There are days when Ellen Marie Corbett feels a bit like George Armstrong Custer.

Custer, of course, was the 36-year-old U.S. Army lieutenant colonel who had the generally unpleasant experience, with his force of about 200 soldiers, of being overwhelmed and wiped out by about 2,000 Indians at the Battle of the Little Big Horn.

Corbett is a 53-year-old Democratic state senator from a district that takes in parts of Alameda and Santa Clara counties.

Instead of angry Cheyenne, Lakota and Arapaho, however, Corbett's nemeses are a small legion of lobbyists – "close to 20" by the senator's count – bent on derailing her unfortunately-numbered-if-you're-superstitious Senate Bill 1313.

Corbett's bill, starting in 2010, would ban chemicals known as perfluorinated compounds, or PFCs, from food packaging.

The compounds are used to prevent grease from leaking through things like microwave popcorn bags and fast food containers.

A similar bill, – Senate Bill 1713, by Sen. Carole Migden, D-San Francisco – would ban the use of bisphenol A (BPA) from containers for products for children less than 3 years of age, such as baby bottles and drinking cups.

In both cases, the sponsors contend that numerous studies have shown the chemicals may be carcinogenic, cause birth defects and carry other health risks, and that there are alternative compounds available that are safer.

Chemical companies and container makers counter that the scientific jury is still out on the compounds' potential dangers, and that bans of chemicals should be handled at the federal level, and not state by state.

But whatever the bills' merits, the strategies surrounding the battles over 1313 and 1713 afford a glimpse into a key – and increasingly used – method the Capitol lobbying corps uses to protect the interests of its employers: Coalesce and overwhelm.

"When I go out to talk to people about the legislative process," Corbett said in a recent interview, "and they say, 'Well, the lobbyists have so much power because they have all this money,' I say, 'No. The most power they have and how they most impact the process is they outnumber you.' We're outnumbered and outgunned."

Statistics from the secretary of state's office indicate there may be something to Corbett's thesis.

The number of registered lobbyists has increased from an estimated 870 at the end of the 1995-96 session to 1,075 at the end of the current session, a 23.6 percent increase.

The number of legislators, meanwhile, has remained fixed at 120. That's about a 9-to-1 ratio of lobbyists to lawmakers.

The 17 to 20 lobbyists striving to kill 1313 and 1713 are part of "working groups" assembled by lobbyists for chemical and manufacturing companies and trade associations.

"The more bodies we can throw at the train, the greater chance we have of stopping it," said Tim Shestek, the Sacramento-based lobbyist for the American Chemistry Council who put together the coalition against 1713. "We try and get as many folks involved as possible."

The "swarming defense" strategy is hardly new: At the start of the 20th century, the Southern Pacific Railroad was said to have sometimes employed a lobbyist for each legislator.

But Capitol denizens say its use has increased in recent years, in part because the legislator turnover caused by term limits has limited an individual lobbyist's ability to cultivate relationships with numerous lawmakers.

"Fewer lobbyists can claim to have relationships with as many legislators as they once might have been able to claim," said Jackson Gualco, a veteran lobbyist who is president of the Institute of Governmental Advocates, the state's professional lobbyist association. "So you have to find out ways to get someone's attention on a bill that otherwise might not happen.

"The other reason other firms may be brought in is because caucus loyalty has increased in the term limits era. In other words, assets may need to be brought to the table in order to wrest members from a leadership- or staff-recommended position on a measure."

Call Steve Wiegand, Bee Capitol Bureau, (916) 321-1076.