Florida's lobbying community was anomalously large in 1990, a problem that
threatens to undermine more general interpretations of the density of state
interest systems. We use time series and cross-sectional data to better un
derstand just what happened in Florida. Two explanations are examined, one
focusing on changes in lobbying regulations, and the other based on a popul
ation ecology interpretation of Florida's battle over the sales tax on serv
ices and what should replace it. The data provide circumstantial support fo
r the latter account, which suggests that Florida is anomalous only in the
extremity of the conditions governing the size of its interest community in
the late 1980s, not the conditions themselves.