Advertising has long been a key part of the University of Phoenix's commercial success: according to AdWeek the school shells out more than $100 million a year--more than General Mills spends to market Cheerios--to lure students to its massive network of for-profit career schools.
The university, which serves more than 400,000 students at some ninety campuses and 150 learning centers worldwide has been a goldmine for its parent company, the Apollo Group, accounting for most of Apollo's $4 billion in revenues. But a spate of recent pricey ads the University has been running in The Washington Post are about damage control.
A recent joint investigation by New York -based ProPublica and American Public Media's "Marketplace" accused the school, which is the single largest recipient of federal education aid, of using high pressure recruitment tactics that leave students in deep debt--which the school denies-- while The Washington Monthly has an article outlining how federal laws and regulatory changes in the past decade have abetted aggressive recruitment and a spike in predatory private lending to students at these schools.
The charges come as the Apollo Group, is setting aside $80.5 million to settle a long running suit by two former admissions officers accusing the school of getting federal student-aid funds under false pretenses. It also comes as the Obama Administration contemplates tightening regulations meant to prevent such recruitment abuses. One University ad featured an open letter to students, alumni, calling the media reports the work of "ideologically driven critics" and asking to share success stories on the University's website.
Advocacy and lobbying stories in this week's National Journal: (subscription)
Advocacy efforts over the prospect of credit card interchange regulation have led to a gridlocked debate between retailers and credit card companies. Interchange fees are the cost stores pay to banks when customers use credit cards.
A GAO study released Thursday, which sought to cut through the fray, was pretty much a wash. Stakeholders on both sides immediately adopted certain aspects of the report into their lobbying efforts, ignoring points that weren't so favorable.
Points supporting retailers:
- Total costs of accepting credit cards for merchants have risen over time as consumers use cards more.
- Part of these increased costs ...may be the result of how Visa and MasterCard competed to attract and retain bank issuers to offer cards by increasing the number of interchange fee categories and the level of these rates.
- Consumers who do not use credit cards may be paying higher prices for goods and services, as merchants pass on their increasing card-acceptance costs to all of their customers.
Continue reading GAO Study on Interchange Fees Inconclusive.
The lobbyists working for Genentech must be feeling pretty good.
The New York Times says that lobbyists working for Genentech put words into the mouths of lawmakers who made speeches on the House floor on the pending health care reform bill. (The bill passed the House on Nov. 7)
"In the official record of the historic House debate on overhauling health care, the speeches of many lawmakers echo with similarities. Often, that was no accident.Statements by more than a dozen lawmakers were ghostwritten, in whole or in part, by Washington lobbyists working for Genentech, one of the world's largest biotechnology companies."
Advocacy, legal and lobbying stories from this week's National Journal: (subscription)
The Boston Globe takes a look at the $30 million in earmarks secured by members of the Massachusetts delegation and what that money is buying. The earmarks are included in the 2010 defense appropriations bill which is pending in Congress.
Here's a key graph:
The phenomenon carries clear rewards for local companies as well as lobbyists and politicians: In Massachusetts, nearly 40 percent of the defense earmarks are slated to go to companies whose top executives contributed to the sponsor's campaigns, hired former lawmakers or congressional aides to lobby on their behalf, or both.
Among the lobbyists involved in securing the earmarks were Bill McCann, a former aide to former Rep. Marty Meehan, D-Mass. and Steven A. Wolfe, a former aide to the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., David Urban, a former aide to Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa. and Michael Barbera, a former aide to Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., the story says.
Former Rep. Robert "Bud" Cramer, D-Ala., one of numerous former lawmakers who joined lobbying firms after leaving office, talks about his decision to join Wexler & Walker Public Policy Associates and why he thinks lobbyists play an important role in policy making in an editorial published in the Hill.
"All of us know the lobbying profession has received its share of criticism in recent years, and in some cases for good reason. There have been too many cases of individuals who abused the system and put personal gain ahead of not only the public good, but the law. This is why the rest of us have to work even harder to adhere to nothing less than the highest ethical standards, following all the rules and regulations to the letter and the spirit of the law."Cramer is now chair of Wexler & Walker Public Policy Associates, though he isn't currently a federally registered lobbyist, according to the Senate Office of Public Records.
Healthcare stakeholders have been keeping their powder dry in the digital world, but as a bill moves to the Senate, groups may open the spending spigot, ClickZ reports.
Andy Hunn, COO of Resonate Networks, a political ad network, tells ClickZ: "We've talked to about a dozen clients for whom we were already doing healthcare work...We know they want to spend related to healthcare reform, but they're deliberately holding back right now. A phrase you hear around here a lot is people are keeping their powder dry." He added: "When it breaks open, it's number one."
A concurring comment came from Mario Coluccio, managing director of the free market nonprofit Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, who said once a bill is submitted in the Senate "we may make a decision to increase our ad runs."
The article also examines the popularity of search ads during the healthcare debate.
From our Energy topics page:
Throughout the week, NationalJournal.com will be profiling the 10 energy coalitions that spent the most on lobbying in the first three quarters of 2009. This analysis excludes individual corporations, such as Exxon Mobil, Chevon and General Electric, who have a hefty financial hand in the energy lobbying arena as well. Those three companies alone have spent between $10 and $20 million so far this year, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
By constraining the analysis to industry groups and not individual companies, the profiles are more emblematic of the divergent viewpoints lawmakers must grapple with when crafting climate change legislation since they themselves represent different companies. Individual corporations, on the other hand, typically have a more straightforward agenda they're putting forth to Congress.
These are groups that ranked eighth, ninth and 10th in lobbying spending, according to the latest disclosure forms. Click on the group to see a profile of what they want.
8. Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers $4.4 million
9. American Wind Energy Association $3.8 million
10. National Rural Electric Cooperative Association $3.7 million
Advocacy and lobbying stories from this week's National Journal: (subscription)
(UPDATE@1:44 pm on Nov. 4 to add a link to prominent economist Jeffrey Sachs' reaction to Jankowsky's editorial)
The Obama administration is talking out of both sides of its mouth regarding special interests, writes longtime D.C. lobbyist Joel Jankowsky in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece Tuesday.
He argues the White House has welcomed top campaign donors while ostracizing lobbyists as tainted:
"Campaign contributors, especially those who bundled large contributions from others, have been embraced by this administration. Because they aren't formally registered or regulated in the way lobbyists are, they enjoy the benefits and privileges of serving in the heart of the administration. These contributors serve in critical foreign and domestic policy positions, as well as department and agency boards and commissions. Dozens of Obama for America National Finance Committee members have joined the administration. Most of them raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the campaign, according to the watchdog group the Center for Responsive Politics."
Jankowsky adds:
"This inconsistent treatment does a disservice to federal policy making. Talented women and men who registered themselves as lobbyists under the Lobbying Disclosure Act are being excluded from contributing their expertise at a critical time in our nation's history."
Jeffrey Sachs, economist and director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University took issue with Jankowsky's argument, calling it "preposterous" on the Huffington Post.
He says: "Lobbyists may indeed be talented people of expertise, but they are part of a dysfunctional system that has turned policy over to the highest corporate bidder and that puts our economy and society in jeopardy."
The association sector spent 14 percent more on lobbying in the third quarter compared to the previous quarter, led by big spending at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the American Beverage Association and the National Association of Manufacturers, CEO Update reported. (subscription)
Without those three associations however, lobbying at associations dropped 4.2 percent in the third quarter, CEO Update said.
The story was of interest because I report in this week's National Journal, (subscription) that activity was picking up on K Street for many hired guns during the third quarter. The trade association world doesn't seem to be sharing in that uptick in business yet.
How many lobbyists have actually deregistered is a topic of ongoing speculation in the K Street world because the lobbying records aren't clear on the matter. Based on the Senate Office of Public Records, we reported in this week's National Journal that the number of lobbyists is up from a year ago.
Today two non-profit groups report a different story which is sure to keep the speculation going.
The second quarter of 2009 saw 1,418 deregistrations by federal lobbyists, according to a joint analysis by OMB Watch and the Center for Responsive politics.
The groups said that number is a "marked increase for any reporting period during all of 2008 and 2009." The drop off also coincides with new White House rules on lobbyists that limit interactions with the administration. But a direct a correlation isn't ironclad, since there is no field for "deregistration" available to lobbyists filing with the House and Senate. Instead, the groups tracked lobby "terminations."
"You can't draw any conclusions about why they terminated," said OMB Watch's Lee Mason.
To arrive at the 1,418 number, the groups tracked terminations (which can apply to lobbying in general, or work for a specific client) and cross checked them against later lobby activity. If a lobbyist cropped up later as active, they were eliminated. The Center for Responsive Politics also crosschecked 90 percent the terminations for duplicates.
Determining the exact number of lobby terminations is far from a science. The House Office of the Clerk told us in early October that it had recorded 1,800 terminations since the beginning of 2008.
Top advocacy and lobbying stories from this week's National Journal: (subscription)
Top advocacy and lobbying stories from this week's National Journal: (subscription)
Patton Boggs has managed to stay well ahead of the rest of K Street in 2009. The firm's more than 100 lobbyists posted fee income of $29.2 million for the first nine months of the year, which is about $6 million more than its closest competitor, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, which posted lobbying fee income of $23.6 million.
