The manner in which RPAC decides upon what issues to lobby for or against is a multi-tiered process, Gregory explains, and it begins at the local level.

“Our process is member-driven,” he says. “The issues that come up are usually things that have come up through the membership in one way or another.”

First, the issues are recommended by policy committees, which are composed of volunteers who are also NAR members. There are 90 committees in total, and they cover such issues as federal taxation, conventional finance and lending, land use and property rights, federal housing, commercial real estate and multiple listing services, though NAR did tell us that it is currently reviewing all committees for potential restructuring, which could begin at the end of this year.

Members can follow one of two paths to joining a committee – they can either directly contact NAR and go through an online process, or contact their state Realtor president and be recommended for a committee position. So in the case of the online process, association members can contact NAR through www.realtor.org/governance/committees, and if you’d like to go through the state association, the current president of the Illinois Association of Realtors is Loretta Alonzo, an agent based in La Grange Park and who can be reached at 708-482-6170. Whichever method agents choose, their appointments are ultimately made by NAR’s incoming president.

“Usually the presidents try to have a diversity [in committee members],” Gregory says. “Large brokers, small brokers – different segments of the membership across the committees.”

And then there is RPAC’s political donations, and how it decides to allocate the $4.5 million that national RPAC Trustees have budgeted for direct contributions to candidates in 2012.

Like the committee selection process, Gregory says there are a number of steps that ultimately lead to a contribution to a politician or candidate for office. First, state PACs (RVOICE here in Illinois) file requests with RPAC for a donation to a particular candidate. Then, RPAC has the power to either accept, reject or amend the donation, but it cannot reject the requested donation and then support the candidate’s opponent. The fact that the requests originate from local PACs, Gregory says, is a big part of RPAC’s fundraising success, because RPAC’s donations budget comes completely from donations. Though NAR membership dues fund the Congressional Relations budget (and thus, the salaries of Gregory and the other RPAC lobbyists and staff), those separate, voluntary donations fund RPAC’s contributions. Roughly 40 percent of NAR members, Gregory says, offer their voluntary donations to RPAC. The average donation is $35, but 70 cents of every dollar goes back to the state PACs.