Washington lobbyist Vicki Iseman sued the New York Times on Tuesday for suggesting that she may have had an affair with Sen. John McCain.
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Richmond, responds to one of the most sensational stories of the presidential campaign, a 3,000-word, front-page Times article in February intimating that the little-known telecommunications lobbyist had an affair with McCain during his first run for the White House in 1999. The story did not provide any evidence of an affair, but said that McCain's top aides became convinced that the relationship was romantic and took steps to keep McCain and Iseman apart.
But even before the suit was filed, Iseman made clear that she disapproved of the Times' handling of the story. In an exclusive series of interviews and e-mails with National Journal's Edward T. Pound this fall, Iseman told her side of the story about how the alleged affair made its way into the media, calling it "a hit-and-run smear campaign."
This is our last posting until Jan. 5, so we thought we'd ask a few folks about their plans for the holidays. Heather and Tony Podesta, lobbyists who each own their own firms, were heading to Australia. Jerry Howard, CEO of the National Association of Home Builders, said he was working, except for Christmas Day, when he has pledged to turn off his Blackberry. Others were heading as far away as Egypt or just staying close to home around Washington D.C. and taking a few deep breaths in anticipation of a very busy 2009.
Meanwhile, the folks at Columbia Books who publish the semi-annual "Washington Representatives" volume, produced a cute (or some may say cynical) e-mail titled, "The 12 Days of Lobbying." They link lobbying and advocacy groups to each refrain of "The 12 Days of Christmas." It goes to show, there is a lobbying group for everything.
Here's a little tidbit:
A Partridge in a Pear Tree: The Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission may not be able to provide you with a partridge, but its members help in promoting research of pear trees. In fact, the commission will hold its Northwest Pear Review Research in February. The commission has hired an outside lobbyist for work on agriculture issues.
Two Turtle Doves: Doves represent the National Peace Foundation, an organization that promotes conflict resolution.
The rest you can find in the PDF here. _12 Days of Lobbying_ by Lobbyists.info.pdf
Happy Holidays everyone! See you in 2009.
-- Bara Vaida, Robert Gettlin, and the rest of the UndertheInfluence team
Sen. Frank Lautenberg, the millionaire New Jersey Democrat who won re-election to a fifth term in November, lent his 2008 and 2002 campaigns more than $3 million. Now, he wants his campaign to repay him $1,340,000, and he has asked the Federal Election Commission for its opinion on the matter.
His attorney, Marc Elias, in a request for an "advisory opinion,'' asked the FEC to "confirm" the campaign committee's understanding that it can repay the senator up to $250,000 of the $1,650,000 that he lent his 2008 re-election effort. Under the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform law, Elias wrote, a candidate's authorized campaign committee can repay up to $250,000 in personal loans.
Lautenberg also lent his 2002 campaign $1,510,000. According to Elias, $1,090,000 of the debt remains and has been disclosed in reports to the FEC. Elias wrote the FEC that the $250,000 cap on repayment of personal loans applies only to loans made after the effective date of McCain-Feingold.
The reform law took effect on Nov. 6, 2002, or after Sen. Lautenberg lent the money to his 2002 campaign. "For this reason, we wish to confirm'' that McCain-Feingold permits the 2002 debt of $1,090,000 "to be repaid with funds raised for the 2008 re-election and for his 2014 re-election.'' In a brief interview, Elias said, "I think we will prevail.''
-- Edward T. Pound
The real estate market continues to plummet. But Jerry Howard, CEO of the National Association of Home Builders, says his group will head into 2009 with "guns blazing."
The NAHB will spend the "same or more" on lobbying in 2009 as it did in 2008, said Howard in a wide-ranging interview on Dec. 16 with National Journal. "Our members know we are in such dire straits that we have to be fully engaged and capitalized to get the job done, so you'll see us come out with guns blazing."
For the first three quarters of 2008 the NAHB reported spending $3.8 million on federal lobbying, and the fourth quarter has yet to be reported. The Jan.-Sept. number is already higher than what NAHB reported for all of 2007, when the group spent $3.22 million on lobbying, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
In 2009, a portion of the money will be spent on the group's new advocacy effort, "Fix Housing First," a coalition of about 600 organizations and companies that will be pushing hard in January to have a home-buyer tax credit included in the economic stimulus package that will be moving through Congress early next year.
The coalition is also pushing government agencies to adopt an "interest rate buy-down" that would reduce rates on 30-year mortgages to 2.99 percent for contracts closed between now and June 30, 2009, and 3.99 percent for contracts closed after June 30 and through Dec. 31, 2009. Both a tax credit and an interest rate buy-down were successfully used by the government in 1974 and 1975 when housing was in a tailspin.
"Both of these incentives worked in 1975," according to the
Fix Housing First Talking Points.pdf that the coalition has sent to the Senate. "The stimulus jump started the depressed economy and the effects continued long after the measures expired."Howard said House and Senate members have been receptive to the housing industry's pitch and "are willing to listen to any reasonable" idea. To his surprise, however, Howard has gotten the cold shoulder from President-elect Obama's transition team.
"Obama has sort of mandated that he won't speak to lobbyists," Howard said. "I wear that Scarlett Letter 'L', (in reference to the fact that Howard is a registered lobbyist) so we haven't been able to make much [headway] with the transition itself. [Obama's people] won't even talk to us."
Click below to read our Q&A with Jerry Howard
(Photo by Rick Bloom)
-- Bara Vaida
Continue reading Homebuilders Will Start '09 with "Guns Blazing".
Former Rep. Max Sandlin, a Texas Democrat and one-time chief deputy whip, has been named a partner at Mercury Public Affairs. Along with former Sen. Jim Talent, R-Missouri, Sandlin co-chairs Mercury's government relations-lobbying group in Washington. Sandlin was initially named co-chair of the lobbying group in November 2006.
In the House, Sandlin represented the First Congressional District in Texas for four terms, but was defeated for re-election in November 2004. He was chief deputy whip to Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., the current speaker, when she served earlier as Democratic whip. Sandlin also served on the Ways and Means, Transportation and Infrastructure and Financial Services committees.