A few notables on the list: the fastest-growing firms included Democratic lobbyist Tony Podesta's firm, the Podesta Group (up 61%); former Democratic Louisiana Sen. John Breaux's firm, the Breaux Lott Leadership Group (+42%); Holland & Knight (+42%); and Brownstein Hyatt & Farber (+41%).
Law and lobbying firm Alston & Bird, where former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., is an adviser, made it to the top 25 list of lobbying firms for the first time.
Here's a look at the list of top firms based on National Journal's analysis of the lobbying disclosure forms reported to Congress on Oct. 20.
Firm First 3Q Fees 2009 Vs. 2008 Percent Change From 2008
1. Patton Boggs $29.2 million vs $29.7 million -2%
2. Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld $23.6 million vs $26.9 million -12%
3. Van Scoyoc Associates $19.96 million vs $19.5 million +2%
4. Podesta Group $18.7 million vs $11.6 million +61%
5. Holland & Knight $15.8 million vs $11.1 million +42%
6. Cassidy & Associates $15.7 million vs $17.6 million -11%
7. Brownstein Hyatt & Farber $15.4 million vs $10.9 million +41%
8. Dutko Worldwide $14.8 million vs $15.3 million -3%
9. K & L Gates $14.0 million vs $11.6 million +21%
9. Ogilvy Government Relations $14.0 million vs $13.4 million +4%
11. Hogan & Hartson $13.4 million vs $14.6 million -8%
12. Williams & Jensen $12.4 million vs $12.2 million +2%
13. BGR Group $11.9 million vs $13.99 million -15%
14. Quinn Gillespie & Associates $10.6 million vs $11.2 million -5%
15. Washington Council Ernst & Young $10.5 million vs $8.55 +23%
16. Cornerstone Government Affairs $9.3 million vs 8.36 million +11%
17. Ferguson Group $9.27 million vs 7.46 million +24.2%
18. Capitol Tax Partners $8.63 million vs $8.31 million +4%
19. Venable $8.18 million vs 6.44 million +27%
20. McBee Strategic Consulting $8.16 million vs 6.96 million +17%
21. Alcalde & Fay $8.13 million vs $8.01 million +1%
22. The Breaux Lott Leadership Group $8.04 million vs. 5.67 million +42%
23. Alston & Bird $8.01 million vs $5.86 +37
This week's advocacy and lobbying stories from National Journal: (subscription)
The health insurance advertising battle has begun, ABC News reports. The insurance industry is now on the air in multiple states attacking Democratic health reform proposals as bad for seniors, according to an independent ad tracker.
The industry has largely refrained from attacking health care legislation until now, and the fact that it has begun to spend money on negative ads is important because the industry helped to bring down health care legislation 15 years ago with its television advertising campaign - known as the iconic Harry and Louise ads.
The industry said on Monday that based on a PriceWaterhouseCoopers analysis of the Senate Finance Committee bill, health care insurance premiums will go up sharply instead of down. The White House and Senate Finance Committee have attacked the report as being flawed.
This week's insurance industry's ads don't focus on the premiums but rather target a politically potent voting block - seniors. Over the years, AHIP has built a network of senior citizen activists called the Coalition for Medicare Choices. AHIP sources say that coalition has a list of 1 million seniors that it can ask to call on Congress not to cut their Medicare benefits.
Cross posted from TechDailyDose:
Public Strategies and Live Nation have parted ways as the Justice Department continues probing the music giant's pending $2.5 billion all-stock merger with Ticketmaster. Live Nation, which spun off from media conglomerate Clear Channel Communications in 2005, hired Public Strategies and Brunswick Group to manage its image during the merger process and has worked with attorneys at Latham & Watkins, CongressDaily reported earlier this year (subscription required).
Public Strategies spent $270,000 advocating for Live Nation in the first quarter of 2009 and $30,000 in the second quarter, according to lobbyists' filings. The firm also registered to represent Ticketmaster in April and racked up $30,000 in the second quarter. Additionally, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher spent $60,000 in the second quarter lobbying for Ticketmaster. In March, Akin Gump registered to represent Live Nation. The firm spent $80,000 in the first quarter and $30,000 in the second quarter on that work.
Continue reading Public Strategies and Live Nation Part Ways.
Grass-tops lobbying, the practice of tapping local civic, business and labor leaders to push lawmakers to support or oppose federal legislation, is a huge business in Washington, but just how big isn't known because it isn't required to be reported under current lobbying rules.
We might learn more about the practice this Thursday as the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming is holding an investigative hearing into fake letters sent to members of Congress urging them to vote against the Waxman-Markey clean energy and climate legislation.
The letters were sent as part of a grass-tops campaign run by consulting firm, Bonner & Associates, on behalf of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity. Bonner has blamed the incident on a now fired temporary employee.
Click for the committee statement about the hearing.
Law and lobbying firm Hogan & Hartson is in talks with United Kingdom based Lovells to create a firm with 2,500 attorneys, the blog of Legal Times reported.
Hogan & Hartson has long been one of the top lobbying firms in Washington, though it like other D.C. law firms with lobbying arms, has suffered from the downturn in the economy. For the first half of 2009, the firm posted lobbying revenue of $8.92 million, down 13 percent from a year ago, we reported.
The National Law Journal's story on the merger's potential implications for Hogan can be found here. (subscription.)
With Congress primed to tackle reform of the financial services sector, the beleaguered Mortgage Bankers Association finally has landed a Democratic lobbyist. Tom Koonce, who starts work as the MBA's new vice pesident of legislative afairs next month, is a one-time legislative affairs director for Rep. Brad Miller, D-N.C., a member of the House Committee on Financial Services. The hiring of Koonce, who comes to the job from the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America, partially offsets the group's loss of two other Democratic lobbyists this summer: Francis Creighton, who left to join the staff of Rep. Chris Murphy, D-Conn, and Catherine Cruz Wojtasik who went to work for Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn. It's a rare bit of good news for a group that has struggled with budget woes, layoffs, and a split among members.
Representatives of more than 100 major American corporations are descending on the Capitol to urge Congress to act quickly on climate change legislation. Events and advertising buys from two business coalitions highlight this week's energy agenda, following last week's introduction of the Kerry-Boxer legislation.
The umbrella business group We Can Lead is hosting a two-day conference in Washington this week, where a reported 150 corporate leaders are slated to attend meetings with top White House and congressional leaders. The participating companies represent a wide range of business interests, including Exelon, Duke Energy, Starbucks and eBay. On Wednesday morning, the execs are scheduled to meet with Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke at the White House, and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is speaking at a dinner Tuesday evening.
Several of the same companies involved in WCL's efforts, including Duke Energy, Austin Energy and Public Service Enterprise Group, are also involved in a seven-figure advertising push. The new print ad, running in national and inside-the-beltway publications, urges the Senate to "pass clean energy legislation with a cap on greenhouse gas emissions this year."
New York Times columnist Frank Rich aims his biting commentary at Democrats on K Street in this week's column -- particularly at lobbyists Tony and Heather Podesta.
Rich writes:
"...you have to wonder what some of the Obama era's most moneyed and White House-connected lobbyists were thinking as they preened before a Washington Post reporter recently for two lengthy articles. We're not even nine months into the new administration, yet these swaggering, utterly un-self-aware influence peddlers seem determined to prove that nothing except the party affiliations has changed in the Beltway's pay-for-play culture since Tom DeLay. If these lobbyists were stocks, I'd short them."
Advocacy and lobbying story from this week's National Journal: (subscription)
Reps. Peter Welch, D-Vt., and Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., blasted credit card companies Wednesday in a press conference hosted by 7-Eleven.
Unveiling the results of its summer petition drive, 7-Eleven advocated for credit card interchange fee legislation and touted the 1.66 million signatures it says it gathered from customers who want the same.
When Welch took the stage, he described the country's "two business models." In one, convenience store operators and "country store owners" profit from the "values of thrift, enterprise, and hard work." In the other, credit card companies use "use market power" to make others pay unreasonable fees.
Lofgren struck a similar chord, calling banks and financial institutions "greedy" and describing the battle to get Congress to pass interchange fee legislation, which would impact the amount convenience stores owe credit card companies when customers swipe their cards.
Lofgren said interchange efforts come in the face of considerable lobbying efforts by the financial industry.
Both members touted 7-Eleven's petitions as a message straight from the people--despite the fact that credit card companies say interchange fees are a business-to-business issue that has nothing to do with consumers.
"It's not the banks" who own the government, Lofgren said. "It's the people of this country, who signed these petitions."
(Photo above by Sara Jerome)
Spending on ads related to health care reform topped $110 million over the past weekend, TV News Check reports. The numbers come from Evan Tracey, head of the Campaign Media Analysis Group.
Two weeks ago, Tracey posted on Advertising Age's Campaign Trail blog noting that ad spending was about to hit $100 million. He also questioned whether any message was getting through the clutter of all these ads, which I too have wondered about. "At this point, health-care reform is an overexposed issue. With so many competing messages and messengers, the American public is likely to remain more confused than informed," Tracey wrote.
The petition calls on Congress to help lower the amount merchants pay to credit card companies when customers use plastic. The store's effort, and bills in each chamber that address the interchange, are described here in this National Journal story.(subscription).
