, in the
market, at city hall, in the courts," she
said. Woo. a graduate of Vassar and
Columbia graduate school, clenched the
reins of a bbck pOCtetbOOK in One hand,
a handkerchief in the other.
"This loss of voice in government has
been partially by default because people
have not participated fully. They have
all been very busy earning their own
livings, minding their own business.
Meanwhile, where the decisions are
being made, those professed interests
have been there full-time, very
vigilantly, very expertly manipulating
the system for their own
advantage ... In an extended fashion,
the consumer movement is an attempt
to revitalize citizen concern and
participation in that process."
Woo clenched tighter on the
handkerchief.
"There is this need because basically
you've got large government, large
labor, large industry that worked to the
exclusion of the individual citizen who
feels helpless in this enormous universe
where there are giants of all kinds and
descriptions."
Whatever the differences between
public and private interest lobbyists.
Woo is a consummate politician in the
vein of the traditional private interest
lobbyist. Asked four times in different
fashion whether the profit margin which
utility companies enjoy is fair. Woo
hedged, digressing to the subject of
utility rate increases, avoiding profit
margins altogether. Apparently Woo
thinks rate increases can be dealt with
while established profit margins are
untouchable. Lillian Woo, who brims
over with idealism in her justification
for consumer lobby, knows that left
wing ideals are useless in the halls of the
North Carolina legislature. She has
learned when to play idealism for press
exposure and to sacrifice it for practical
legislative concerns. Lillian Woo is
indeed a lobbyist.
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