THE LOBBYIST
DURING the congressional debate over Federal regulation of natural-gas producers (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS), Michigan's Republican Senator Charles Potter, who favors regulation, tore into the gas lobby for trying "to put pressure on me." But Senator Potter also had a powerful lobby working for his side: representatives of scores of Eastern utilities and big unions, plus a small-producers'-and-consumers' committee headed by Indianapolis' former Mayor Alex M. Clark.
Natural gas is but one of many targets this year for Washington's corps of 1,000 professional lobbyists, most of whom represent business organizations. Whether lobbying helps...