7-Eleven plans to unveil 130 boxes containing 14,000 petition pads, store officials said. MasterCard is already playing defense. It held its own unveiling yesterday, officially releasing the results of an online survey it conducted in August which questions the validity of 7-Eleven's petition drive.
On a call with reporters yesterday, Shawn Miles, the global head of public policy for MasterCard Worldwide, critiqued interchange fee legislation currently in Congress and said "consumers were ill-advised about what" 7-Eleven's petition drive actually addressed. More on that argument from National Journal:
MasterCard commissioned a study looking at whether the company's petition puts one over on consumers. According to MasterCard's findings, "After reading the 7-Eleven petition, two in three Americans mistakenly believed that consumers would directly and immediately benefit from a reduction in merchant service fees, as it would lead to lower fees on their own credit cards or lower retail prices."
Advocacy and lobbying stories from this week's National Journal: (subscription)
We wanted to alert our readers to our ongoing coverage of the trial of Kevin Ring, a former lobbyist who used to work for the now imprisoned former lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
National Journal.com reporter Beth Sussman is providing our readers interesting stories about the way Abramoff and his team lobbied Capitol Hill staff and how those staff responded. You can now find all of our coverage in one spot on our site.
To some election law experts, dire warnings by vocal activists that faulty voting machines are threatening democracy tend to ring false.
After all, questionable machines are only one of the many problems plaguing an election system that's outmoded, decentralized and chronically underfunded. The best machines in the world won't help if local election officials can't hire and train enough poll workers and clean up their error-riddled voter registration lists.
But an industry shakeup that's placed one controversial vendor in charge of more than half the nation's voting technology has thrust the debate over machines squarely back into focus.
The sale earlier this month of Diebold Inc.'s election business to Election Systems and Software has alarmed election officials and civic watchdogs, and prompted calls on Capitol Hill for the Justice Department to intervene. A smaller, competing voting machines manufacturer has also filed suit.
"This acquisition may have serious adverse implications for how our country votes," wrote Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder. Schumer, who chairs the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, urged the Justice Department to review the deal, which would give ES&S control of the election systems in 68 percent of the nation's voting precincts.
Continue reading Voting Machine Monopoly Threatens Elections.
Advocacy and lobbying stories in this week's National Journal: (subscription)
Mohamed A. el-Erian, CEO of Pimco, stated the obvious to the Washington Post this past week when he said his financial services company has had to think more about the role of the government in this economy, says Doug Pinkham, president of the Public Affairs Council, in a recent blog post.
Says Pinkham:
"It seems that certain Wall Street firms have suddenly realized that federal policy-making not only affects their short-term profitability, it has become integral to their future business plans.Though companies receiving federal assistance clearly have a reason to stay close to Washington, other financial firms have also awakened to the reality that government matters. Many banks and investment firms have had a presence in Washington for years, but some apparently only recently got the message."
Click here to read more of Pinkham's post on the importance of lobbying and his views on how to do it effectively.
Jody Powell, chairman of public affairs firm Powell Tate and former press secretary to former President Jimmy Carter, died this afternoon at his house on the Eastern Shore in Maryland, according to ABC News.
Powell had an apparent heart attack, a family friend told ABC. He was 65.
A reporter at National Journal was also alerted to the news. Powell Tate officials did not have an immediate comment.
(Photo by Rick Bloom)
Lobbying stories from this week's National Journal (subscription):
Though protesters continue to shout at town hall meetings and supporters continue to plead their cases, those efforts won't impact insurance companies, who have already won the health care reform debate, Business Week reports this week.
"The carriers have succeeded in redefining the terms of the reform debate to such a degree that no matter what specifics emerge in the voluminous bill Congress may send to President Obama this fall, the insurance industry will emerge more profitable," the article declares, listing UnitedHealth Group, Aetna and Wellpoint as some of the big winners.
To get what they want out of health care reform -- like limiting or stopping a public option -- insurance companies focused on the moderate Democrats in the Blue Dog Coalition, a strategy that seems to have paid off as a strong public option now appears unlikely.
Blue Dog Reps. Mike Ross, D-Ark., and Jim Matheson, D-Utah, "have given strong voice to the industry's contention that such a public insurer would actually reduce competition by undercutting private plans on price and driving them out of business," the article reports.
Lobbying-related stories from this week's National Journal: (subscription)
Climate Competition Heats Up: In this week's cover story, Margie Kriz Hobson takes a look at the energy industry advocates jockeying to have a hand in shaping the Senate's version of climate change legislation.
Retail Marriage Ends At The Altar: Bara Vaida takes a look at why the planned marriage of the National Retail Federation and the Retail Industry Leaders Association may have fallen apart.
The 'V' Commerce Lobby: The vending machine industry has hired its first full-time D.C. lobbyist, writes Neil Munro.
From The K Street Corridor: Democratic strategists David Di Martino and Michael Meehan leave BGR Group to launch their new firm, Blue Line Strategic Communications; The American Beverage Institute and Mothers Against Drunk Drivers are in a dust up over the propriety of President Obama's 'beer summit' with erstwhile antagonists professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. of Harvard and police Sgt. James Crowley of Cambridge, Mass.
From Inside Washington: Disco diva Gloria Gaynor swung by Capitol Hill on Tuesday to lobby for legislation that would require AM and FM radio stations to pay performers for airing their work. At a reception following a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, she belted out her 1979 hit "I Will Survive"--and noted that despite the song's decades of popularity, she has never made a cent from its airplay.
From the People section: Michael Wilson begins as national director for the liberal lobbying group Americans for Democratic Action this week. Most recently, he was a chief lobbyist for the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union; Mike Smith's new public-affairs firm aims to find the intersection between politics and social media. Smith did press and advance on the Obama presidential campaign, and he was communications director of the brief presidential bid of Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va.; the Nuclear Threat Initiative hired Mark Kitchens as its chief communications officer. The former Clinton administration official was most recently at AARP.
Business Week reports this week that while some lobbying tactics have changed in Washington after Obama's stigmatization of traditional lobbyists during his campaign, the influence game is still on.
To make their interests heard as Congress considers impactful legislation, like health care reform and a climate change bill, companies have hired more strategists instead of lobbyists, used more contact between executives and lawmakers and employed grassroots campaigns, the article says.
For example, rather than registering as a lobbyist, former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D. works as a "special policy adviser" at Alston & Bird, where "he doesn't lobby directly but lends others insight into legislative terrain and the tendencies of lawmakers he knows well."
"Appearing cooperative is the new name of the game," the article concludes.
UPDATE@5:24 pm on July 31 to update DLA Piper lobbying figures. Due to a data entry error by the Senate records office, the firm's first half figures were incorrect .
Podesta Group, the lobbying firm founded by Democrat Tony Podesta, showed the biggest percentage gain in lobbying fees among the top 25 firms on K Street during the first half of 2009, according to lobbying disclosure forms filed with the Senate Office of Public Records and analyzed by National Journal.
For the first half of this year, Podesta's fees were $11.8 million, up 63 percent, compared with the first half of 2008. The second fastest growing firm on K Street was the Breaux Lott Leadership Group, which posted fees of $5.2 million, up 53 percent from the first half of 2008. The firm was founded by former Senators John Breaux, D-La. and Trent Lott, R-Miss.
Law and lobbying firm Patton Boggs pulled in the most lobbying income of any firm, posting first half lobbying revenue of $18.4 million, down 10 percent from the first half of 2008. Patton Boggs partner James Christian said the decline was related to the tough economy but business has been picking up this year as Congress wrestles with big issues like energy, financial services and health care reform,
Almost every top 25 law and lobbying firm posted a decline in lobbying fees for the first half of the year. Only the law firms Brownstein, Hyatt & Farber, Holland & Knight, K & L Gates and Venable bucked that trend and posted gains in fees. Lobbying firms Cornerstone Government Affairs, Ferguson Group, McBee Strategic Consulting, Washington Council Ernst & Young also reported gains in income.
(Photo above of Tony Podesta courtesy of Creative Commons)
Click on the jump below to get our list of the top 25 firms for the first half of 2009.
Top lobbying stories from this week's National Journal: (subscription)
Lawmakers scrounging for budget savings to offset the cost of health care overhaul have set their sights on existing tax breaks for health spending -- especially breaks seen as encouraging excess health-related spending.
But one person's excess is another person's livelihood, and many of the affected interest groups -- including some new to the Washington lobbying game -- have beaten a hasty path to K Street. The Dallas-based National Association of Dental Plans, concerned that Congress will begin taxing workers on some or all of the value of their employer-provided health plans, has taken a straightforward approach. NADP filed a federal lobbying registration for the first time in May -- signing up both its own staff and the firm Brown Rudnick; it reported spending $150,000 in the second quarter.
Meanwhile, worried that Congress may limit or do away with flexible spending accounts, which let workers pay some out-of-pocket health care costs with pre-tax dollars, the San Mateo, California firm Wage Works made it's Washington lobbying debut in June by spending $30,000 with Patton Boggs.
Wage Works, which describes itself as the "nation's largest independent provider of consumer-directed" benefit programs, is a member of the more-seasoned Washington trade group Employers Council on Flexible Compensation, which has hired and spent $80,000 on Mehlman Vogel Castagnetti to lobby on this issue over the first half of this year.