Mercury is an arm of Omnicom Group, a global marketing and corporate communications company. Mercury's partners include Terry Nelson, a top strategist to Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign last year and national political director for Bush-Cheney 2004. Another Mercury partner, Steve Schmidt, served as a senior adviser to McCain's recent presidential campaign.
-- Edward T. Pound
Nick Kolovos, vice president of government relations at the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, sent an e-mail on Dec. 22 to colleagues announcing he was leaving the cable group to join a new lobbying firm launching in January -- Ryan, MacKinnon, Vasapoli and Berzok.
All of the name partners of the new firm appear to be lobbyists currently with law and lobbying firm Ryan, Phillips, Utrecht & MacKinnon. No one at the firm could be reached for comment.
Kolovos, a former aide to Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., could not be reached for comment.
-- Bara Vaida
Long criticized as a toothless tiger since its creation in 1975, right after the Watergate scandal, the Federal Election Commission is looking to improve "transparency, fairness and efficiency" in the way it applies and enforces campaign finance laws and regulations.
The agency says it plans to hold a self-improvement hearing on Jan. 14 at its offices (999 E. Street N.W., 9th floor).
Over the years, the FEC has gained a well-deserved reputation for taking forever and a day to get things done -- everything from campaign audits, issuing fines, analyzing reports and so on. Bob Bauer, a veteran campaign finance lawyer who serves as counsel to Obama for America and the Democratic Senatorial and Congressional Campaign Committees, sees the FEC's decision aimed at self-improvement as "a highly constructive step,'' as he writes in his blog, "More Soft Money Hard Law."
"In many ways, the agency operates under a strange procedure not designed with much emphasis on 'transparency, fairness and efficiency,''' he writes. "Improvements over time have helped...more improvement is certainly possible."
-- Edward T. Pound
Here are highlights of stories in this week's National Journal.
Kirk Victor, Will Englund and Ashley Johnson examine how Barack Obama may respond to the political agendas of various interest groups once he is in the White House. Alyssa Rosenberg writes a sidebar on the latest in the labor-versus-business battle over The Employee Free Choice Act.
Bara Vaida and CEO Update's Tavia Evans Gilchrist take a look at the DC recruiting scene and report that, for Democrats, landing a lobbying job isn't as easy as the hype suggests.
In our K Street Corridor section, Bara Vaida looks at trade association campaign giving and reports that the percentage given to each party in the 2008 cycle was almost even, while Peter Stone has the scoop on hard times at the Mortgage Bankers Association.
And Peter Cohn of Congress Daily reports on efforts to perusade Congress and President-elect Obama to respond to the fact that due to the dismal economy tax credits designed to spur alternative-energy and low-income housing projects are not worth much these days.
As we reported in this week's National Journal, it turns out that the most popular spots for D.C. political fundraisers are all helpfully located near the Capitol. The Sunlight Foundation and its Party Time project gathered 2,117 invitations to parties that helped finance campaign committees and leadership PACs in 2008 and sorted them by locale. No. 1 is the National Republican Club of Capitol Hill, which hosted 248 parties. Johnny's Half Shell comes in second, and third is the National Democratic Club. See the full list here.
Members can easily run "from a fundraising event where they're collecting checks from lobbyists with a stake in an issue straight to the House or Senate floor to vote about that very subject," said Nancy Watzman, director of the Party Time project. "It shows how blatant it all is." See the map of where the restaurants are located here.
-- Bara Vaida
The country's leading business and professional trade associations divided their political donations almost evenly between Democrats and Republicans in the 2008 election cycle. The political action committees of 107 top associations contributed a combined $74.2 million, 50.4 percent to Democratic candidates and 49.6 percent to Republicans, according to an analysis of PAC giving conducted for National Journal on December 9 by the Center for Responsive Politics.
The top donor was the National Association of Realtors' PAC, which doled out $3.87 million, 57 percent to Democrats and 43 percent to Republicans in 2008. No. 2 was the National Beer Wholesalers Association with $2.85 million in donations, 52.8 percent to Democrats and 47.2 percent to Republicans. The National Automobile Dealers Association came in third, contributing $2.73 million, 66.1 percent to Republicans and 33.9 percent to Democrats.
In the 2006 cycle, by contrast, these business groups lined up staunchly behind Republicans, giving a total of $73.5 million, 63.5 percent to GOP candidates and parties, and 35.9 percent to Democrats
Here is the complete list for 2008:
--Bara Vaida
After much delay, the Federal Election Commission today approved disclosure rules for lobbyists who also bundle campaign contributions. The reform community is pretty unhappy, according to election law blogs. Here's the Campaign Legal Center's take on the rules and here is the Associated Press story.
--Bara Vaida
Here's a handy 11-page schedule of inauguration-related parties and other events planned to take place from Jan. 15 through Barack Obama's Jan. 20 swearing in. It was sent to me by a source and is likely circulating throughout the K Street community. Schedules like these floated around during the political conventions and were pretty useful for getting a grasp on the wide number of events being planned. Take a look.
--Bara Vaida
My Atlantic magazine colleague Marc Ambinder has a post on liberal interest groups and unions uniting to create the Campaign for Jobs and Economic Recovery Now (C-JERN). The aim is to pressure Congress to pass Barack Obama's economic recovery package. The move is noteworthy because this group could possibly become an important player in also pushing Obama to take liberal position's on economic issues once he is in the White House.
--Bara Vaida
Despite criticism of lobbyists by President-elect Obama and many congressional candidates during the fall campaigns, several freshmen lawmakers have hired ex-lobbyists to fill top slots on their staffs. Read the story in Congress Daily (subscription required).
Opponents of the controversial Employee Free Choice Act are making the most out of the scandal surrounding Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
The pro-business Americans for Job Security is running a TV ad in Arkansas, Nebraska and North Dakota telling Democratic senators in those states not to vote for the EFCA, commonly referred to as the "card check" bill but dubbed the "union boss bailout" in the ad. The group likens the money the Service Employees International Union used to help elect Democratic senators to the pay-to-play accusations against Democrat Blagojevich. The spot alleges that the senators' "payback" to the SEIU will take "from workers the right to a secret ballot." The ad links the two issues through a Dec. 10 Washington Post article that reports a SEIU official acted as an "apparent intermediary between the governor and Barack Obama's camp in discussions over Obama's Senate seat."
