A Firming Budget Prods Last-Minute Input From Interest Groups
As lawmakers work out a budget deal some interest groups are putting in their two cents over the airwaves. From Sacramento, Jenny O'Mara reports.
Interest groups hoping to get a piece of the budget pie are airing ads like this one from the California Teachers Association:
Audio : The governor and legislature need to invest more to help California schools continue the progress they have begun.
Planned Parenthood also has an on-air campaign for healthcare funding.
Bob Stern with the L.A.-based Center for Governmental Studies says the ads are successful if they can get even a few voters to contact their lawmakers.
Stern : And it also sends a shot across the bow in the sense that the interest group is paying attention to how the legislator is going to vote on this, so they have to worry about the election year and will the interest group remember how they voted on this particular issue?
Stern says the ads also show an organization has clout -- because it has money to spend in a non-election year.
