Case Study

The Real March Madness. After reading a newspaper article that mentioned that there was a loophole in the Congressional gift ban that allowed lobbyists to give gifts of any value to Members of Congress if the gifts are paid for by a state or local government entity, Ed devised a comprehensive plan centered on the loophole that would advance Americans for Prosperity’s national battles against taxpayer-funded lobbying and pork-barrel spending.

The first step was to widely expose the little-known loophole, which Ed did in a National Review editorial, which in turn led to a Wall Street Journal editorial just five days later that called for the closure of the loophole.

Step two was to line up support for closing the loophole with potential allies, which Ed did by organizing coalition letters to House and Senate leaders.  He then worked personally to build support among allies on Capitol Hill, culminating in the introduction of legislation to close the loophole by House Republican Leader John Boehner and U.S. Rep. Jeff Flake.

Finally, because one way that pork-barrel-earmark-seeking lobbyists exploited the the loophole was to shower lawmakers with free tickets to major events like college football bowl games or the NCAA basketball tournament, Ed devised and executed a “Real March Madness” project.

The Real March Madness project ranked each public university in the 2007 NCAA basketball tournament according to how much money they had spent on federal lobbying between 1998 and 2006.   Letters were then sent to each university’s president challenging them to pledge not to exploit the loophole in any attempts to secure federal taxpayer dollars for campus projects.  Simultaneously, localized news releases were distributed to reporters in each university’s market.

The comprehensive plan also included:

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   2. •Strategic national earned-media outreach and a news conference in the U.S. Capitol with Congressman Flake that resulted in significant positive media coverage, including a second Wall Street Journal editorial, a front-page-above-the-fold article in The Politico, and a major article in USA Today.
      

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   4. •The development of a creative YouTube video outlining the loophole and the “Real March Madness” project that resulted in thousands of views and significant pickup in the blogosphere.
      

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Key Result: On May 24, 2007, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 346-71 to close the taxpayer-funded government lobbyist loophole.