David Aron ⋅ Washington, DC Commodity Futures Trading Commission ⋅ 23 years experience

It sounds like you're plan to volunteer to gain experience is a good one. Also, you already have some contacts on the local level based on what you wrote, so don't discount that when talking to lobbying firms. I'm guessing that there probably is some overlap between state and local level lobbying on certain issues, and that firms that do state level lobbying also do local level lobbying on some issues, so you're local contacts may be valuable, depending on the issues.

I'm sure that there are state level lobbying disclosure requirements, so you should be able to find lists of lobbyists for Indiana online. Then you can contact them for informational interviews to learn about who else in the industry might be looking and able to use you and learn what they do to see if you'd like it. Perhaps some of these firms may also have paid or unpaid internships. You can also call your state senator's and representative's offices to ask then which lobbyists they see the most and on what issues so you can target then for informational interviews as well. Who knows - some of these firms may even have veterans preferences.

Also, since large companies sometimes have veterans preference programs, and since you're willing to work for free as a volunteer, maybe you could start your own lobbying business and start looking for clients who have veterans preferences in their contacts and build from there.

David Eastman ⋅ Gresham, OR Gamma Therapeutics, Inc. ⋅ 35 years experience

Hello, Hilary

Thank you for your service. Well, you are picking quite the controversial field. I actually hired a very expense lobbying firm in Washington, DC to lobby for our telecom start up regarding wireless privacy. I think they took about 10% of all of our revenue that year but did help us get some legislation passed and increased our growth.

I think the best way to learn about lobbying is to get a paid internship at one of the state or Federal lobbying firms or organizations. I have included a list of the Top 31 Government Lobbying firms from 2016---see below--and possibly you can reach out to them. There are a lot of lawyers who are lobbyist but lobbying firms like subject experts as well,, i.e, military, healthcare, high technology, agriculture, etc. so that might be an entre for you.

Good luck,

Regards,

David F Eastman, CEO
Gamma Therapeutics, Inc.
US Navy--Vietnam-ERA, ASW

TOP
-
PERFORMING LOBBYING FIRMS OF 2016
Rank
Lobbying firm
2016
Revenue
1
Petrizzo Group
Inc.
$1,570,000
2
Roosevelt Group LLC
$3,384,000
3
Daryl Owen
Associates Inc.
$2,510,000
4
Lugar Hellmann Group LLC
$2,838,500
5
Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton
LLP
$2,086,000
6
Health Policy Source Inc.
$2,330,000
7
Polaris Consulting LLC
$5,744,000
8
Etherton & Associates Inc.
$1,434,000
9
Empire Consulting Group
$1,320,000
10
Nathanson & Hauck
$2,565,000
11
Hannegan Landau Poersch
&
Rosenbaum Advocacy
LLC
$4,120,000
12 (tie)
Cypress Advocacy LLC
$3,357,000
12 (tie)
Innovative Federal Strategies LLC
$3,282,000
12 (tie)
Tarplin Downs & Young LLC
$6,860,000
15
Washington Tax & Public Policy
Group LLC
$
5,564,000
Source
:
Bloomberg Government analysis of Senate lobbying disclosure filings
Rank
Lobbying firm
2016
Revenue
16
S
-
3 Group LLC
$5,570,000
17
Crossroads Strategies LLC
$7,866,000
18
American Capitol Group
$1,475,000
19
Franklin Square Group LLC
$4,590,000
20
W Strategies LLC
$2,610,000
21
(tie)
Porterfield Fettig & Sears LLC
$3,790,000
21
(tie)
Water Strategies LLC
$1,100,000
23
(tie)
Bluestone Strategies LLC
$1,160,000
23
(tie)
Thorn Run Partners LLC
$8,596,000
25
Duberstein Group Inc.
$9,964,500
26
(tie)
Hurt
Norton & Associates Inc.
$2,000,000
26
(tie)
O'Brien Gentry & Scott LLC
$2,374,000
28
Monument Policy Group LLC
$6,050,000
29
Forbes Tate
Partners
$9,563,000
30
Ogilvy Government Relations
$10,494,000
31
Cormac Group LLP
$3,636,000

Drew Schildwächter ⋅ Wilmington, NC Salesforce ⋅ 8 years experience

I agree with John to a point. Still, being the elected office holder is a lot like being an officer in the Army; you may have your own interests, but you generally are responsible for the effort of a skilled team of whose expertise you are aware. These officials have experts in their office who, like those specialist enlisted folks in the military, help to advise their decisions. You may have much more luck starting out as one of those.

Lobbying is sales, so you're in good shape there. You are selling your advice. Thus you need to understand the issues and the process, as well as have some input with bearing on those things. The other thing you need is to know people though. Working in a politician's office might get you further ahead than some of the stuff you're doing now. Those people I know who are lobbyists (kind of a broad term) today in DC started working in a politicians office writing policy for their area of interest.

John Green ⋅ Cary, NC Information Technology ⋅ 40 years experience

Hilary - here are some online resources that may help you.

https://www.in.gov/ilrc/files/2016_Lobbyist_Handbook_FINAL.pdf
https://www.in.gov/ilrc
https://www.in.gov/idoa/files/EBLR_Manual_090911_.pdf
https://www.lawforchange.org/images/lfc/IndianaLobbying.pdf

My suggestion would be to run for office. Many local political elected offices run unopposed. Or some have multiple seats available, like this one :

brendahowerton.com

In my opinion, you would go further to influence the system by becoming elected rather than trying to lobby corrupted politicians to vote some way or another.

Once you get started in elected office, you can make your way to ever more influential seats. In the mean time, you can make an impact on on that which is within your scope.

Hope this helps. Best of luck.