How Farm Bureau Buffaloed Solons

“Lobbyists play on fears, emotions to sell their agendas.” … the Statehouse is more like a dealer’s showroom: It’s less a place where things are made than a place where things are sold. And like any good salesman, lobbyists know how to play on their customers’ psychological vulnerabilities. The Idaho Farm Bureau Federation , for example, has done an outstanding job selling its initiative bill as a “rural fairness” issue … This skillful, if misleading, sales pitch proved quite potent … Tapping into the Legislature’s rural inferiority complex helped steer the debate down irrelevant byways”/ William L. Spence , Lewiston Tribune. More here.

• H/T: Kestrel West Morning Memo

DFO: This tactic even buffaloed an otherwise good legislator, Sen. Shawn Keough, R- Sandpoint.

Question: Can you think of any bill aproved — or heading toward approval — that’s worse than the Farm Bureau/Idaho Legislature’s attack on the initiative/referendum process?