[pimmen]

Lobbyists just make politicians’ work easier, even if the politicians would’ve received no money or compensation at all the politicians still like the service they provide.

Politicians want, above all else, to stay in power. That’s their actual full time job. To do that you need key supporters, not just financiers for your campaign but blocks of voters, and the latter is the most precious of all and the one lobbyists can help politicians with. If the coal miners keep you elected you want to know what political moves will please them. Same thing with minorities, elderly and other demographic blocks; they want mutually exclusive things and lobbyists who represent these groups can tell you what would please the group they represent.

So, if you make it illegal for these groups to meet politicians through lobbyists politicians will do their best to reach the voters instead. That’s basically the service Cambridge Analytica supplied, in a sense.