AJS President Stephen DeMaura said that the SEIU and Blagojevich are "very close." Just as the governor looked to sell the Illinois Senate seat, the SEIU looked to buy Senate seats for $85 million, DeMaura said. The ad targets Democratic senators Ben Nelson of Nebraska; Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota; and Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor of Arkansas.
Josh Goldstein, a spokesman for the pro-EFCA American Rights at Work, brushed off the ad as yet another tactic aimed at finding "every single way to attack this legislation without ever actually talking about the bill." The group is going to continue its campaign and has no plans to launch a specific counterattack, he said.
Supporters say the legislation would make it easier for workers to unionize, but critics, like DeMaura's group, contend that a provision eliminating businesses' ability to demand a secret ballot election before workers form a union would leave employees vulnerable to intimidation and coercion by union bosses.
Meanwhile, the two sides are sparring over Obama's yet-to-be-announced Labor secretary. Goldstein said his group would like to see American Rights at Work founding Executive Director Mary Beth Maxwell at Labor's helm. The only name DeMaura threw out as a nonstarter was Maxwell, calling her "unacceptable to many in the business community."
Both Maxwell and former Democratic Rep.David Bonior of Michigan, a member of Obama's economic transition team and chairman of American Rights at Work, have been vocal supporters of the legislation. Bonior is also rumored to be one of Obama's top Labor picks.
-- Amy Harder
CLARIFICATION: The original version of this report had a different description of the debate in the fifth paragraph.
Hanging chads. Diebold. Bernard Madoff? Voting rights advocates have a new name on their enemies list after the trader bankrupted one of the election reform community's leading benefactors.
The Manhattan-based JEHT Foundation, whose initials stand for justice, equality, human dignity and tolerance, announced Monday that it will close in January after its only donors, Jeanne Levy-Church and Kenneth Levy-Church, were wiped out by Madoff's $50 billion fraud. The foundation's abrupt collapse has sent shock waves through voting reform circles: Just last week, JEHT made a $4.15 million pledge to "Making Voting Work," a joint initiative with the Pew Center on the States aimed at bringing the nation's electoral system into the 21st century. JEHT has already handed over $1 million of that pledge, but the rest won't be forthcoming. Since its inception in 2007, JEHT has been a junior partner in Making Voting Work, contributing $2.5 million of the $16.5 million invested so far.
The project will soldier on without JEHT, explained Rebecca Rimel, president and CEO of the Pew Charitable Trusts. But voting research will be delayed until Pew either finds new partners or digs into its own coffers to cover the $3-million-plus shortfall. "This work is too important to leave to financial crises and unfortunate situations," Rimel said. "We've got to continue this work."
The JEHT Foundation "promoted reform of the criminal and juvenile justice systems; ensured that the United States adhered to the international rule of law; and [worked] to improve the voting process." Just last week, JEHT and Pew hosted federal and state election officials, voting reformers and tech gurus at their "Voting in America" summit.
The Levy-Churches established JEHT in 2000 and funneled more than $20 million a year into the foundation in recent years. Unlike most charities, the vast majority of that money was spent directly, not saved, which made for rapid results but no cushion for rainy days. The couple reportedly had their entire fortune invested with Madoff.
JEHT Foundation President Robert Crane was not immediately available for comment.
--David Herbert
Americans love lists and we in the media love to produce them. National Journal, for example, produces a list every March of top lobbying firms based on the amount of lobbying fees a firm reports to Congress.
Now here's a new list for lobbyists to chew on. The 2009 inauguration issue of the magazine Capitol File takes a deeper look at K Street and asks "scores of Washington insiders" to tell them, who is the best dressed? And who has the best Rolodex? And who will be most hurt by Democrats taking firm control of Washington's power levers?
Who the "insiders" are in the poll, the magazine doesn't say.
Highlights of those picked include Jeffrey Kimbell, a healthcare lobbyist who owns Jeffrey J. Kimbell & Associates, who was named "Smoothest Talker"; Jack Quinn, co-founder and chairman of Quinn Gillespie & Associates was named "Best Dressed"; Wayne Berman, managing director of Ogilvy Government Relations was named the person with the "Best Rolodex"; while the lobbying firm Winning Strategies was named "Most Likely to Take a Hit" with a Democratic administration and Congress in 2009.
Take a look at the list.
--Bara Vaida
UPDATE: Dec. 18 @ 2:20 PM
Lane Hudson, a representative for Bolthouse Farms, sent an e-mail letting me know that Californians Against Hate (a gay activist organization) ended their boycott of the company this October. The group also acknowledged that the company wasn't responsible for a donation made by William Bolthouse, the patriarch of the company, to help pass Proposition 8. Bolthouse sold his interest in his firm in 2005 and all donations made by Bolthouse came from the Bolthouse Foundation, which is a separate entity from the company.
Correction (Posted Dec. 17 @ 9:00 AM): An earlier version of this post incorrectly said Pacific Gas & Electric supported Proposition 8.
Companies over the years have gotten caught up in controversy by providing monetary support for hot-button state ballot measures. The most recent companies to get embroiled in such measures are Bolthouse Farms, Pacific Gas & Electric, and the Manchester Grand Hyatt and Grand Del Mar hotels based in San Diego, over the issue of Proposition 8, the 2008 California ballot initiative to ban gay marriage. All of these businesses became targets of activists or employees and customers, and they are an example of why corporate boards need to establish formal procedures for overseeing their company's involvement in political activity, says the Center for Political Accountability in a new report called "Taking Initiative."
Taking Initiative report.pdf"With political spending becoming riskier, directors need to pay even closer attention" than ever to how companies are allocating their dollars in politics and public policy, said Bruce Freed, executive director of the center, a non-profit organization that has spent the past five years advocating for more transparency and accountability when it comes to political spending by some of the national's largest corporations.
Freed also said the report lays the groundwork for a "best practices" handbook on corporate political spending that his organization is developing with the business think tank The Conference Board. The book is expected in spring 2009.
