Sacramento Business Journal - by Kathy Robertson Staff writer
Dennis McCoy | Sacramento Business Journal
Longtime lobbyist Ray LeBov, left, speaks with state Sen. Darrell Steinberg at Steinberg’s Capitol office.
View Larger
To some employers, what goes on at the state Capitol seems just plain "weird."
There's an established path from idea to bill to law, but many skip that route. Legislators can be fractious and have term limits that keep their tenure short. Two-thirds of them have to agree to pass a budget or a tax, so public spending priorities often get punted to the ballot box.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Ray LeBov's Lobbyng 101 Seminar was recently the subject of a feature story on National Public Radio's program "Day to Day".
Listen to the interview
(will open a new window with Audio Player)
Lessons in Lobbying
|
|
A former state worker turns to a new career: teaching others how to lobby
by Bob Masullo
Inside East Sacramento
Some think lobbyists are vying with lawyers, medical insurers and used-car salesmen to see whose profession is admired the least. But Ray LeBov doesn’t believe lobbyists are bad at all. He thinks lobbying is respectable work, and he’s helping to make more lobbyists.
In fact, the retired lobbyist teaches classes called Lobbying 101 and Lobbying 201. One of each is offered approximately every two months.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Jill Duman The Recorder 08-31-2004
SACRAMENTO -- Ray LeBov, the state court system's longtime lobbyist, is leaving his government job for private practice.
The 57-year-old lawyer and former legislative analyst is widely credited with winning legislative support for the court system's move to state funding and more centralized administration, a process that began in the mid-1990s.
"It's very simple," says Michael Belote, a lobbyist for the California Judges Association. "Prior to Ray joining the [Judicial] Council, it was a lobbying backwater. He turned it into probably the best lobbying operation of any state agency I have seen."
Until Chief Justice Ronald George began his long march toward stable court funding, legislators had little interest in the nuts and bolts of court administration and funding.
"When I first started here" -- after the state Supreme Court angered legislators by upholding term limits -- "relations between the two branches were very, very bad," recalls LeBov. "I would like to think that one of my major accomplishments has been getting the branches to understand each other better and to work better together in the interests of the state."
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