Wage Works and the trade group have teamed up in hiring Hyde Park Communications to create a website called "SaveMyFlexPlan.org." The website bills itself as home to "a national grassroots advocacy campaign" giving "a voice to the millions of Americans who rely on FSAs." The site has scads of personal testimonials about the value of FSAs, as well as talking points and tools for sending e-mails and making phone calls to Congress, but nary a mention of the site's sponsor.
-- Julie Kosterlitz
From this week's National Journal: (subscription)
From this morning's Earlybird:
• "The GOP-tilting Chamber of Commerce is backing Sonia Sotomayor in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee" sent Thursday, Politico reports. "'Her extensive experience both as a commercial litigator and as a trial judge would provide the U.S. Supreme Court with a much needed perspective on the issues that business litigants face,' wrote COC executive vice-president R. Bruce Josten."
• "EMILY's List, the Democratic fundraising powerhouse, finally weighed in on the special election to replace former Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.), endorsing Thursday state Assemblywoman Joan Buchanan in the Sept. 1 all-party primary," Roll Call (subscription) reports.
• "The commander in chief may have no love for K Street, but his aversion to traditional lobbying tactics has combined in the public mind with the extraordinary grass-roots campaign that helped propel him to the presidency to produce a result he probably didn't foresee: a new enthusiasm for grass-roots campaigns among lobbying firms and their clients," Politico reports.
Update to yesterday's story about Harry and Louise twittering:
The mystery of who tweets for Harry and Louise has been solved. It's never the actors themselves; rather, it's staffers at Goddard Claussen, the firm that brought us both rounds of commercials. They maintain the Harry and Louise Twitter and Facebook pages to protect their invention.
"We're very proud of the brand. They're some of our best ads," said Sue Zoldak, associate vice president of Goddard Claussen, explaining the why the brand moved onto online.
The firm created Harry and Louise's online presence as a contact point for media interest, Zoldak said, and to distinguish Goddard Claussen's work from Harry and Louise knockoffs and parodies elsewhere on the web.
"We're careful with the brand," she said. "Harry wouldn't do an ad with some other Louise. That confuses the brand."
Goddard Claussen's dedication to Harry and Louise is part brand protection, part firm promotion, and a way to highlight that pop culture has made room for such a thing as health care policy celebrities.
"In policy world pop culture, they're iconic," she said.
(Photo of Harry and Louise by Liz Lynch)
UPDATE: Second quarter 2009 lobbying figures
As Under The Influence reported yesterday, the Senate Office of Public Records is processing all of the lobbying disclosure forms due Monday and we have a new top ten list as of this morning.
Coming in first place, as was the case last quarter, is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce with $7.4 million. The Chamber in June announced that it was going to be spending as much as $100 million on a campaign to protect "free enterprise."
Six of the top ten spenders in the second quarter were either in the health or oil industry. Big health spenders include the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, Pfizer and the American Medical Association. Chevron dropped to fifth place (still at $6 million) and its petrol brethren, Exxon Mobil and BP America, came in at eighth and ninth respectively.
So far, 120 groups spent at least a million on lobbying in the second quarter and of that 120, National Journal identified 22 groups that are related to health care.
Full top ten list here:
1. U.S. Chamber of Commerce - $7.4 million
2. General Electric - $7.2 million
3. PhRMA - $6.2 million
4. Business Roundtable - $6.1 million
5. Chevron - $6 million
6. Pfizer - $5.6 million
7. AARP - $5.3 million
8. Exxon Mobil - $4.3 million
9. BP America - $4 million
10. American Medical Association - $3.9 million
We will keep updating our data as the Senate continues to process the lobbying filings.
• "The American Medical Association and drug giant Eli Lilly & Co. spent more on lobbying than other healthcare groups in the second quarter, according to reports filed Monday on Capitol Hill," CongressDailyAM (subscription) reports. "The AMA said it spent $4 million from April through June, while Eli Lilly spent $3.6 million."
• "Sweeping proposals to reform the energy, healthcare and financial-services sectors helped K Street shake off a slow start to the year, although corporate belt-tightening continued to be a drag on revenues at some lobbying firms, a preliminary analysis of midyear lobbying revenue totals shows," The Hill reports. "Although several firms rebounded during the second quarter, midyear figures still appeared to be down from where they were a year ago. Lobbyists attributed the decline to the problems of the broader economy."
• "Despite taking on a larger role in crafting the GOP's legislative and policy strategy, recently installed Senate Republican Policy Committee Chairman John Thune (S.D.) is keeping the bulk of his K Street outreach portfolio," Roll Call (subscription) reports. "Thune will continue to take the lead for Senate Republicans on meeting with business lobbyists, trade groups and conservative issue-advocacy organizations, according to his spokesman."
Similar to the work of the transparency corps at the Sunlight Foundation, WashingtonWatch.com is calling all citizens to contribute to an earmark database online to track how members of Congress steer federal funds to special interests and projects in their districts. While still a work-in-progress, the group's earmark page features information on hundreds of earmarks that can easily be organized by state or lawmaker.
Administered by Jim Harper, director of information policy studies at the Cato Institute, Washington Watch tracks bills by proposed cost and savings, newest and most active.
In addition to helping improve the transparency of government, Washington Watch is giving prizes to encourage citizens to participate. Ranked by the amount of earmarks you enter into the database, first place will receive an Amazon Kindle, second place an iPod shuffle and third place a fruitcake (if the last one raised any eyebrows, all winners can choose to receive the cash value of their prize.)
Continue reading Cato's Harper Looks For Help Tracking Earmarks .
Here is a study that is interesting to me given the recent history in Washington of the "K Street Project," where GOP leaders, when they were in charge of Congress, pushed trade associations and major lobbying firms and corporations to hire individuals of a particular political strip. The legacy of placing that emphasis on how the business of Washington gets done continues on K Street, as this study shows.
Federally registered lobbyists in Washington tend to be loyal to the political party they personally favor, in terms of campaign contributions, rather than pragmatic operatives giving to both sides of the aisle, according to a new study published by the American Political Science Association.
Political scientists Gregory Koger, from the University of Miami, and Jennifer Nicoll Victor, from the University of Pittsburgh, looked at the campaign donations of 1,200 lobbyists from the 2006 election cycle and found the behavior of lobbyists "quite partisan," with 29% giving almost nothing to Democrats while another 28% giving almost nothing to Republicans. Only 6.3% of lobbyists gave at least 40% of their donations to both parties.
"Lobbyists are often depicted as the ultimate insiders of the Washington 'game' [but]...we have found a pattern of stark polarization in lobbyists' donations," said Koger and Victor in their study. "The broader implication is that lobbyists do not shed their partisan loyalties [and therefore] it is easy to see why politicians take a great interest in who is hired to talk to them, since they clearly see lobbyists as resources for one party or another."
INITIAL PREVIEW: Second Quarter Lobbying Reports:
Hold the phone, lobbying disclosure reports for the second quarter of 2009 are due today and National Journal has taken a preliminary look at the data filed as of this morning to identify the top ten spenders (by individual filing) this quarter. These numbers will change as the week goes on and the Senate and House process the thousands of disclosure reports.
Chevron takes first place, reporting that it spent a little over $6 million on lobbying and the oil giant is closely followed by seniors group AARP, who reported spending $5.3 million on lobbying. Among the issues AARP pushed in Congress during the quarter is a bill to demystify government-speak: The Plain Language Act of 2009. The legislation calls for all executive agencies to use plain language in any document issued to the public (other than regulation).
Financially troubled General Motors ranks sixth on the list with $2.8 million spent on lobbying this quarter. Other transportation-related groups who made the top ten includes Lockheed Martin, the American Electric Power Company and the Association of American Railroads. Here is the complete list*:
1. Chevron - $6 million
2. AARP - $5.3 million
3. National Association of Realtors - $3.8 million
4. Lockheed Martin - $3.3 million
5. American Electric Power Company - $2.9 million
6. General Motors - $2.8 million
7. Association of American Railroads - $2.7 million
8. Wal-Mart Stores - $2.6 million
9. Koch Companies Public Sector - $2.5 million
10. GlaxoSmithKline - $2.3 million
*Information comes from the Senate Office of Public Records.
This list will be updated this week, as traditional big spenders, like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, have yet to be processed by the congressional document offices. We will keep you updated.
From today's Earlybird:
From this week's National Journal: (subscription)
House Democrats this afternoon unveiled a 1,018-page healthcare overhaul bill, with Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel, D-NY, announcing that his committee will begin marking up its portion on Thursday morning, CongressDailyPM reports. (subscription)
Click here to see the actual bill.
As the bill was being unveiled, 31 business groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Federation of Independent Business, and the National Association of Manufacturers, wrote a joint letter to House members raising points of opposition to the legislation. Many of the groups who signed onto the letter have been publicly quiet, until now, on the healthcare reform debate. They include the International Dairy Foods Association and the National Association of Home Builders.
"We felt it was important to draw the line" with the letter, said James Gelfand, senior manager of health policy at the U.S. Chamber.
Two of the key points in the letter are opposition to a mandate requiring employers to provide health care coverage and opposition to the creation of a public plan option.
