You're both right and wrong.  Politicians don't care about petitions to
change something.  They do, however, care about petitions to put something
on the ballot for a public vote.  Years ago, conservationist petitions,
lobbied and, generally, did everything they could think of to get a gill net
ban implemented in Florida waters.  Nothing even came close to overcoming
the commercial fishing bias of our wildlife management process . . . until
the petitions changed focus.  Our law, like the laws for many states, allow
the citizens to petition to put an amendment to the vote.  These laws
require that, upon receipt of a specified number of signatures, the
legislature must put the issue on a ballot.  Enough signatures were
received, the net band amendment was put on the ballot and was
overwhelmingly passed.  The only way to accomplish the goal, here, was to do
an end run on the commercially dominated commission.

I see no reason to believe that anything short of a similar move, this time
on a national level, will enjoy any degree of success.

Lee