Successful government affairs today demands a different approach, given the rapid changes in the media landscape, new working methods of Congress, and restructured executive branch agencies.
The iconic “Johnson treatment” images that showed former President and Senate Leader Lyndon Johnson towering over lawmakers intensely lobbying them to see his way harkens back to an era when leaders exerted considerable personal sway.
But the face-to-face congressional relations that for decades may have worked over a drink or buttonholing someone in the Capitol corridors are now just as often a video meeting on Zoom.
Regardless the location of our clients today, the most successful ones we work with understand to move their issues forward it takes a team with mastery of using a new triangle of power involving people, policy, and public relations.
People Power
Presence in and around the Capitol, tracking members and staff to engage them on the issues still matters. Timing, relationships, and persistence still pay off. But the traditional approaches are not enough.
Time and again we hear about lobbyists who “have a friend” in an office, but most often, that friend can simply accommodate an initial meeting. Anything further, and you’re back to explaining an issue from square one, subject issue awareness and congressional understanding, and showing how your client’s position matters to the member.
As the policy landscape broadens, simultaneous, collaborative engagement—up, down, and across all levels of government—is key to maintaining effective relationships. People still talk to each other. They still ask trusted peers what they have heard on a topic. Reputations follow you.
When advocating for a university client for some major federal funding last Congress, we were surprised to learn the client’s prior lobbying team had put all their eggs in one basket with one senator.
By broadening their effort to include more House members, another senator, and—importantly—the agency making the actual programmatic funding decisions, we turned a long shot into a sure shot, scoring the client more than $40 million in federal funding.
Policy Power
As strong as a relationship can be, a successful client outcome depends on a grasp of the facts of the situation.
Look at the hundreds of online portals for congressionally directed funding requests that member offices opened to start the fiscal 2027 appropriations process. On top of specific descriptions of the request, the portals ask you to complete basic questions that show the impact the funding would have on their state or congressional district.
Even for non-funding related policy matters, offices want to know: How does the policy resonate with the politician’s priorities? Is the right coalition of other members likely to support it? On the substance, is the ask you are making sound policy? This is where data can be foundational to the debate.
Given how easily accessible most data can be today, and the capability of AI to crunch numbers and even build connective analysis and narratives, there’s almost no excuse now for any organization not to come to the table armed with the facts and figures that drive their story. How many jobs does this create in the member’s district? How much economic activity does your organization bring?
This is the smartest place to weave in third-party validators. If constituents are calling an office about your issue, the office is going to know your name. Partner organizations in coalition with your shared cause can have the same impact. And featuring them both in traditional and social media is a surefire way to raise the awareness you seek.
Public Relations Power
When a European space executive sought meetings with senior diplomats in Washington from allied nations, calls were not getting returned right away. But when we helped get an article placed in the Washington Post covering the national security angle behind the satellite technology issue, the entire dynamic with the stakeholders who mattered most shifted. Calls started coming to our client asking for meetings.
Depending on the issue, more media may or may not be desired. Every stakeholder map we draw for a client results in a different strategy and a unique sequence. An advertising and media blitz aligned to the very moment email blasts, phone calls, and door-knocks begin creates a flood-the-zone effect.
But agenda-setting sometimes calls for setting the table more slowly, earning some media attention, highlighting, then ramping up to the meetings with an ideally better-informed audience. In either course, the public relations element plays its role.
Uniting the Triangle
The most effective firms today have bipartisan teams and the media and policy experience to hit all three sides of the government affairs triangle.
Federal agency grant and rulemaking processes call for input from beyond Capitol Hill. And agency program managers doling out multimillion dollar funding projects are not immune from the ads and media they see. (There’s a reason DC features some of the most niche policy advertising in the country at the Capitol South and Pentagon Metro stations.)
When a foreign trade office sought help last year to attract US partners, the first thing they asked for was a boost to their media mentions and social media channels. Work that used to be a 20-page white paper was now being requested in memes.
We are now in an era that combines the expertise of law and policy, politics and government, and media and advertising like never before, proving the need for old school lobby firms to adapt to a new way of client service.
This article does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg Industry Group, Inc., the publisher of Bloomberg Law, Bloomberg Tax, and Bloomberg Government, or its owners.
Author Information
The authors are members of government affairs practice group in Porter Wright’s Washington market.
Neil H. Simon is a principal in the firm and a former network news producer, diplomat and congressional and corporate communications director.
Chess Bedsole is of counsel and has served in senior capacities for US presidents and governors, as counsel to a US senator on tax, finance and appropriations policy, and as a prosecutor and litigator.
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