Political Clout Analysis

A category of interest groups that has the most political clout in Texas is business, which includes oil and technology. These business groups have the ability to lobby lawmakers to pass legislation that would benefit them. They are able to do this because many of the businesses are big businesses with much money at their disposal. Because of this, business groups are able to maintain professional staff, lawyers, or a legal relations department in Austin to communicate with the legislature. This will allow them to keep lawmakers constantly informed of events related to their cause and about their position. The staff will also have the ability to entertain lawmakers at dinners and other events in which the lobbyists try to convince the lawmakers to vote for their cause. These business interest groups, as well as other interest groups, can also influence elections by forming political action committees (PACs) that support a candidate. They
can influence voters to vote for candidates they endorse or for candidates who share a common viewpoint as the interest group. These groups can do this by running advertisements and commercials that show the positive characteristics of a candidate in order to convince the electorate to vote for the candidate that the PACs support. PACs can also increase the chances that a candidate has a successful campaign by making campaign contributions that the candidate can use to run commercials on media and advertisements on websites and newspapers and to travel around the state. This can also help to convince voters to vote a certain way and shift the election in favor of a candidate. A category of interest groups that has the least political clout is consumer interests.
One of the reasons why this group has little political clout is that Texas has historically been dominated by business interests. This dominance continues today, as lobbyists for business groups continue to entertain and spend time with legislators, which will help them be more likely to vote in favor of the viewpoints of the business groups. This decreases the influence of consumer groups and lowers the chances that legislation benefitting the consumer passes in the state legislature. Another reason why consumer interests have one of the least political clouts in the state is that they often have poor funding. Because of this, consumer interest groups are often unable to maintain professional staff in Austin, entertain lawmakers effectively, and spend a considerable amount of time in Austin. As a result, their efforts to win over lawmakers and convince lawmakers to vote in favor of laws they support will likely be
unsuccessful. Another type of group that has little political clout in Texas is labor. Labor groups haven’t been able to get a solid footing in Texas because of the business interest groups in Texas. During the 1940s, business groups prevented labor groups from having a solid foundation in Texas through the actions of employer activists that led a “state-wide anti-labor mobilization” throughout Texas (Dixon 310). These actions led the Texas legislature to pass laws that restricted labor groups. One example of this type of law was “a so-called ‘antiviolence’ statute designed to limit labor picketing”, which was the first law of its kind in the nation (Dixon 314). This reduced the ability of labor groups to protest at that time and lessened the chances that the groups would be able to get compensation for their members. Because of this, labor groups were unable to get a good footing in Texas and were not able to have much influence in the state legislature and other parts of government. Labor groups have not been able to get and maintain a solid footing in the state as a result of the continued dominance of business interests in Texas government, especially in the legislature. Because of the efforts of the lobbyists for business groups, which have much favor in the government, labor groups have not been able to have a solid footing in Texas. Another factor that has hampered labor groups is that labor groups do not have much funding for lobbying purposes, which limits them from spending too much in their efforts to lobby lawmakers. This limits their ability to keep a professional staff in Austin, to entertain lawmakers, and to spend an extended amount of time in Austin. As a result, the labor groups are less likely to get the attention of lawmakers and to get the legislature to pass laws that will benefit them. A practical effect of having high lobbying power is that lobbyists associated with a group will have a much higher chance of being able to entertain lawmakers. Since the entertainment will likely involve food paid by the lobbyists, this will lead to a higher likelihood that lawmakers will be open and willing to hear lobbyists’ viewpoints, increasing the chances that these lawmakers will vote for the option that the lobbyists advocate for. Having high lobbying power in the legislature will increase the likelihood that lobbyists will be able to develop connections with lawmakers, especially high-ranking ones. If these connections with high-ranking legislators form, the influence that the lobbyists have over the legislature may increase, as the legislators may be more likely to make speeches in favor of the option that the lobbyists are for. This will increase the likelihood that the lobbyists get what they want. The effects of having low lobbying power are the opposite of that of having high power. This means that efforts by the lobbyists to gain attention may be thwarted by lawmakers, who may not allow these lawmakers to be in the chambers. In addition, there will be an increased likelihood that the lawmakers may choose to not go to the events set up by the group or decide to go out of politeness and a free meal and not take what the lobbyists are saying seriously. Many potential abuses of interest groups exist. A potential abuse by interest groups is that lobbyists for a certain group could bribe a lawmaker by donating money or a gift to try to convince him or her to vote in favor of the position that the lobbyists support. Another type of abuse that is similar to bribery is deals that are made behind closed doors. Being behind closed doors provides “a setting where officials might make a deal with interested parties in return for some benefit”, leading to the potential that corrupt exchanges may be made (Rowbottom 255). Both of these arrangements increase the chances that the legislature and even other parts of the government may become corrupt, leading to an inefficient government that spends money recklessly and that gets out of touch with the people that elected them. In the worst case scenario, this would eventually have disastrous consequences on the government, as it may not be able to run properly and as the people would rebel against the government. These corrupt exchanges may also lead to corruption charges for not only the officials but similar charges also for the lobbyists. Because of these possible abuses, many governments have anti-corruption laws in order to prevent any corruption from taking place and prevent corruption from ruining the government.