1. Call the library!
We can save you time by finding lobbyists’ names and contact information for you – please don’t hesitate to ask us for help. (Also, if you are looking to contact a lobbyist for factual information about a company or organization, remember that the library has access to databases with in-depth information on businesses and nonprofits, and we may be able to answer your question.)
If you want to search for lobbyist information on your own, here are the main sources and methods we use.
2. Office of State Ethics lobbyist lists
The Office of State Ethics registers lobbyists for each biennium (two-year period consisting of a long session and short session). Lobbyists can register at any time before they begin lobbying in a given biennium.
The Legislative Library periodically saves the most comprehensive of the OSE’s lobbyist lists for archival purposes, and about once a year we upload the latest version of this list to our intranet catalog; but because lobbyist information can change at any time, the best way to be certain you are getting current information is to visit the OSE lobbyist reports webpage each time you need to look up a lobbyist.
There are a few ways to find lobbyist information using the tools on the OSE webpage. Here are two methods.
Method #1:
- The final report on the OSE webpage’s list is Combined Lobbyist List by Registrant with Type of Lobbying and Issues. Click on the first of the two small green icons to the right of the report title. This will download a large Excel file; the download will probably take a minute or two. Once the download is complete, open the file. Use CTRL-F (or ⌘-F on a Mac) to search for the name (or part of the name) of the organization you are looking for. Keep looking through the results for your search term until you get through the whole document; there may be in-house lobbyists as well as lobbyists who represent the organization’s interests as employees of an outside firm or as individuals, and their names may be scattered throughout the document. Note that this list includes telephone numbers.
- Once you have a lobbyist’s name, you can find their email address by looking them up in a separate list. Click on Communicator Lobbyist List, the first report on the OSE webpage. Click on the first of the two small green icons to the right of the report title to download an Excel file. Lobbyists are listed alphabetically by last name in this spreadsheet.
- It is also worth looking at the Communicator Lobbyist List’s Status column, which shows whether a lobbyist’s registration has terminated or is incomplete.
Method #2:
- Click on Lobbyist Filings near the top right of the OSE reports webpage to get to an interactive query page. Select the current year in the Registration Period drop-down menu. Type the name (or part of the name) of the organization into the Client Name box. Then, click the Search button. Select a report from the list that appears and click the View Report button. This will download a PDF file that includes contact information.
3. When searches using a company or organization name don’t yield results
- If you can’t find lobbyists using the organization’s name, try some keywords related to the organization’s industry or policy area. The organization may be part of a larger trade group or coalition.
- Consider whether the organization might be a subsidiary of a larger entity; if so, try that parent organization’s name as a search term.
- The organization may not be represented by a lobbyist in Connecticut. Depending on your situation, it may be appropriate to look on the organization’s website for other potential contacts, such as public relations people.
4. Client lobbyist, communicator lobbyist, business organization, in-house communicator – what do all these terms mean?
According to the Office of State Ethics:
A Client Lobbyist is the party paying for lobbying services on its behalf. In other words, the client lobbyist is expending or agreeing to expend the threshold amount of $3,000 in a calendar year.
A Communicator Lobbyist receives payment and does the actual lobbying legwork (i.e., communicating). A Communicator Lobbyist receives or agrees to receive $3,000 for lobbying activities in a calendar year. Communicator Lobbyists can take different forms:
- Individual
- Member of a Business Organization (e.g., a firm or association that employs a number of communicator lobbyists)
- In-house Communicator (a lobbyist who is a salaried employee of a Client Lobbyist)
Source: http://www.ct.gov/ethics/cwp/view.asp?a=3523&q=417096