I'm not sure about this (someone please feel free to chime in), but HOAs are only "local people" after the developers have sold all the houses and moved on, at

I'm not sure about this (someone please feel free to chime in), but HOAs are only "local people" after the developers have sold all the houses and moved on, at which point the HOA becomes controlled by the homeowners in the association with the most Nazi-like mentalities. Before this, the HOA is set up by the developer that bought all the land and developed the subdivision. So, presumably, the "HOA lobbyists" are actually the lobbyists for housing developers, which I think are definitely a real thing.