There are hundreds of people who are paid to go to Richmond during session each year and lobby members of the General Assembly on behalf of businesses and interest groups. These folks make a real impact on the legislative process. Lobbyists are required to register with the state, naming their clients and stating what issues they’ve been hired to lobby for or against.

Unfortunately, that’s where the requirements end. They don’t have to say who they’re lobbying or cite a single bill that they’re concerned with. One lobbyist, hired by the Alcohol Beverage Council of Virginia, unhelpfully discloses that she’s representing the group in “matters affecting the alcohol beverage industry.” Most are just that vague. At the other end of the spectrum is a lobbyist representing AOL, disclosing that he’s representing their interest in the realms of “internet governance, technology policy, tax reform.” Which is much more helpful, but still just not very useful. Short of some significant change in lobbying regulations — which would be tough to pass, what with all of the lobbyists surely opposing it — that’s as good as it gets.

That said, there’s some useful information available. A list of all registered lobbyists can be found on the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s website. But it’s presented in a far more useful format on the website of our friends at VPAP. There you can find who has volunteered that they’re lobbying about energy, farming, and even gamefowl. By looking over how many lobbyists are following an issue and who they’re working for, it can give you a good idea of how contentious that issue is likely to be and even whether a bill is likely to pass.

The House of Delegates may oppose transparency, but the Senate is at least conceptually OK with it. The Senate provides a live video stream of floor sessions. It’s only available via Windows Media Player, there’s never enough bandwidth for many people to watch at once, and they don’t archive it — if the middle of the work day isn’t a good time for you to watch, you’re out of luck. But they are doing it, and they deserve credit for that. You can tune in whenever the Senate is convened, generally around noon on weekdays.

With the open of the sixty day General Assembly today, the House of Delegates debated a pair of open government measures, and both failed.

House Minority Leader Del. Ward Armstrong (D-Martinsville) introduced a rules change to require that House floor sessions be broadcast for the public to observe. After a brief debate, with Del. Terry Kilgore (R-Gate City) speaking against the proposal, the plan was defeated, 55-43.

House Democrats also proposed overturning the 2006 change in legislative process that allows subcommittees — with just two votes required — to kill bills with secret votes. In 2006, 491 bills were killed secretly. That number rocketed to 840 in last year’s session. Del. Ken Plum (D-Fairfax) spoke in favor of the change, while House Majority Leader Morgan Griffith (R-Salem) opposed it, claiming that writing down who votes for what isn’t “efficient.” That proposal, likewise, failed, so the General Assembly will continue to hold hundreds of votes in secret.

Ironically, the House Democratic Caucus recorded these two debates, and has made each of them available on their blog — live broadcasting and recording votes.