Since Freed's group embarked on their effort to get companies to disclose more specifics of their spending on public policy and politics, 52 companies, including American Express and Hewlett Packard, have agreed to be more transparent and accountable for their political expenditures.
-- Bara Vaida
There is a lot of talk that Democrats are in hot demand on K Street. Here are two new developments on that front.
Penny Lee, who was a key liaison to K Street and the business community for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has left Capitol Hill and is expected to take a position in the private sector. From 2005 through early 2007, she was executive director of the Democratic Governors Association. Before that, she worked in the administration of Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell. One interesting anecdote about Lee's background: A native of Alaska, she was once a schoolmate of Peggy Palin, the sister of former second dude aspirant Todd Palin. Lee declined to say where she was going in the private sector.
In other news on the personnel front, Cory Alexander, lobbyist for Fannie Mae and an ex-chief of staff to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., is expected to take a lobbying job with UnitedHealth Group, according to news and K Street sources.
--Gregg Sangillo
The Federal Election Commission found in 2005 there was reason to believe the U.S. Chamber of Commerce violated campaign finance law but sat on the case for three years, according to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, National Journal's Congress Daily reported. At issue was a $3 million donation to tort reform group, the November Fund, in an effort to oppose the 2004 vice presidential bid of former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C. The FEC dismissed the complaint against the chamber in October.
For all those voters who think their congress person is reading all constituent e-mails, think again. Many such messages never get opened. That's because Congress is drowning in e-mail from constituents and grassroots organizations. Things have gotten so bad that in September, when Congress was debating the $700 billion financial bailout package, the flood of electronic messages from citizens caused the House's e-mail servers to shut down for multiple days.
The scope of this problem and more is explained by the Congressional Management Foundation in a new report. "This [current] system isn't working for anyone," said Tim Hysom, director of communications and technology solutions at the foundation, a non-profit group that provides management advice to Congress.
The report lays out some common-sense solutions for the problem including bringing together both Hill staff and vendors to develop a more effective technology platform for receiving e-mail. "The time is right for this collaboration," said Hysom.
The Foundation is now planning a task-force in the first quarter of 2009 to start the actual work of easing the dialogue between Congress and its constituents. So if you are a group that sends lots of e-mail to the Hill, you probably want to pay attention to what the foundation is up to.
-- Bara Vaida
Michael Berman, president of the lobbying firm Duberstein Group, is going to school. He is joining American University's School of Public Affairs as a fellow at the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies. Berman will continue to head the Duberstein Group in addition to joining the faculty at American.
Before Duberstein, Berman was former Vice President Walter Mondale's counsel and deputy chief of staff. He was also the special assistant attorney general for Minnesota. Berman has worked on every Democratic presidential campaign from 1964 to 2000 and every Democratic convention from 1968 to 2004.
Berman is also on the board of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and is the former co-chair of the board of the Human Rights Campaign, the country's largest gay and lesbian advocacy organization, according to a university release.
For the first nine months of 2008, the Duberstein Group reported $6.8 million in lobbying fees, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Duberstein's clients include the Federation of Korean Industries, the American Gaming Association, American Health Insurance Plans, Comcast, General Motors and Goldman Sachs.
-- Winter Casey
In a Newsweek column this week, Robert Samuelson quotes yours truly in a piece on the expected stampede of lobbyists, influence peddlers, media consultants, paid "experts" and self-styled crusaders who will be coming to Washington with President-elect Obama in January. Samuelson writes that "paradoxically, Obama's ambitions for more expansive government will promote special pleading."
Samuelson, who authored the book The Great Inflation and Its Aftermath: the Past and Future of American Affluence, also makes a point on which I'm sure all lobbyists would agree: "Myth No. 1 is that lobbying is antidemocratic because it frustrates "the will of the people." Just the opposite is true: lobbying is an expression of democracy."
-- Bara Vaida
The National Association of Manufacturers has announced layoffs, but senior decision makers and the policy and government relations group will not be affected by the staff cutbacks, said Maureen Davenport, senior vice president of communications for the trade group.
Though NAM's government affairs people were not among the 17 positions eliminated earlier this month, the 2009 salaries for employees were frozen across the board, said Davenport. She emphasized that the layoffs were driven by the economic downturn and the anticipation that 2009 will be a hard year.
Bara Vaida reported on the December 2 NAM budget cuts here .
-- Winter Casey
Do campaign-related advertisements and expenditures by independent groups still pack a punch in national elections? Comments from progressive and conservative groups painted a somewhat cloudy picture for third-party electoral spending in a forum today sponsored by Factcheck.org and the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the Newseum in D.C.
Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, pointed out that Barack Obama made it clear he did not want 527s and other independent groups involved in the election. Roger Schlickeisen, president of the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund, added that Obama asked his supporters to bypass outside groups and donate directly to his campaign, meaning less robust fundraising for many groups.
However, Scott Wheeler, executive director of the National Republican Trust PAC, insisted that there will always be a place for third-party groups because they can focus on doing one particular thing well -- reaching out to a certain demographic or focusing on a particular issue more effectively than anyone else. Richards and Schlickeisen emphasized the credibility that outside groups can build up with voters: "Third-party validation" is critical to candidates, Richards argued.
Ed Patru, vice president of communications for Freedom's Watch, argued that innovation in third-party messaging comes from the party that's out of power. Democrats were "light years ahead" this cycle, he argued, because they had their brightest minds coming together over the last few years to figure out how to get their message across more effectively. Now that there has been an electoral swing to the left, he said, many Republicans will be analyzing what went wrong and how to fix it. Wheeler agreed, saying, "We will see a more circumspect Republican Party going forward."
One obstacle to third-party efforts, the panelists concurred, is campaign finance law. Richards lamented the restrictions put on independent expenditures by the McCain-Feingold Act, while Schlickeisen argued that the law's biggest problem is its lack of clarity. He described a constant need to consult with attorneys because the law is so complex. Every advertising effort involves risk assessment, and this is a barrier to third-party groups' work, he said.
