I have had some success in Oklahoma City at the capital and have failed at other times. I was successful in raising the fines for illegal littering, got the legislature to adopt a recycling goal, etc.
But I also proposed a bottle bill for a nickle deposit on beverage containers. Eleven times. I would find a sponsor or two, get the bill assigned to committee, make a passionate speech filled with facts, then watch it die in committee. Eleven times. I even had the speaker of the House as the title sponsor once. Had the blessing of the Association of County Commissioners endorsed it. I showed how it could produce jobs and an extra 25 million dollars a year in unredeemed deposits that they could spend on roads or even prisons. Eleven times I did this.
I never made it out of committee. It never made the floor for a vote or even discussion.
This is what I touched on earlier. By yourself, even with friends in high places, you are only 1 vote. At the time we were working on the helmet law, one of the guys we worked with told us that each personal contact has a weight - if 1 call is received, they figure that equals some number of people in the district who feel the same way. IIRC, the number was about 100 or so....just because the vast majority will NEVER write or even call, even if they feel strongly about a topic. If you had showed up with 1,000 people's hand written letters from a cross section of counties/districts, you would have everyone's attention in a big way! No matter what Coke, Pepsi, or WalMart was telling them about bottle deposits....
I heard on NPR this morning that there is a new "grass roots" organization starting up to attempt to offset the effect of lobbyists statewide. I know nothing about it yet, but am going to find out. And if they are 'real' I may just get political again. But it's gonna take a LOT of us to get anything going. And there is always the problem of the facts - these guys keep getting elected by 60% margins just because, "Jesus....!!" That is a huge mountain to climb.