"We believe that some of the approaches under considering in the House legislation would not improve the system, but in fact would jeopardize the parts of the system that currently work," the letter says.
The question now is how aggressive will these groups be in expressing their opposition? Will they run "Harry and Louise" type ads, like those that were funded by the health insurance industry 15 years ago, that many believe turned public opinion against President Clinton's health care reform efforts?
Gelfand says no, for now. He expects business groups to keep their powder dry until they see what the Senate Finance Committee produces. That committee's chairman, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont. has been working closely with ranking chair Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, to produce a bipartisan bill that would likely address many of the concerns business groups are raising. That legislation is expected to be unveiled later this week, though the deadline has shifted in prior weeks and could shift again.
Better Health Care Together - a loose coalition of businesses, labor groups, and think tanks that includes Wal-Mart Stores, Intel, AT&T, and the Service Employees International Union - is still alive and kicking, executive director Jody Hoffman tells National Journal. But, when three of the group's most high-profile organizations, including Wal-Mart, signed on to a July 1 letter in support of a congressional proposal requiring most employers to provide health care for their employees, some of the diverse group's members weren't on the same page.
"Not everybody was ready to go forth" on the position voiced by Wal-Mart, the SEIU, and the Center for American Progress, Hoffman said, adding that "most of our members were delighted" to see the nation's largest employer make its voice heard on the issue.
Wal-Mart's surprising advocacy for the "employer mandate" rocked the business community, prompting an angry response from the National Retail Federation and grumbling among other business groups, who say that mandating coverage for employees would create devastating new costs.
The Better Health Care Together coalition, which was founded in April 2007, includes General Mills, Intel, the Communication Workers of America, the Committee for Economic Development, Manpower, and Qwest Corporation. Several coalition members declined to discuss their views on the mandate proposal last week, saying that it is premature to comment on pieces of health care legislation while the bills are still being debated in committee.
Jim McIntire, a lobbyist for large temporary staffing company and coalition member Kelly Services, said that his company is willing to keep the proposal on the table, provided that comprehensive overhaul includes plenty of provisions - like health IT requirements, malpractice reform, and comparative effectiveness research -- that would slash health care costs for employers.
"We can accept [an employer mandate] as the price of reform," McIntyre said. "But the caveat there for us would be that we would need to see some fairly robust cost controls."
Better Health Care Together's Hoffman emphasized that the coalition as a whole will not weigh in on specific health care reform proposals before Congress finalizes its plans to finance the overhauled system. But, she said, the coalition remains active and "true to its principles" of advocating for affordable, efficient health care for all Americans.
There has been a lot of talk this week that House Blug Dogs may prove to be spoilers in the health care debate because of their concern that the legislation will cause the deficit to balloon. But Nate Silver, author of the blog FiveThirtyEight, thinks many Blue Dogs might be more receptive to health care reform than many would think.
The reason is that the uninsured rate in the majority of Blue Dog districts is above the national median uninsured rate of 14.6 percent. Silver looked at Gallup poll data in the 48 congressional districts that Republican presidential candidate John McCain won in 2008, but which also elected a Blue Dog Democrat as their congressman or woman. He found that 31 of those districts reported uninsured rates above the median. Constituents in the district that elected Rep. Dan Boren, D-Okla. had the highest uninsured rate of the group, with 25.8 percent saying they don't have health insurance.
Click here for the chart and story.
Silver suggested that if those Democratic members representing districts with higher uninsured rates choose to vote against the Democrats' health care bill, the public should look into how heavily the members were lobbied and "then check to see if they're still in office four years hence."
From this week's National Journal: (subscription)
Atlantic contributor Matthew Cooper writes that even with the support of newly sworn-in Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., the Employee Free Choice Act, a bill that has been heavily lobbied by unions, remains stuck in the Senate.
Says Cooper: "The problem that's plagued the bill for months still remains: 60 Democrats don't support it and the Republicans are determined to filibuster the measure."
That's probably music to the ears of the business community, which has united to oppose the legislation.
Clarification: Sen. Claire McCaskill's, D-Mo., office called to clarify that she did not attend the Ignite tour event in May. According to Express Scripts, McCaskill's office played a ministerial role in hosting the event by securing the room where it took place.
There may not be a silver bullet in healthcare reform, but Bob Nease thinks the application of behavioral economics can help.
Nease, chief scientist for Express Scripts' Center for Cost-Effective Consumerism, is pushing for healthcare reform based on "choice architecture." Here's the basic concept: Since people often procrastinate, having employers automatically sign up workers for a program gets them on the right track for maximal benefits.
Express Scripts, one of the nation's largest pharmacy benefit managers, used this logic to create its Select Home Delivery program. For employers who participate, the Select Home Delivery program automatically enrolls their employees in the home delivery prescription service unless they specifically opt out of it. According to an Express Scripts, participating companies and employees could save up to $3 million in 2009.
Behavioral economics has a lot of traction at the White House. Peter Orszag, head of the Office of Management and Budget and top OMB official Cass Sunstein, are heavily influenced by the discipline.
"I do think this [application of behavioral economics in health care] is inevitable," said Nease. "I don't think we're going to get health care reform without some deeper understanding of why people behave they way they do."
Nease and the center kicked off a listening tour on May 27th in D.C. at an event hosted by Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo. Speakers included representatives from the American Benefits Council, Hewitt Associates and the National Business Coalition on Health. The full list of tour partners can be seen here.
The tour currently has two events planned for October, first in
Continue reading Update: Behavioral Economics In Healthcare 101.
Susan L. Kurland, who the Obama administration announced this week as the nominee for assistant secretary of Transportation for aviation and international affairs, registered as a lobbyist in 2004 and 2005. Kurland did not report earning money for services rendered.
Reports filed in the Senate database indicate she worked for herself as an aviation and security consultant. Kurland listed Barton Protective Services (now AllianceBarton Security Services), Command Security Corporation, WSA Security and Gate Safe as clients, firms that provide security services for the transportation industry.
-- Eliza Krigman
Two senior foreign policy hands from the Clinton Administration are joining forces.
Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger to former President Clinton are merging their two consulting firms-Stonebridge International and the Albright Group-into one firm called Albright Stonebridge Group. Berger has had some other big names working with him at Stonebridge, such as former Sen. Warren Rudman, R-N.H. and former Citigroup CEO Charles Prince.
Stonebridge, which has also had a strategic partnership with Hogan & Hartson, is not a traditional lobbying firm. Instead, it provides consulting for companies looking to do businesses in China, Brazil, and other countries. The Albright Group has also employed Wendy Sherman, now listed as a vice chair at the newly merged firm. She's a former top State Department official under Albright and an ex-CEO of Fannie Mae Foundation. (For full disclosure, Sherman is also married to a National Journal employee)
(Photos courtesy of the U.S. government)
National Public Radio today launched a new investigative series on lobbying, money and politics in Washington called "Dollar Politics." (Click here to see report)
The series begins with a look at health care lobbyists. NPR's reporters Peter Overby and Andrea Seabrook attended a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions hearing this month and took pictures of those lobbyists. The organization has posted photos on its website from the hearing and has asked the public to try to identify who the lobbyists are in the photos.
NPR also interviews Bill Vaughan, a health care lobbyist for Consumers Union, the nonprofit that publishes Consumer Reports magazine, who talks about why he was at the hearing.
"[They] have friendships with various members of Congress or staff and hope to be seen. It's a reminder that their interests are at play," Vaughan told NPR of the lobbyists at the hearing.
Many lobbyists in Washington have been feeling like a targets lately, so I wonder how some will feel about having their photo on NPR's website. In the 2008 campaign, the presidential candidates made lobbyists their favorite whipping posts and the Obama administration has since severely restricted lobbyists' ability to get jobs in his administration. On the other hand, lobbyists have told me that the scrutiny of their profession doesn't bother them because, as Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis once said, "Sunshine is the best disinfectant."
Readers let me know what you think. Is this good for the public? Bad for the public? Does it matter? Email me here.
In a new survey released by Zogby International today, over 60 percent of business executives said that the employer-based health care-system is not sustainable in the long term. The Committee for Economic Development (CED), a non-profit business-led public policy organization, commissioned the poll. Administered from June 1 through June 12, the poll surveyed senior level executives' attitudes on healthcare and health insurance.
Among the findings, 60.3 percent of respondents support a market-based system of competing plans--similar to coverage offered to lawmakers where the government organizes a menu of private insurance plans from which each may choose. Support for the kind of health coverage the government offers is a clear change from the status quo, says the CED.
"According to the best data we have been able to find, more than 77 percent of all private employees who have health insurance have no choice about their health insurance carrier," said Joseph J. Minarik, Senior Vice President and Director of Research for CED, "In other words, there is no competition."
He added that employers would like to offer their employees more health care options than are currently available.
I know there are lots of lobbyists in D.C. who make use of Facebook, so they'll find this story on TechDailyDose interesting.
Silicon Valley social networking sensation Facebook -- which earlier this spring hired former American Civil Liberties Union senior legislative counsel Tim Sparapani as public policy director for its growing Washington, D.C. office -- took another inside-the-Beltway step late Monday. The company submitted its first ever lobbying registration forms for Sparapani and his colleague Adam Connor with the House's Legislative Resource Center and the Senate's Office of Public Records.
