Political Horizons for Nov.23, 2008

• By MARK BALLARD
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Nov 23, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:00 a.m.

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The state Public Service Commission recently became the latest government agency to consider banning free meals and entertainment paid for by special interests.

And just like state legislators debating a similar prohibition earlier this year, all of the elected regulators — whether for or against the ban  — said indignantly that their votes could not be bought for a steak.

The measure eventually failed on a 3-2 vote.

Indignation aside, the quid pro quo argument misses the point. Meals and entertainment provide access, not a payoff.

For instance, as a private citizen and everyday electricity customer, Anne Plettinger, of St. Francisville, has been attending PSC meetings and reading supporting documents for nearly 30 years. She can recall only a handful of private meetings with commissioners. All of them took place across a desk for a set period. The discussion focused on the issue at hand.

Plettinger, whose interest in PSC doings came after her retirement from a University of Chicago physics lab, can talk the talk to the officials elected to oversee the business practices of the companies that make and sell electricity. Plettinger understands the jargon and nuance at the intersection of engineering and high finance that is utility regulation.

Most people do not have her expertise.

A regular person’s conversation with an elected official is in regular language. They don’t have the shared background that eases communication and fills in the meanings of the jargon and concepts.

And the regular-person meeting will take place in an office, begin at a specified time, last for a specified period with an assistant to the side taking notes.

When a lobbyist meets with an elected official over lunch or dinner, the atmosphere is much less official. The talk is about LSU football, the weather and travel. How are the kids? A personal relationship is built.

It’s the way business is done, particularly in Louisiana.

When it’s time to make a decision, the choice is between the position of a lobbyist, whom the elected official knows and likes, and the position of a voter who may have trouble articulating and whom the elected official hardly remembers.

This is no secret.