Amid the hustle and the bustle of the 2012 legislative session, while the African American Affairs Commission makes a display, a little-known lobby will also be making its stand.
Starting tomorrow, The Connecticut Dog Federation will be presenting a display in the concourse of the Legislative Office Building.
"Too many people don't know about us," Ellen Keiffer, corresponding secretary for the organization, told me. "We have our own lobbyist."
In fact, it's not clear how powerful the dog lobby is in Connecticut. Roger Garrish, president of the CDF, didn't know just how many lobbyists are focused on the needs of dogs. There are animal advocacy organizations — like Friends of Animals and Connecticut Votes for Animals,  both of which sport a lobbyist or two — but as far as I can tell, the CDF is the only canine-specific advocacy organization with a lobbyist in Hartford.
What do they lobby for? Well, there's this bill, which went into effect last October, requiring people who import  animals to register as animal importers.
Now, I don't know it for a fact, but one imagines that the Pet Industry Advisory Council, which also has a lobbyist or two in Hartford, argued against that one.
If you care, as this legislative session gets going, I have included the complete list of all registered lobbyists in Hartford below, all 1,000-odd pages of it.

Combined Lobbyist List by Registrant With Type of Lobbying and Issues