Please take a few minutes to read the following article taken from the Iowa legislature website for "the rest of the story" about lobbyists.

http://www2.legis.state.ia.us/Pubinfo/WhatIsLobbyist/
In particular:

"Given the hundreds of bills and amendments introduced during each legislative session, it's impossible for legislators to gauge the potential effects of all of them. Information provided by lobbyists helps legislators make decisions about the large volume of proposals more quickly and efficiently."

and more importantly -

"...the First Amendment to the United States Constitution... [provides all of us] the right "to petition the Government for a redress of grievances," [and] is the legal basis for the lobbying that goes on in all levels of American government today.