FEATURED STORY: Comstock’s contributor Scott Thomas Anderson shadowed lobbyists from Pinnacle Advocacy during an afternoon at the state Capitol when lawmakers were trying to bring their hectic end of session to a close.

Lobbyists. Love them or hate them — their right to petition the government is protected by the First Amendment. The wheels of democracy are greased by these paid political advocates, and much of their work goes unsung, often by design. 

For instance, though rarely discussed, lobbyists are known to write laws. Whether this or the accepted fact that dollars correlate with representation means our government is effectively privatized — and whether that’s even a bad thing — has been long debated. Soon, if not already, AI will be drafting legislation under the advisement of lobbyists, and the effects will be, well, interesting.

Futurist fears aside, lobbyists are perhaps the greatest influence on our government that citizens know the least about. While they represent virtually every major corporation, organization and cause, there are much smaller interest groups that may not otherwise be heard without them — such as the American Dehydrated Onion and Garlic Association, threatened by international imports, and the Balloon Council, which grapples with helium shortages.

As a lobbyist might argue, that sounds a lot like democracy. Learn how they get it done in this week’s featured story. 

– Dakota Morlan, managing editor

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The biggest, most bumbling elephant in the room these days may be summarized in that famous line from “Jerry Maguire,” the 1996 Tom Cruise movie: “Show me the money!”

Recommendations From Our Staff

Judy: Democrats had big wins last night in New York, New Jersey, Virginia and California. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Prop. 50, which will change congressional lines in our state, won by an overwhelming margin. I had a text chain going with my East Coast friends this morning. Is this a harbinger of midterm elections in 2026? Is this a sign that voters are either protesting Trump or moving away from him? We’ll have to wait and see a year from now. But in any case, whether it was a Democratic president last year or a Republican president this year, the cost of everything has not gone down for we the people. We still have extraordinarily high prices for gas, groceries, health care and housing. When are politicians going to finally start listening to the people they represent and actually do something?

Jennifer: During Halloween week, I listened to a lot of the English podcast “Weird in the Wade,” an excellently made series with a very narrow topic: historical, supernatural tales from the tiny town of Biggleswade, which I doubt any of you had heard of before you read this sentence. In some ways, it does what Comstock’s aims for: use a hyperlocal focus to sound out grander truths about the zeitgeist. For a not-too-scary start, I recommend The Big Cat of Biggleswade and Phantom Felines, which recounts reports of large and sometimes dangerous cats in a region that hasn’t had wild felines in over 200,000 years. (It also manages to include a pertinent reflection on the importance of local media archives.) 

Odds and Ends

Get to know Crocker Art Museum Director Agustín Arteaga in our November issue, where we also explore print’s resurgence, a technical skill renaissance and more. Read it today on your computer, phone or tablet.

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