NCSL’s blog The Thicket at State Legislatures put up a post yesterday that discusses where legislators turn in order to get information to help them make public policy decisions.

The blog cites two sources of information and makes a comparison. The first source is a survey by NCSL, the Council of State Governments, and the State Legislative Leaders Foundation from 2002. The second source is a book called Power, Knowledge, and Politics: Policy Analysis in the States by John Hird from 2005.

The two surveys approached the question in different ways, but according to the blog post, they came up with the same rankings. Take a look at this chart, which summarizes it with bar graphs. Interest groups and lobbyists appear in eighth place on the list.