Includes information about thousands of organizations involved in Washington D.C. politics, their organizational characteristics including the kinds of interests they represented and the nature of their membership, if any, and the activities they undertook in the pursuit of policy influence. Encompasses all organizations listed in the Washington Representatives directories (published by Columbia Books) for 1981, 1991, 2001, 2006, and 2011 as being active in national politics by virtue of either having an office in the D.C. area, or hiring D.C.-area consultants or counsel to represent them. These organizations have been classified into 96 categories based, principally, on the kinds of interests represented. Variables include organization name, membership category, founding year, and main objective, as well as number of lobbyists hired, number of amicus briefs filed, political action committee (PAC) donations made, and web-based lobbying activities.