-- Mary Gilbert
What happens to government affairs teams when two companies combine? That is yet to be determined in the case of the Washington lobby shops for EDS and Hewlett-Packard after HP's acquisition of EDS closed on Aug. 26.
Hewlett-Packard spokeswoman Pamela Bonney said the company is still working through the integration of these government affairs teams -- and the structure of a new team is not finalized -- just as the company is working through the integration of the other parts of EDS. Asked to respond to rumors that some staff could be leaving, Bonney said, "People are making decisions about the future of their careers. And we are unable to make any further comment on individuals." David Isaacs of HP said in an email that he is "leaving HP before the holidays." Bonney confirmed that the company has made no new hires on its government affairs team in the last two months.
-- Winter Casey
There has been a lot of talk on K street about how President-elect Obama may use his 13 million-strong grassroots network to promote policy. National Journal's Corine Hegland takes an in-depth look at how the network may be deployed to bolster his administration in this week's issue of National Journal. (subscription only)
In other magazine stories this week, Peter Stone writes about labor and business teaming up to push Congress to spend on infrastructure projects.
In our K street Corridor section, we highlight how the League of Conservation Voters and labor groups are jointly sponsoring an advertising push for increased spending on "green" public sector jobs. We also feature a local firm, LDAFile, which aims to help lobbyists file their lobbying disclosure forms with Congress.
EXCLUSIVE
Consumer and government ethics advocacy group Public Citizen has been conferring with the incoming Obama administration about new ethics measures for the executive branch, says the group's departing president, Joan Claybrook, in an exclusive interview with Under the Influence. Claybrook Interview.pdf.
Claybrook announced on December 9 that she's stepping down from the group Ralph Nader founded in 1971 and which Claybrook has headed for 27 years. In the interview, Claybrook also reflects on the strides the consumer and clean government movements have made, names the top remaining agenda items for the movements and assesses some early measures taken by President-elect Obama. Claybrook's own statement announcing her departure from Public Citizen is here.
-- Julie Kosterlitz
At a time when many policy shops in Washington are announcing cutbacks (see our recent blog entries on the National Association of Manufacturers and the National Association of Home Builders), the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is making promotions in its congressional and public affairs division.
"We will be stepping up our lobbying efforts in the new Congress and administration, significantly bringing more focus to big issues such as healthcare, legal reform, energy, the environment and pensions," says chamber spokesman Eric Wohlschlegel.
The chamber is promoting Pete Lawson and Ron Eidshaug to the position of vice president. Lawson is the chamber's chief lobbyist on legal reform, corporate governance, and financial services issues. Prior to joining the chamber in 2004, Lawson served as senior counsel to Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., where he co-developed and co-authored the New Democrat Coalition legislative agenda. He has also served as deputy director of government affairs for an accounting and consulting firm and worked as a consumer protection specialist in the North Carolina Attorney General's Office.
Eidshaug is the chamber's chief lobbyist on environmental and energy issues, and helps manage the chamber's team of 15 full-time Capitol Hill lobbyists. Eidshaug joined the chamber in 1999 after serving as senior environmental policy analyst with the New York State Governor's Office of Regulatory Reform under Gov. George Pataki.
The chamber has also promoted several senior lobbyists to executive director titles including: Tim Maney, who handles budget and appropriations; Ashley Miller, who leads the taxation and pension portfolio; and Katie Strong, the chief healthcare lobbyist.
One chamber lobbyist, Nicole Venable, is leaving the chamber and Wohlschlegel said the group plans to fill that spot.
National Journal recently sat down with chamber President and CEO Thomas Donohue and Executive Vice President for Government Affairs R. Bruce Josten to get their take on the battles over legislation and policy expected in 2009. See the story here. (subscription required)
-- Winter Casey
In a twist on family ties on K Street, retiring Rep. Jim McCrery, R-La., will be joining Capitol Counsel, a lobbying firm founded by veteran tax lobbyist John D. Raffaelli, whose first cousin is McCrery's wife, Johnette, according to sources. McCrery, a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, was pursued by bigger lobbying shops, including Patton Boggs, Navigators, and Washington Council Ernst & Young, but should fit in well at Capitol Counsel given his background in tax matters. The firm's clients include Home Depot and the Real Estate Roundtable, as well as several drug companies and health care clients. Raffaelli declined to comment.
-- Peter H. Stone and Bara Vaida
Brian Branton, the new chief of staff for Rep.-elect Jared Polis, D-Colo., last served as vice president of congressional relations at USA Funds. Branton is the third former lobbyist documented by National Journal who has been recruited by a freshmen lawmaker for a top position. Branton has also served as the chief of staff for Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Pa., legislative director for Rep. David Wu, D-Ore., legislative counsel for Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., and legislative assistant for the late Democratic Rep. Patsy Mink, D-Hawaii. He earned his law degree from American University's Washington College of Law and his undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Other freshmen to take on former lobbyists include Rep.-elect Mike McMahon, D-N.Y., and Sen.-elect Mike Johanns, R-Neb. Christopher McCannell, who was previously a director in the government relations firm Quinn Gillespie & Associates where he focused on financial services, is the new chief of staff for McCannell. Chris Peterson, who has served as director of government affairs for Union Pacific Railroad, is deputy chief of staff for Johanns.
-- Winter Casey
The National Association of Home Builders cut 52 jobs Tuesday as a result of the housing downturn, which has forced some builders into bankruptcy as industry confidence reached a record low in November, Bill Swindell reported in Congress Daily's AM.
President-elect Barack Obama's record-breaking $750 million campaign haul, much of it collected from small donors, may be a game changer in more ways than one, National Journal contributor Eliza Newlin Carney reports in her column Rules of the Game. It's prompted some experts to call for a whole new approach to regulating political money. And Obama's knack for mobilizing millions of supporters via the Internet has implications for policy-making, too, as the incoming administration gears up to tap those backers to help him enact his policies, starting with healthcare reform.
--Bara Vaida
The National Association of Home Builders appears to be the latest association to fall victim to the deepening recession. The group plans to lay off staff, Bill Swindell will be reporting in tomorrow's edition of Congress Daily's AM.
Last week, the National Association of Manufacturers announced it would be eliminating 17 full-time positions.
