P.R. Man Pushes for More Regulation of His Industry : Capitol: Under bill backed by Reagan’s son-in-law, firms that organize campaigns to influence lawmakers would have to file financial reports as lobbyists do.

It is rare that a public relations person at the state Capitol launches a campaign requiring his peers to file detailed lobbying financial disclosure reports with state officials, but the son-in-law of former Republican President Ronald Reagan is busily waging an uphill fight to do just that.

Dennis C. Revell, who has voluntarily registered as a lobbyist and filed those reports since he first opened the doors of his firm in 1984, wants other public relations businesses that specialize in organizing grass-roots lobbying campaigns to adhere to the same filing requirements and regulations that more traditional lobbyists already have to meet.

For example, lobbyists cannot spend more than $10 a month wining and dining state legislators; they must list how much money they receive from their clients, and they are required to identify the specific bills they are working to get passed or killed.

“It would be good for the (public relations) industry, and good for the (legislative) process,” Revell said in defense of his idea, which is contained in a bill (SB 524) authored by state Sen. Quentin Kopp (I-San Francisco) that will have its first hearing Wednesday. “This is enlightened self-interest. If we don’t do it, somebody else is going to do it for us.

“If the industry doesn’t set some guidelines for itself, we are going to have an instance in which somebody really crosses the line,” Revell said.

Kopp’s measure is aimed at a practice that has ballooned in California in recent years. More and more, public relations firms are engaging in the kind of district-level work--such as organizing letter-writing and telephone campaigns aimed at legislators on specific bills--that Revell says fits the definition of lobbying. Unlike lobbyists, however, those engaged in public relations work need not register as lobbyists and are not subject to regulation by the state Fair Political Practices Commission.

Many of Revell’s colleagues are opposed to his efforts.

“We’re campaign managers and campaign organizers, but we’re not lobbyists,” said Ray McNally, who operates his own political campaign and public relations firm.

“I’m not going over there (to the Capitol) and telling a legislator how he should or shouldn’t vote on a bill. We’ll file the reports if the (Kopp) bill passes, but nobody is trying to fool anybody around here. Where’s the problem? This is the way that democracy works.”

Donna Lucas, who was assistant press secretary to former Gov. George Deukmejian and now is president of Nelson & Lucas Communications, said 90% of her firm’s business comes from lobbyists. The lobbyists hire her firm, she said, to help organize groups around a particular issue and then have the groups contact state legislators.

“We are not (at the Capitol) lobbying,” Lucas said. “Is it lobbying if the PTA pulls together their membership to write letters to legislators, or if church groups do likewise regarding pending legislation?”

As proposed, the measure would affect only public relations companies that conduct substantial district-level, grass-roots organizing. Public relations firms engaged in more traditional work, such as churning out press releases, would be immune from regulation.

A similar measure died in the Senate last year, and Revell acknowledges that chances for passage this year also are dim. The bill’s first hearing will be before the Senate Elections and Reapportionment Committee.

Kopp said the need for change is great. He is convinced that public relations companies are increasingly performing services that used to be handled by lobbyists, he said.

In some cases, Kopp said, their influence on a particular issue is greater than a traditional lobbyist’s.

Last year, he noted, the tobacco industry hired a public relations company to organize a letter-writing and telephone campaign urging lawmakers to reject a controversial bill imposing a statewide smoking ban on most restaurants, offices, factories and other enclosed workplaces in California. The effort failed when the bill was approved.

“It could work next time, however,” Kopp said. “These are contrived, manufactured campaigns, and those who run them should be subject to the same rules as other lobbyists. Otherwise, they are shadowy figures operating to influence public policy.”

Some of Revell’s competitors say privately that his business has dropped off since his father-in-law is no longer President and that he is trying to drum up new work.

Revell, 43, who is married to Maureen Reagan, said such accusations are wrong. “I have never marketed my firm or my services based upon my family,” he said, “and I never intend to do so. The lunacy in that argument is: How is this bill going to help my business?”

Revell said he purposely did not open a Washington office until former President Reagan left the White House in 1989. Revell’s current public relations clients include the Los Angeles Rams, American West Marketing Inc., Freedom Fireworks, Work Recovery Inc. and New Concepts Corp.

Past clients have included the California Chamber of Commerce, IBM, the National Football League and the African nation of Uganda.