Lottery And Video Poker Help Push Lobbyists Popularity Forward

The dialogue over the passage of a state lottery and the efforts made to alter laws concerning video poker helped to introduce six newcomers as members of an elite list of influential lobbyists at the North Carolina state Legislature.

The six newcomers are among the 11 who are appearing at the biennial list of North Carolina's top 50 lobbyists for the first time. The list was released by the non-partisan North Carolina Center for Public Policy Research.

The rankings on the list were a result of a survey of legislators, lobbyists as well as reporters. The North Carolina Center for Public Policy Research is a nonprofit organization.

At least 17 lobbyists in the list worked for or against gambling avenues like lotteries and video poker. These included second-placer Zeb Alley and third-placer Roger Bone.

"Each session, we see hot issues lead to rising influence for lobbyists involved in those issues," center executive director Ran Coble said. Coble added that the lottery and video poker advocacy "helped them hit the jackpot as their numbers came up strong in influence."

Seven of 2004's top ten most influential lobbyists were also present in the new list including Dona Beason, who has BBandT, BellSouth and IBM Corp. as clients