The Politico also has the story here.
--Bara Vaida
Joan Claybrook, president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, announced today she will resign after 27 years in the position.
Claybrook will step down Jan. 31 but said she will help Public Citizen transition to its new leadership. The group has retained consultant Ted Ford Webb of Boston to conduct a nationwide search for a new president, according to the statement.
"As the winds of change sweep the nation and Washington, D.C., with promises for new policies to help the public, it is a good time for me to move on to other adventures," Claybrook said in her statement.
Claybrook highlighted several of Public Citizen's accomplishments during her tenure, such as making airbags standard equipment in all vehicles and helping to bring about campaign finance reform.
Before serving as president of Public Citizen, Claybrook led the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in the Carter administration. Before that, she founded and ran Congress Watch, Public Citizen's congressional watchdog division.
-- Amy Harder
Tax and trade lobbyists would probably be interested in this story. Acting House Ethics Chairman Gene Green and ranking member Doc Hastings announced this afternoon the committee has expanded an investigative subcommittee's probe dealing with House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel, Congress Daily reports.
The boards of AeA and the Information Technology Association of America approved a merger today creating an approximately $22 million organization with 2,000 members.
AeA President and CEO Christopher Hansen and ITAA President and CEO Phil Bond will share leadership of the new group. Hansen will be CEO focused on running the organization, while Bond will be president and handle public policy, lobbying and communications.
"For all of its impact on everyday life, the technology industry has had insufficient clout in Washington and the state capitols -- until now" said ITAA Chairman Hank Steininger, in a statement.
ITAA's Bond predicted that there would be more consolidation in the technology association sector in an October 25 National Journal story by my colleague Winter Casey.
-- Bara Vaida
National Strategies, a Washington-D.C. based state and local business development firm, just brought in former Maryland Democratic Gov. Parris Glendening as a senior advisor for environmental and energy issues.
After serving two terms as governor (1995-2003), "I have devoted my time to smart growth efforts," said Glendening, who will remain president of the nonprofit Smart Growth Leadership Institute. "But I also wanted to be involved in the private sector, so joining NSI is a way to keep my foot in both the private sector" and the nonprofit sector.
At National Strategies, Glendening helps businesses find state and local projects on energy efficiency and upgrading environmental standards of buildings and infrastructure. Glendening certainly has plenty of ties to the states, not only as a former government and head of a nonprofit institute but also because his son, Raymond Glendening, is the national political director of the Democratic Governors Association.
-- Bara Vaida, with Gregg Sangillo
The Travel Industry Association launched a new transition Web site today and released a series of briefings on major concerns the group believes Barack Obama should address.
Read the story on our transition blog, Lost In Transition. Go here.
President-elect Obama took the first step toward following through on a campaign promise to make his transition, and presumably his White House, the most transparent ever.
Transition co-chair John Podesta on Friday announced a new policy called "Seat at the Table" under which proceedings of meetings between the Obama transition team and outside groups would be posted on the transition website, and the public would have the opportunity to comment on those meetings as well as see policy documents and recommendations under discussion. Still behind closed doors, and thus not to be disclosed, are discussions involving personnel matters, hiring recommendations, and issues involving classified information.
Here's a link to Podesta's memo:
It will be interesting to see if this affects policy development. For sure, it will provide fodder for news stories.
-- Bara Vaida
Dismissing rumors that he might be in contention to head the Department of Labor, Dick Gephardt, former longtime leader of the House Democrats (and now a lobbyist), says he hasn't been approached by the Obama transition and isn't joining the president-elect's cabinet in any capacity. "I want [Obama] to have a great cabinet and succeed beyond any expectations. I'll help from the outside," Gephardt tells National Journal.
Here is Julie Kosterlitz's piece from our current issue:
Since retiring in 2005 from Congress, where he represented Missouri's 3rd Congressional District for 28 years and led House Democrats for the last 14 of those, Dick Gephardt has all but dropped out of politics -- and he has never looked back. He is enjoying his second career as a lobbyist and labor-relations consultant, both at his own firm, the Gephardt Group -- where his team includes his son and one of his daughters -- and as a "strategic adviser" to lobbying giant DLA Piper.
"It really was time to turn the page and do something completely different" at a less grueling pace, Gephardt says. He and his wife, Jane, spend much of the summer at their home in California wine country, where he has taken up golf, and he makes side trips to West Coast clients. Gephardt periodically visits the Gephardt Institute for Public Service at Washington University in St. Louis that he founded and raises money for.
Gephardt, who was a White House contender in the 1988 and 2004 elections, stayed on the periphery of this year's race. As a superdelegate to the national convention, Gephardt backed Hillary Rodham Clinton during the primaries but supported Barack Obama "every way I could" afterward. Gephardt dismisses speculation that he's a contender for Labor secretary or another Cabinet post, and says he hasn't been approached. "I want [Obama] to have a great Cabinet and succeed beyond any expectations. I'll help from the outside."
-- Julie Kosterlitz
"In reality, there's no such thing as clean coal."
That's the message from the Reality Coalition, a band of environmental groups that has launched a television and print ad campaign designed to undermine public support for coal as a component of any national energy plan. The centerpiece of the group's efforts is "Clean Coal: This Is Reality," a 30-second TV spot that began running Thursday on network and cable television as part of a multimillion-dollar ad buy.
The ad opens with an engineer in a hard hat standing in front of a door marked "Clean Coal Facility Entrance." "Clean coal," he says. "You've heard a lot about it, so let's take a tour of this state-of-the-art clean coal facility." The engineer then steps through the door to find nothing but an empty wasteland.
With President-elect Barack Obama pushing for a national energy plan -- and the features of that plan very much up in the air -- Reality Coalition spokesman Brian Hardwick said they want to bust the myth that coal can be safe.
"They are trying to mislead people to believe that there is clean coal technology available today," he said of Big Coal. "Right now, there isn't a single household or business that is being powered by clean coal."
But the ad is already taking heat from the environmental blog Common Progress, which argued that repeating "clean coal" seven times in a half-minute ad is counterproductive.
