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"Lobbyists are there to ensure the interests of the organizations they represent are addressed."

Sure. Some of those organizations have interests that make the world a better place. You do know there are lobbyists out there working against SOPA, right?

I agree that financial influence is a problem, but only part of it has anything to do with campaign contributions and backscratching. Plain and simple, interests that have (or causes that attract) more money can afford to hire more people to actually do the lobbying work from research to face-to-face discussion (this is one reason why wealth distribution issues matter bigtime).

And in the meanwhile, fewer and fewer people do lobbying for any reason other than money. Or to put it another way, maybe the other half of the problem is that we're not all trying to be better lobbyists. I remember hearing an interview with Rep Bill Orton a while back (interesting guy -- a Democrat elected to Utah's 3rd district, one of the most conservative Republican districts out there) where he said his biggest surprise after election was how few "ordinary citizens" came to visit.