What will be the impact of the health insurance industry's campaign donations and lobbying on members of the Senate? Plenty, according to an analysis by the blog FiveThirtyEight.com.
Directors of corporate political action committees usually say they give money to lawmakers and candidates who have voted in a way that supports their company's economic interests. And sometimes the PACs donate money to candidates because they share political ideology. But does a lawmaker actually vote for a bill that a particular company backs just because they received a PAC check?
Yes, says Nate Silver, who writes FiveThirtyEight.com. He analyzed the campaign donations of health insurers and health maintenance organizations to Senators and has projected how those lawmakers will vote when it comes to the public plan option under consideration in the health care reform debate. The controversial measure would call on the government to create a new public insurance plan to compete against private insurers.Private insurers are strongly opposed to a public option and progressive groups are pushing hard for it.
"The insurance industry's influence appears to swing about 9 votes against the public option," projects Silver.
Silver says the vote by Sen. Mark Warner D-Va., is the most likely to be influenced by the health insurance lobby. Warner has raised $69,000 in campaign donations from health insurers, though he has only been in office for six months.
Click here to take a look at the analysis.
(Photo of Warner courtesy of Creative Commons)
The next issue of National Journal will be devoted to profiling more than 350 Obama administration officials. The Decision Makers issue will be delivered to subscribers on Monday, June 22.
Hotline OnCall editor Jennifer Skalka reviews a poll of National Journal's political insiders on how the White House staff has been doing:
Political Insiders gave passing marks to the WH staff, but offered less stellar reviews of President Obama's economic and national security teams.
Also in Decision Makers, NJ's James A. Barnes and Peter Bell asked Democrats (97) and Republicans (91) to grade the White House staff. On average, Democrats gave a 'B+' while Republicans gave a 'B-.'
"Dealing with the toughest challenges inherited by any administration in two generations," said one 'B+' bestowing Democrat. "Rahm looked especially 'Rahmbo' on the NBC special. Get a leash," said a Democrat who stamped the Obama team with a 'B.'
A Republican 'B' giver: "They'd get an 'A' if they stopped blaming Bush for everything under the sun."
Meanwhile, the Democrats gave Obama's economic team a 'B-' and the national security team a 'B+.' The Republicans were less kind, rating them a 'D+' and 'C' respectively.
One Republican issued a 'D' to the economic team, adding: "If Obama ends up as a one-term president, it will be because these guys pushed economic politices that would make even Jimmy Carter roll his eyes."
And a Republican who tagged the national security team with a 'C' said: "Repacking a lot of the former administration's ideas, just selling them better. But North Korea? Do we have a plan? Time is ticking."
The U.S. Travel Association has used a novel tactic to find a new grassroots "lobbyist" to tell its story better on Capitol Hill -- it held a video contest on YouTube.The winner, by 16,000 votes, was Paco Saldana, an immigrant from Mexico who worked himself up the ladder from bus boy to director of guest services at the Ritz-Carlton hotel on Amelia Island, Fla. His video told the story of the negative impact the economy has had on his hotel and Amelia Island. Saldana said a couple of Ritz-Carlton managers urged him to submit a video for the contest because "they thought I had a good story to tell." The hotel has had to cut its staff to 500 from 700 a year ago.
See the video here.
(Photo of Saldana courtesy of U.S. Travel Association)
Continue reading Association Holds Contest To Find Lobbyist.
Though he was forced to withdraw his nomination for Health and Human Services secretary earlier this year, former Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., hasn't disappeared from the health care debate. He is still working to influence the shape of the legislative battle in Congress.
Daschle joined with former Senators Howard Baker, R-Tenn., and Robert Dole, R-Kan., on Wednesday to offer a bipartisan compromise for health care reform, just as the Democrats' efforts on the Hill seemed to be slowing. Click here to see report.
Daschle currently works as a special public policy adviser at Alston & Bird and isn't registered to lobby. His nomination was derailed earlier this year after he failed to pay some back taxes on use of a car.
The reform proposal, developed with the nonprofit Bipartisan Policy Center, calls for letting states develop public plan options, which Daschle said could be "similar to those [that] many already operate," CongressDailyPM reported (subscription). The federal government would provide funds to start the plans.
Earlier in the day, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., said mark-up of health care legislation may slip to July as the committee deals with finding a way to address the Congressional Budget Office's assessment that its reform measure would cost $1.6 trillion over 10 years. See CongressDaily's story on Finance Panel news (subscription).
(Photo courtesy of Creative Commons)
In this week's National Journal: (subscription)
From this week's National Journal: (subscription)
At first glance it looks totally off base. But Gary Andres, vice chairman of research at Dutko Worldwide, has written an excellent piece in The Weekly Standard arguing that Barack Obama's Washington -- marked by the huge and rapid expansion of government -- is a gift to the lobbying and advocacy professions.
Among other things, Andres points out that the White House's rhetoric demonizing lobbying is causing an important behavioral change on K Street. Andres writes: "...some government relations executives who previously registered as lobbyists are now 'delisting' -- causing a growing number of former interest group advocates to move out of the federal disclosure regime entirely."
The article includes this quote from an executive at a major company: "Why should I take all the cheap shot criticism for being a 'lobbyist' when I spend most of my time doing other things, like managing my staff and giving advice to senior management about public policy?"
Ring true, readers?
From this week's National Journal: (subscription)
Business Forward, a new trade group backed by AT&T, Facebook, Hilton, IBM, Microsoft, Pfizer, Time Warner and others, is hitting the ground running with the launch of its Web site and radio advertisements this week in Indiana and Arkansas promoting health care reform, my colleague Andrew Noyes reports in Tech Daily Dose.
The ads encourage industry leaders in those states to work with the Senate to help shape the debate and underscore the need "to bring down skyrocketing health care costs, and protect a patient's right to choose his or her own coverage plan and physician," according to the organization whose goal is to promote President Obama's economic competitiveness agenda. Sens. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., Mark Pryor, D-Ark., and Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., "are leading the fight for health care reform, and Business Forward is encouraging business leaders in their states to learn more and get involved," said Jim Doyle, the group's executive director.
The health care reform debate is expected to heat up in Congress after the Memorial Day break.
To read more, go to Tech Daily Dose.
In This Week's National Journal (subscription)
From this week's National Journal: (subscription)
Hilton Hotels, which is gearing up to move its headquarters this fall from Los Angeles to Tysons Corner, is in the market for a full-time Washington lobbyist. According to one lobbyist interested in the job, the hotel chain hired the search firm Korn Ferry to help locate someone to run a new DC office. Word of the new post, billed as a senior vice president for government affairs, seems to be sparking interest on K Street at a time when a number of lobbying shops and corporate offices are feeling the pinch of the recession. Hilton announced in March that it would be leaving its current digs in Beverly Hills and moving its base to Park Place II in Tysons where it has reportedly signed a ten year lease.
-- Peter H. Stone
In this week's National Journal and today's CongressDailyAM: (subscription)
Never too early to get up to speed!
Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., told National Journal Thursday afternoon that he was heading out to get some pointers and background information from two veteran Washington lawyers about how to lead the GOP questioning of President Obama's upcoming nominee to the Supreme Court. (Sessions secured his new committee role this week because Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the former committee ranking member, switched parties to become a Democrat.)
According to the former Alabama federal prosecutor, his guides were former Attorney General William Barr, who served in the Justice Department under Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush, and President George W. Bush's former assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Policy from 2001-2003, Viet Dinh.
Barr, a telecomm attorney now with Kirkland & Ellis, headed Justice during the confirmation hearings for now-retiring Justice David Souter in 1990 and for Justice Clarence Thomas, who barely cleared Senate approval in 1991 by a vote of 52-48. Dinh, known as the primary architect of the USA PATRIOT Act in the wake of 9/11, is a constitutional law professor at Georgetown University, and someone whose name has been a favorite on lists of potential Supreme Court nominees in a Republican administration.
Dinh, who clerked for former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, was part of the team that helped the Bush administration win Senate approval of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito in 2005 and 2006, respectively.
From this week's National Journal and Congress Daily: (subscription)
The Center for Responsive Politics has analyzed first quarter, in-house lobbying expenditures and found that spending was about even in the first quarter of 2009, compared with the same period in 2008.
Spending by unions, organizations and companies totaled $799.3 million compared with $795.9 million, a less than 1 percent increase. (The Center said the figure is actually down from the fourth quarter of 2008, when lobby spending was $818 million.)
"That might seem like a small increase compared to the billions spent each year on this activity, but in a time of economic turmoil, that's a hefty revenue stream for a single industry," wrote the Center's Lindsay Renick Mayer on the organization's website.
Drug companies were the biggest spenders among industries at $66.8 million, while the oil and gas biz posted a 48 percent increase in spending, the largest percentage increase.
It's worth noting companies that received money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program spent less on lobbying than they had in any quarter of 2008. TARP recipients spent $13.9 million on lobbying so far this year, compared to $20.2 million in January through March of last year and $17.8 million in the last three months of 2008.
In tomorrow's National Journal, I have a story that found K Street's hired guns had a tough quarter with 10 of the 15 top lobbying firms reporting a decline in lobbying revenues.
--Bara Vaida
What, if any, effect will Sen. Arlen Specter's party switch have on the contentious "card check" battle? At this point, interest groups on both sides of the debate are dismissing any substantial influence the shift could have on the legislation.