Chicago attorney Christina Tchen has been tapped to run the White House Office of Public Liaison. Tchen is a partner in the corporate litigation practice at Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, where she "has broad litigation experience at all levels of the state and federal courts, and has represented clients in various types of lawsuits and arbitrations," according to her biography. Her bio also notes that she is co-chair of the American Bar Association's Minority Trial Lawyer Task Force. Go here.
The Office of Public Liaison is responsible for connecting the president and policy advisers to the interest groups that care about various public policy issues. Obama is putting the offices of public liaison and intergovernmental affairs under the control of Chicago friend Valerie Jarrett, whom he named last month to be one of his three senior advisers, with the coveted "assistant to the president" title that carries the highest salary level among White House staff. Cecelia Munoz, who will direct the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, will report to Jarrett, as will Tchen. Munoz has been senior VP for the National Council of La Raza's office of research, advocacy, and legislation.
-- Bara Vaida and Alexis Simendinger
Want to know which Hill staffers have moved into lucrative careers as lobbyists?
If so, there's a new research tool, Capitol Insiders Database, created to keep track of Hill insiders and what they're up to. The free database is the brainchild of Kent Cooper and Tony Raymond, former officials at the Federal Election Commission. The database can be accessed at the website of their new company, Capitol Hill Access. Go here:
Cooper and Raymond say the database contains information on more than 10,000 people. They include Hill staffers making more than $100,000 a year and former staffers now working at lobbying firms or other organizations with access to Congress. Former members of Congress also are included in the database.
As Hill aides move to K Street or to the executive branch, Cooper and Raymond say they will keep track of them and who they are trying to influence in Congress. "It is amazing how many lobbyists tout their connections to Capitol Hill and what they can do for a fee,'' Cooper says. "It's pretty much: need an earmark, call me.''
-- Edward T. Pound
Barack Obama's transition is trying to keep its collective nose clean by refusing money from corporations, labor unions and PACs, and limiting individual contributions to no more than $5000. But that doesn't mean that Obama supporters can't show extra support by having their families donate larger sums--collectively.
One who did so was Anthony Welters, of McLean, Va., a top executive at UnitedHealth Group who along with his wife and two sons, each gave $5,000. Well known liberal philanthropists Herb and Marion Sandler, their daughter, son and daughter-in-law also each gave $5,000.
The Welters family members and all but one of the Sandler clan also maxed out with $4,600 each in contributions to Obama's campaign. All told, Welters' gang shelled out close to $200,000 to Democratic party committees and candidates.
The Sandler crew gave more than $350,000 to Democratic party committees, candidates and liberal political action committees. Obama's transition has also benefitted from the Sandler's largesse: the Sandlers help underwrite the Center for American Progress, which has thus far supplied Obama transition cochair John Podesta and a Domestic Policy Council Chief Melody Barnes.
For the full list of transition donors, see here.
-- Julie Kosterlitz
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Fred Humphries, currently a managing director at Microsoft, has been promoted to the company's top lobby slot. He will replace Jack Krumholtz as managing director of federal government affairs. See Microsoft Release.pdf.
Times may be tough for Republicans looking for work on K Street after the election, but one job seeker who is likely to land gainful employment is Rep. Jim McCrery, R-La. Sources say that McCrery, who is retiring from Congress at the end of this year, has been chatting with a few lobbying shops with hefty tax practices. One is Washington Council Ernst & Young, while another is Patton Boggs, which boasts famously strong Cajun connections via partner Tommy Boggs.
Meanwhile, other lobbyists are buzzing that Sen. John Sununu ,R-N.H., who was defeated for reelection, has been having job talks with Google about a post that would likely be outside of D.C. and might not involve lobbying.
-- Peter H. Stone
The buzz among white collar lawyers is that DeMaurice Smith, a partner at Patton Boggs, has a good shot at being named the next U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. Smith served as counsel to Eric Holder when Holder was No. 2 at Justice in the Clinton administration.
Read Smith's bio here.
-- Peter H. Stone
UPDATE: Dec. 5 @ 3 p.m.
In reaction to my story in this week's National Journal about Navigator Global's move toward bipartisianship, firm principal Cesar Conda wanted me to make clear to our readers that he hasn't tossed out ALL of his photos of himself with GOP heavyweights. When I interviewed Conda and his new colleague Democrat Vin Roberti, I did see Conda putting away only three or four framed photographs and there were photos still on the wall of him with Republicans like, his former boss, Vice President Cheney.
Here is Conda's email to me:
"The truth is I was bringing framedphotos home to put in my study.....they had been stacked up on my office shelf for weeks.
Did you notice that the three jumbo photos of me and Vice President Cheney on the wall? They will remain prominently displayed for all to see! "
Yes, I did Cesar, and thanks for your note. .
-- Bara Vaida
Our lobbying team produced two interesting pieces for this week's issue of National Journal.
The formally all-GOP lobbying firm Navigators has gone bipartisan as Vin Roberti, a big fundraiser for Democrats and others, joins the firm, reports Bara Vaida. And Julie Kosterlitz looks at how some advocates for minorities have teamed with credit card industry groups to oppose congressional efforts to erect stronger safeguards against unfair credit card lending pracitices.
Read these stories here: (restricted to subscribers)
UPDATE: Dec. 5 @ 3:10 p.m.
Quinn Gillespie spokeswoman Stacey Morton Bowlin sent National Journal a message wanting us to make clear that Ed Gillespie attended the party as a GUEST, not a host. She pointed out that Gillespie is no longer a member of the firm and had nothing to do with creating the guest list for the event.
QGA Vice Chairman Jeff Connaughton also sent this e-mail: "These people were NOT guests of Ed Gillespie. Jack and Ed did NOT jointly 'greet their many guests' and you need to correct your story as wrong."
-- Bara Vaida
Lobbying firm Quinn Gillespie & Associations returned to hosting its popular annual holiday party Wednesday evening, after taking a year off in 2007. On hand to greet their many guests were the firm's two founding partners, Democrat Jack Quinn and Republican Ed Gillespie, though Gillespie left the outfit last year to join the White House.
