National Survey of State Legislative Lobbyists

Dear Legislative Advocate:

As an experienced advocate you have been selected along with your counterparts in all 50 states to participate in a national study of the operation of U.S. state legislatures. This message represents a request for completely voluntary participation; your responses and comments will remain confidential. All reports and publications emanating from the study will feature exclusively grouped results, with no reported findings being attributable to any single person. This survey represents a follow-up to a similar effort conducted in 2018-19 in which over 1,200 legislative advocates from all 50 states took part.

This survey takes between 20 to 30 minutes to complete. Your candid answers are greatly appreciated, and any extended comments you wish to record in the several “additional comments” boxes are valued and will receive very close study by a multi-university team of researchers.  The questions are designed to limit participants’ discomfort and participants can leave any question blank. Our goal is to better inform efforts to promote the capacity of state legislatures to engage in effective bipartisan problem-solving and promote civil discourse in their work.

This survey is supported by funding provided by the National Institute for Civil Discourse at the University of Arizona working with researchers at Washington State University, the University of Kansas, the University of Utah, Kent State University, Bradley University, Boise State University, Oregon State University, and the University of Arkansas. The Thomas S. Foley Institute for Public Affairs and Public Service at Washington State University is also providing funding. The survey has been endorsed by the State Legislative Leaders Foundation and Project Vote Smart.  Staff from the National Conference of State Legislatures have participated in the drafting of the survey.

Washington State University strongly supports the rights of research participants and the provisions established for the protection of respondent anonymity.  If you have any questions, concerns, or complaints regarding this research, please call us at 509-335-7146. The primary investigator for this project, Francis Benjamin, can also be reached by email at benjamin@wsu.edu. If you wish to receive a summary of survey results, please send a separate e-mail to Francis.  Some results of the prior study were published in a book entitled Outside Looking In: Lobbyists’ Views on Civil Discourse in U.S. State Legislatures (WSU Press, 2021).  If you’d like a copy of the book, please send an email with your mailing address to benjamin@wsu.edu requesting a copy.

To start the survey please click on the following link: Start Survey