In March, Specter announced he wouldn't support the Employee Free Choice Act despite having supported it in the past, and in his statement Tuesday he emphasized that his position on the bill "will not change."
As National Journal's Kirk Victor recently wrote (subscription), labor activists believe that as the bill moves closer to a vote, the president will "use his political capital to bring around a handful of wavering senators to prevail." Could Specter, who has gotten the full endorsement of the White House since moving across the aisle, be one of those senators?
Vice President Joe Biden said (subscription) Wednesday that even though he hasn't talked to Specter recently about the legislation, he believes that the senator would have "an open mind" about voting for some version of the bill if a compromise emerges.
Glenn Spencer, who runs the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's anti-EFCA initiative, doesn't think that's likely to happen. "It's no secret that he has some ideas on labor law reforms," Spencer said. "But I don't know if Specter is willing to compromise on this bill."
Justin Wilson, managing director of two anti-EFCA organizations (Employee Freedom Action Committee and the Center for Union Facts) led by lobbyist Richard Berman, is confident that Specter will stick to his official statements.
"I don't think [the party switch] changes the overall downward trajectory of this bill," Wilson said. "Specter was pretty clear that he's not going to be an automatic 60th vote."
The pro-EFCA American Rights At Work does not plan to change its strategy in light of Specter's announcement. Group spokesman Josh Goldstein said he had been "greatly disappointed" when Specter turned against the bill, but that neither the senator's March announcement nor this week's party switch affected the group's strategy. "We will continue to work with him," Goldstein said, but the group does not have plans yet to ramp up efforts to influence him.
As lobbyists move around the financial services sector almost as fast as some Wall Street giants take billions of dollars in federal aid, it gets hard to keep track of "who's on first," or leading different lobbying shops.
Take the impending move of Democratic lobbyist Michael Paese -- a former top aide to Rep. Barney Frank, chair of the House Financial Services Committee -- to Goldman Sachs from the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association. Paese, who just joined SIFMA as its top lobbyist last September, will become Goldman's No. 2 lobbyist (not No. 1, as some outlets have reported) where he'll be replacing Republican Ann Costello, who's moving on to become the top lobbyist for the Bank of New York Mellon. No word yet on who will be the new lead lobbyist at SIFMA, but sources say that the search is being led by Timothy Ryan, the trade group's chief executive officer.
After Democrats won control of the White House and bolstered their numbers on the Hill in November, I've asked many Republican lobbyists how their business might be affected.
Most have replied to me that Democrats did not have a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, which meant that clients still needed help from Republicans on K Street if they expected to defeat or pass legislation.
Well, that marketing pitch to clients likely got a whole lot weaker after today's bombshell news that Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., was switching parties to join the Democratic caucus. If the still-unsettled Senate race in Minnesota results in Democrat Al Franken as the winner, as expected, the Democrats will have a filibuster-proof majority. That's likely to mean K Street Republicans are going to have to tailor their pitches.
John Feehery, a Republican lobbyist and founder of the Feehery Group, thinks business and advocacy groups who want to stop legislation in Congress are going to have to turn to grassroots and public relations strategies to have an impact.
"It will require popular outrage to stop things as opposed to inside Washington deals," he said. "To slow things down will require a lot more [popular] heat being put on Democrat moderates and Blue Dogs."
Cesar Conda, a Republican and co-founder of the bipartisan firm Navigators Global, makes the argument that Specter isn't necessarily going to be a reliable vote for Democrats and that means Republicans on K Street still have clout.
"He's not going to be a rubber stamp for cloture," Conda said.
Indeed Specter told reporters Tuesday afternoon: "I will not be changing my own personal independence nor my own approach to individual issues. I will not be an automatic 60th vote."
And while labor leaders expressed enthusiasm that Specter's switch means renewed life for the union-organizing "card-check" bill, the Pennsylvania senator said he is still opposed. "I think it is a bad bill, and I'm opposed to it," he said. "I would not vote to invoke cloture."
Of course this is all good news from Democratic lobbyists on K Street, who will be in more demand than ever.
Readers meanwhile, do you have any thoughts? What do our Republican readers On K Street think? Email me.
--Bara Vaida (with reporting by Hotline's Jennifer Skalka)
The White House blog posted the following today:
Update on Lobbyist Contacts Regarding the Recovery Act In the spirit of transparency, Norm Eisen, special counsel to the president for ethics and government reform, asked us to pass along this update on the President's restrictions on lobbyist contacts regarding the Recovery Act.
Read the complete post here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/09/04/26/Update-on-Lobbyist-Contacts-Regarding-the-Recovery-Act/
A founding partner of one of K Street's most successful lobbying shops, Ed Gillespie -- who was also chairman of the Republican National Committee and was a counselor to President Bush -- announced today the formation of Ed Gillespie Strategies. The consulting firm will provide high-level strategy and communications-related advice to companies, CEOs, coalitions and trade associations.
"I wanted to focus on communications and strategic planning," Gillespie says. "It's my first love and I have a lot of experience in knowing how to get from point A to point B."
Most recently, Gillespie served in the White House during the last 18 months of the Bush presidency. Previously he was a principal at Quinn Gillespie & Associates, the lobbying firm he started with Jack Quinn, a White House counsel for President Clinton. Judging by revenue, Quinn Gillespie ranked ninth among Washington lobbying firms in 2008.
Gillespie says he will not be lobbying in his new role. He says he'll have more will time to spend with his family and be involved with the Virginia governor's race. Gillespie volunteers as general chairman for Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell.
Services of the firm will include strategic planning, message development and communications strategy, hearing and interview preparation, crisis and reputation management, and coalition organization and oversight.
-- Eliza Krigman
K Street firms and self-employed lobbyists are required to list 'specific lobbying activities' on the disclosure reports they file with Congress. The Center for Responsive Politics has a new feature to highlight the bills that have generated the greatest amount of lobbying.
On Top Bills, readers can view legislation ranked by the number of lobbying reports mentioning that bill. From 2005 to 2008, the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act (H.R. 2638) had the greatest number -- 1,225. Click on the bill number in the left column to see a full list of unique clients lobbying on that piece of legislation. For the same period, the four most-heavily lobbied bills were appropriations related -- private money chasing public money.
The center notes that not all filers list the title of the bill in their lobbying disclosure report. "Specific lobbying activities" is subject to interpretation, and some filers provide vague answers. Hence, the "Top Bills" data is a good indicator, but not a precise measurement of lobbying activity.
-- Eliza Krigman
From this week's National Journal: (subscription)
Rational PR, a small DC-based public affairs firm, yesterday sent out an unusual pitch for drumming up business on K Street. The firm is offering to share a percentage of its revenues with lobbying firms who hire them.
In an email titled "Rational PR Strives To Increase Lobbying Partnerships with 10 Percent Fee Sharing" sent to 1,500 lobbyists, the firm said it was "pleased to announce" that Rational PR will offer the "10 percent revenue-sharing agreement to lobbying firms and independent lobbyists who select RPR as a partner in their clients' campaigns."
Patrick Dorton, one of the cofounders of Rational PR, called the pitch a way to "formalize" a method for lobbyists and lobbying firms to team up. "What generally happens is PR firms phone bank [cold call] lobbyists in town asking them for business," he said. "It doesn't make sense and it's kind of haphazard."
Most sophisticated lobbying campaigns today are accompanied by a public relations campaign and while some on K Street who had received the email told National Journal that they hadn't seen a pitch like this, others said it's a common business tactic.
Mark Irion, CEO of Dutko Worldwide, which has used Rational PR for campaigns in the past, said the company's pitch is "a clever strategy and its not that unusual. We've offered commissions to people who find business for 25 years."
It's a tough time to be beating on K Street's door for business. According to first quarter lobbying disclosure documents, most of the top ten lobbying firms in town reported their fee income had declined from the same period a year ago.
"There is no question that firms in Washington are looking at their revenue side and to the extent that adding PR capabilities or partnerships can both contribute to revenue as well as contribute to the clients' success, we think this fee-sharing is a good thing," he said.
-- Bara Vaida
When Andrew Noyes and I worked on this week's National Journal story about the lobbying battle between the music industry and radio broadcasters over royalty fees, first quarter 2009 lobbying figures weren't available yet. Under the Lobbying Disclosure Act, neither side was required to make their lobbying numbers public until the April 20 filing deadline.
Now we have those numbers so we can shed some light on one of the arguments in the battle: Both sides accuse the other of trying to win by outspending their opponent.
SoundExchange, the non-profit group that is funding the music industry's lobbying battle, reported that it spent $540,000, double the $200,000 it reported spending in the first quarter of 2008. The Recording Industry Association of America, which is a member of SoundExchange, reported spending $1.8 million in the first three months of 2009, up from the $1.54 million the organization spent during the same period a year ago.
The National Association of Broadcasters, which is battling the music industry on behalf of radio broadcasters, reported spending $2.6 million, up from $2.49 million they spent in the first quarter of 2008.
Both sides are racking up big lobbying fees in roughly equal measure.
--Bara Vaida
UPDATE @ 11:00 AM on Tuesday April 21. In response to a few phone calls I received, we'd like to stress that these numbers are preliminary. They are based on what was posted on the Senate Office of Public Records website on Monday April 20. We will be updating our numbers this week as we get more information.
