The Unlobbyists - NYTimes.com The changing nature of politics has reshaped lobbying, not necessarily for the worse. Top dogs in Washington's influence industry are losing ground to a new breed. The strategic adviser with clean hands, who stands aloof from the grunt work of cornering members of the House and Senate in Capitol hallways and the hassle of remembering committee secretaries by name, is now ascendant. Never mind those nightly fund-raisers. If you look at the numbers, it may seem that lobbying is in decline, but it isn't; it's just taking different forms. What was once straightforward lobbying has become, in effect, a full service PR-advertising-social media operation, very little of which is covered by federal regulation. In a field buffeted by the economic meltdown of 2008, the current legislative standstill on Capitol Hill, the emergence of high-tech competitors and the passage of the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007 (which subjects registered lobbyists to a stringent regulatory regime including the threat of criminal sanctions and prison time), this shift in the influence industry poses a broader question. Are the days of the glad-handing lobbyist, carrying an envelope of PAC checks and the proposed wording of a client's legislative amendment, numbered? Carter Eskew, a founding partner of the Glover Park Group, which lobbies and provides a host of other services to clients, raised this question in a conversation with me. Looking to future sources of new revenue, Eskew has concluded that " "relationship lobbying" is dead, or at least not where the growth will be." The traditional lobbyist, he argues, is no longer the éminence grise of days past but instead has been reduced to serving as a conduit for campaign contributions from corporate and trade association PACs to candidates. The action has shifted to what is known in the business as strategic advice: how to convince and mobilize voters and opinion elites in support of a client's agenda. According to Eskew, "Many years ago, members of Congress figured out what they really needed to worry about were their own constituent groups and their own voters." So what does this new strategic adviser actually do? He or she can plan out a legislative campaign or a drive to affect the implementation of regulation, determine which officials and agencies must be dealt with, and propose potential coalition partners. Interestingly, all this can be done without making direct contact with elected officials, congressional aides or top-ranked department and agency appointees and employees. This arms-length approach permits strategic advisers to avoid lobbying registration and reporting requirements. Ed Gillespie, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee and a key adviser to George W. Bush, is the embodiment of the measured camouflage of top strategic operatives. From 2000 to 2007, in partnership with Jack Quinn - a former chief of staff to Vice President Al Gore - Gillespie ran one of the most successful lobbying firms in Washington, Quinn-Gillespie. During that period, the firm's revenues more than doubled, from $7.6 million to $18 million. Gillespie left the firm in 2007, initially to become counselor to President Bush. From that moment on, Gillespie disappeared from the ranks of registered lobbyists. In 2009 he formed Ed Gillespie Strategies. The firm proudly declares: In 25 years in politics, government and business, Ed Gillespie has emerged as one of the premier communications strategists in America. He knows what it takes to effectively convey information and image in today's cluttered and constantly churning media environment. In two decades of public and private sector work, Ed Gillespie has successfully organized and managed coalitions focused on policies ranging from excise taxes to encryption reform to energy regulation. He has the management ability it takes to create the infrastructure, run the meetings, coordinate strong personalities, and circulate information and implement agreed upon strategy and tactics. None of these activities requires registration as a lobbyist or disclosure of fees. In a question-and-answer session on Oct. 30 with students at the University of Chicago, Gillespie said about his firm: "What we do mostly is just public relations and strategic communications advice and guidance for a lot of different clients, trade associations and corporate America." Gillespie is by no means alone in his role as a strategic adviser not registered as a lobbyist. He and his colleagues are raking in large fees for performing similar services. Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, was paid $25,000 a month for consulting and related services by Freddie Mac; Tom Daschle, the former Senate Democratic majority leader, is a senior policy adviser at DLA Piper, "one of the largest business law firms in the world"; and Anita Dunn, former communications director in the Obama White House, is now a managing director at SKDKnickerbocker, where she helps "NGOs, trade associations, Fortune 500 companies, and non-profit organizations to craft effective communications strategies." Many formerly registered lobbyists have decided to deregister in order to avoid falling under the new reporting requirements in 2007"s Honest Leadership Act. Both academics and policy experts say that these reforms, adopted in the wake of the Jack Abramoff scandal, drove much of the work of manipulating legislative and regulatory processes underground. A study by Dan Auble, a senior researcher at the Center for Responsive Politics, "Lobbyists 2012: Out of the Game or Under the Radar?" contends that lobbyists are purposely changing their modus operandi: