The lobbying panel has the power to fine lobbyists and their clients, but has no jurisdiction over lawmakers.
At the end of the day, the pledge made by James D. Featherstonhaugh, the Coalition for Fairness's lawyer, at the lobbying panel's meeting seemed to stand: Mr. Simmons and other advocates would provide information to the lobbying commission and agree to drop, at least for now, their threat to sue the commission in state court over what they call violations of their free speech.
The governor stood his ground, effectively defying Michael G. Cherkasky, the man he had installed as chairman of the state's top ethics and lobbying oversight panel.
Indeed, with more than 400 outside groups and companies registered to lobby the panel, nearly 30 percent of the organizations — 118 in all — work in health care.
Women's rights, particularly their sexual and reproductive rights, have already been a major topic of conversation among civil society groups, who held their own three-day event this week to lobby the panel.
The lobby, paneled in rare Circassian walnut, is plush and shadowy, illuminated by chandeliers.
A taxi costs about $20. HOTELS The BENSON HOTEL (503-228-2000, $91 to $265) was built in 1912 by Simon Benson, a local timber baron, and has been impressing people ever since with its lobby paneled in Circassian walnut imported from the forests of Imperial Russia.
Buoyed by the unprecedented savaging the UN committee for the rights of the child (CRC) gave the Holy See in February, advocates for the victims of clerical sex abuse are also lobbying the CAT panel to include the Vatican's handling of the scandal in its review.
Critics had hoped to lobby the panels, said Ma Jun, a former journalist who is the head of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs.
"The [NRC] found an almost perfect correlation," says Cerny, who as a member of the advisory panel lobbied unsuccessfully for outcome data to be collected in the 1995 survey.
Sunai Phasuk, a researcher for Human Rights Watch, a lobbying group, says that the panel's original report named the politicians who egged on the gunmen.
