ABSTRACT
Grassroots lobbying is pressure from the bottom up. “The folks back home” tell a legislator what is on their minds, and these voices are important because more than anything else legislators want to get reelected. Because grassroots pressure seldom arises spontaneously, it must be organized by those seeking to become lawmakers. Thus grassroots advocacy has become an essential strategic tool in lobbying Congress and the state legislatures. Over the past 20 years, grassroots programs have grown in number and many corporations and associations have established positions and sometimes entire units devoted to grassroots.1 Between 1993 and 1994, organizations spent $790 million on it at the federal, state, and local levels.2