Gillespie, who is now a special assistant to President Bush, looked a little grayer after his year of working for the administration. Not a surprise given the long hours toiling for a president who has among the lowest public approval ratings on record. When I asked him what he has planned for 2009, Gillespie answered: "Frankly I'm enjoying not knowing what I'll do next."
Gillespie severed his financial ties to the lobbying firm when he joined the White House. [He left considerable money on the table, see my story from Dec. 2007.] But the firm that still bears Gillespie's name has continued to bring in revenue and he could return to K Street. For the first three quarters of the year, QGA reported $11.2 million in lobbying fees.
For anyone wondering how lobbying shops can throw holiday parties without running afoul of ethics rules, a firm can host a party and feed guests "nominal-value refreshments" under the reception exemption. That means the firm could serve only finger food, unlike years past when it offered a big buffet of goodies. Champagne, Bailey's Irish Cream, martinis, and other assorted drinks also met the exemption.
-- Bara Vaida
Jack Krumholtz is leaving Microsoft after 14 years. A spokeswoman for the company said he is not ready to announce his next career step and wants to take a couple months off before moving into a new position. When we asked Krumholtz if he is considering a job in the new administration, he said he hasn't ruled it out.
Krumholtz opened the Microsoft federal government affairs office in Washington in March 1995 and served as a one-man shop for a year working out of the company's Chevy Chase sales office. Given the distance from Capitol Hill, Krumholtz, 47, spent most of his time in his Jeep on conference calls and writing and checking emails on the side of the road, said the company. During that time, he became known as "Jack in his Jeep."
During his time at Microsoft, Krumholtz oversaw the growth of the Washington office from one person to more than 20 people. Krumholtz led industry efforts on high-skilled immigration reform, H-1B visa issues, efforts to secure export control relief for encryption technologies, the passage of CAFTA, and digital TV issues. He was also involved in negotiations resulting in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Prior to joining Microsoft, Krumholtz, a Democrat, worked as an attorney in private practice. He earned his law degree from the University of Pennsylvania.
Stay tuned for word on Krumholtz's successor at Microsoft ...
-- Winter Casey
"Our clients will not only benefit from her policy expertise, but also her keen political insight into workings of the congressional leadership," said Lisa Kountoupes, president of Kountoupes Consulting.
Here's the release:
--Bara Vaida
The Republican National Committee is scheduled to file a campaign report with the Federal Election Commission Thursday disclosing that the committee spent additional funds to clothe and accessorize vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. In October, Politico revealed that the RNC had spent $150,000 on clothing and accessories for Mrs. Palin and her family after she was selected as Sen. John McCain's running mate. The story provoked a storm of criticism of the Alaska Governor, a mother of five and favorite of the conservative wing of the GOP. While not providing many details, Republican officials say that the RNC's post-election financial report will include information on other "accessories'' purchased for Mrs. Palin before the Nov. 4 election. "The amount to be reported is significantly less than $150,000,'' one RNC official told National Journal. "The accessories on the report are less than $30,000.'' The clothing, the official says, is in the committee's possession and "will be dispersed to national and local charities at the appropriate time.''
--Edward T. Pound
Since this is a blog on lobbying, I thought readers might be interested in a posting today defending K Street by author Andrew Keen in the publication The Daily Beast.
"The inconvenient truth is that lobbies are purely a mirror of our own interests," says Keen, a writer from Berkeley, Calif. who authored a book called The Cult of the Amateur: How Today's Internet is Killing Our Culture and Assaulting Our Economy. "So when Americans say they hate lobbyists, what they are really saying is they hate themselves."
Read more here.
-- Bara Vaida
Update: NAM is cutting its budget by 10 percent resulting in the elimination of 17 full-time positions. Read John Engler's email to his board here.
The National Association of Manufacturers, which employs one of the highest paid DC trade association executives, John Engler, who received total compensation of $1.2 million in 2006, has laid off staff just weeks before Christmas, a spokesman for the organization confirmed. He said someone would call me back to say how many employees were let go. One source said as many as eight or ten people received pink slips.
We will update the story as we get more information.
-- Bara Vaida
The techonology sector is optimistic about the incoming Obama administration, despite an expected tightening of antitrust rules and uncertainty about trade policy. Washington's tech community expects to be embraced by the new administration. Obama "gets it," tech insiders say.
Reader Winter Casey's story here.
For more information on the transition to the Obama administration - including how the tech sector is preparing - check out our recent cover story, The New Power Landscape (subscription required). We interviewed more than 90 lobbying firms, associations, unions, advocacy groups, and other organizations in the influence sector on how they are preparing for the new president and Congress.
After spending most of this year as a senior advisor to John McCain's presidential campaign, Charlie Black is going home to K Street and BKSH & Associates, the firm he co-founded. Black, who severed his ties with the firm during the campaign to avoid conflicts, says he'll be in the office this week getting up to speed.
Black says, "I'm too young to retire and I am happy to have the opportunity to return to my old firm." Although he briefly toyed with other job options, Black says that he opted to return to BKSH in part because that's where he has "a great group of friends."
Meanwhile, McCain campaign manager Rick Davis, who took a leave from his firm Davis Manafort, is already back at work at his old perch, which in recent years has included lucrative foreign consulting work for wealthy businessmen and politicians in the Ukraine and Montenegro.
-- Peter H. Stone
Update on Dec. 2: Click here for an even fuller list of parties and balls, both official and unofficial.
Where are the hot parties to honor Barack Obama's inauguration? Figuring out the answer reminds me of covering parties at the political conventions. There are plenty of events to keep track of, and most are invitation-only and reserved for top political donors.
The presidential inauguration committee, which puts on the inauguration and related events, has limited individual donations to $50,000 and won't accept donations from corporations, political action committees, and lobbyists. But there will be plenty of non-official balls where those limits won't apply. For example, the Illinois State Society is holding a ball on Jan. 19, which is likely to be attended by Obama, and it has accepted donations from American Airlines and Exelon. (see Politico's story here)
So what are the top parties? Here is a list (as of Dec. 1) compiled by the DC Convention Center Authority of events scheduled between Jan. 18 and Jan. 21. And here's a few more compiled by National Journal. (Please send me tips, readers, as you discover more.)
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