Law and lobbying firm Patton Boggs held onto its No. 1 position, coming in as the firm with the most lobbying income for the first quarter of 2009. The firm was No. 1 on K Street for all of 2008.
According to preliminary information from the Senate Office of Public Records analyzed by National Journal, Patton Boggs reported Q1 lobbying fees of $7.48 million, 29 percent below the $10.5 million it reported in same period of 2008. Eight of the firms posted declines in lobbying income compared to the same period in 2008. We will be updating this list as we get more information from the Senate this week.
Here's the chart of the firms in terms of Lobbying Disclosure Act fee income for the first three months of 2009, compared with the first quarter of 2008. Missing from the list are Hogan & Hartson and Podesta Group. The Senate had yet to post their filings.
1. Patton Boggs (down) - $7.48 million versus $10.5 million
2. Van Scoyoc Associates (down) - $5.25 million versus $6.55 million
3. Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld (down) - $5.21 million versus $8.81 million
4. Dutko Worldwide (down) - $4.91 million versus $5.3 million
5. Holland & Knight (up) - $4.9 million versus $3.55 million
6. Cassidy & Associates (down) - $4.31 million versus $6.04 million
7. Ogilvy Government Relations (down) - $4.1 million versus $4.57 million
8. BGR Group (down) - $4.06 million versus $4.75 million
9. Brownstein Hyatt & Farber (up) - $3.8 million versus $3.38 million
10 Quinn Gillespie & Associates (down) - $3.36 million versus $3.65 million
-- Bara Vaida
As thousands take part in "tea party" rallies across the country, newspaper and blog commentators are already sounding off -- and the reviews are mixed. The purpose of the parties -- organized via the Internet by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's American Solutions and former House Majority Leader Dick Armey's FreedomWorks, among other groups and individuals -- is to protest against what organizers perceive as high taxes and excessive federal spending.
The effort's online hub -- Tax Day Tea Party -- has video of the ongoing parties. Left-leaning Think Progress, a wing of the Center For American Progress Political Action Fund, has a list of GOP lawmakers who have signed on to speak at the "radical anti-Obama" events.
So is there a surge in voter anger over taxes? Gallup recently published a poll showing that 61 percent of Americans think they will be paying their "fair" share in taxes this year, according to the progressive group Citizens for Tax Justice. But 39 percent of those who make less than $30,000 think their federal income taxes are "too high," though many of them don't actually pay federal taxes, according to Citizens for Tax Justice. See report here.
After the jump, also see a sampling of what the pundits and bloggers are saying.
Even in an economic crisis, earmarks inspire more debate than consensus in Washington, writes National Journal.com's David Herbert.
Citizens Against Government Waste on Tuesday released its annual "pig book," a rundown of earmark spending that slams lawmakers for funneling $19.6 billion into pet projects in fiscal 2009, a 14 percent increase over 2008. David Williams, the group's vice president of policy, argued that the hundreds of anti-tax tea parties planned for today -- tax day -- are a sign that the public is fed up with wasteful spending.
"It's no coincidence that there are going to be tea parties all across this country," he said at a press conference Tuesday. "This pig book is why."
But if the report's goal was to shame lawmakers, the biggest offenders were anything but contrite.
"We're honored," said David Helfert, communications director for Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawaii. "The congressman will be very pleased to learn that he's topped the list. He feels that it is absolutely appropriate for members of Congress to make spending decisions about federal money."
Update @ 7:04 pm -- The Sunlight Foundation has a good analysis of this report on the lucrative nature of lobbying as well. See here.
For anyone wondering how much money corporations can make by hiring lobbyists, Congress Daily's Peter Cohn is worth a read.
Researchers at the University of Kansas have found that when Congress in 2004 granted firms a one-time pass to bring that income home at a reduced tax rate, the lobbying paid off -- big time. Their study found that every dollar companies spent on lobbying for that tax break -- which they tried to revive during the economic stimulus debate this year -- saved them $220 in taxes. On average, the companies generated a 22,000 percent return from their lobbying efforts, with companies spending the most getting the biggest tax savings.
See whole story here. (Subscription)
From this week's National Journal: (subscription)
Despite the hard economic times, the lobbying shop run by former Rep. Bob Livingston, R-La., is still attracting new clients.
Livingston, a former House Appropriations Committee chair who was briefly House speaker-elect in 1998 but withdrew from consideration amid allegations of marital infidelity, has been running his own government relations firm since 1999.
Livingston recently signed up SUNRx , a prescription drug benefits administrator. Registered to lobby for SUNRx is J. Allen Martin, a former chief of staff to Livingston in Congress. Livingston and Martin also recently registered to lobby for the health care technology company NovoLogix, which would have a stake in any upcoming health care reform bill. Livingston, Martin, and Bernard Robinson, former chief of staff to Rep. James McGovern, D-Mass., registered to represent the Current Group, a Smart Grid technology company that provides services to electric utilities.
-Gregg Sangillo
Yesterday was the last day of the quarter and we will be reporting soon on the fees earned by K Street's lobbying firms.
Despite the ailing economy, expectations are that the lobbying business is booming because of the activist legislative agenda pursued by President Obama and the Democratic-controlled Congress.
If you look at the lobbying registrations so far, that storyline seems to be coming to fruition. The Sunlight Foundation says in a new report that there were 1,699 new lobbying registration forms filed with Congress in the first quarter of 2009, up 27 percent from 1,337 registrations filed in the same period of 2008.
"As the federal government pumps up spending and intervenes in the troubled financial markets, K Street firms appear to have had no shortage of business," the foundation said in a statement.
Bill Allison,a senior fellow at the Sunlight Foundation cautioned that the increase in registrations could be due to more efficient processing by the Senate's Office of Public Records which is charged with collecting the filings and posting them online.
"We can't say yet what the numbers mean," he said.
Still, we can probably assume that K Street wasn't suffering financially as the year began.
--Bara Vaida
The Merchants Payment Coalition targeted eight members of the House Financial Services Committee in an effort to persuade them to endorse an effort to curb the fees that banks charge merchants for using a credit or debit card, CongressDailyPM reported. (Subscription)
The coalition is running a six-figure ad campaign using television, radio and newspapers. Merchants have been in a long running lobbying dispute over the fees that they pay for using Visa and MasterCard networks to process credit card and debit card transactions.
Buzz around town is building as Business Forward readies its launch with the goal of promoting President Obama's economic competitiveness agenda.
The organization is trying to woo big high-tech firms like Cisco Systems, Google, IBM, and Microsoft to join as members, a source involved in the effort said Tuesday. "There are very few platforms for the administration and Congress to engage the business community," he said. So far, founding member companies of the group include AT&T, Pfizer and Time Warner, a source said.
Rather than lobbying, Business Forward's initial aim will be hosting events around the country to focus on maximizing funds in the $787 billion economic stimulus package. It will be led by political operative Jim Doyle; former Viacom lobbyist David Sutphen, whose sister is Obama's deputy chief of staff; former Obama media consultant Erik Smith; former Obama campaign staffer Julie Andreeff Jensen; and Hilary Rosen, former head of the Recording Industry Association of America.
Business Forward's founding members will pay up to $75,000 per year for a membership, while smaller firms will pay $1,500 in annual dues. One organizer rejected the notion that the group is the Democrats' answer to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Business. It won't compete with progressive think tanks like the Center for American Progress or MoveOn.org, the organizer said.
"You know what you get with all the existing organizations around town," the organizer said. "They all have a role to play. This isn't an 'either-or' endeavor. It's an 'and.' "
-- Andrew Noyes, with reporting by Bara Vaida
As Eliza Newlin Carney reported in our State of Lobbying issue this week, the advocacy industry is increasingly using social networking tools to promote their issue of the day.
The Sunlight Foundation is using Twitter to directly lobby senators to co-sponsor the Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act that we blogged about yesterday. Sunlight courted bill supporters to lobby senators' blackberrys directly via a 'Tweet Lobby'.
"[We] believe this will be the first organized direct lobbying of members of Congress over Twitter," Sunlight Communication's Director Gabriela Schneider told National Journal. Two senators, Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., and Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., tweeted about their support of the bill. Both of these lawmakers supported the bill in previous sessions of Congress so their position is not necessarily a reflection of the Twitter lobby.
It will be interesting and telling if the Twitter lobby generates a response from a greater portion of the 17 senators on Twitter, especially those who haven't voiced support of the bill in the past. We'll be paying attention.
--Eliza Krigman
Liberal groups today announced a campaign pressuring moderate congressional Democrats to support President Obama's policy agenda.
The heads of Campaign for America's Future and USAction argued on a press call this morning that moderate Blue Dogs in the House and a moderate Senate group led by Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., are listening too much to business lobbyists.
"It's important they hear from their constituents, not just their contributors," Campaign for America's Future co-director Robert Borosage said.
William McNary, president of USAction, said the group's members will urge lawmakers to "stand up to the special interests."
Conservative and moderate Democrats argue they are representing their moderate and conservative states and districts in pushing for changes to Obama's proposals, but the effort shows Democrats in the middle will be taking fire from both sides in the coming years.
--Brian Friel
I was on C-SPAN's "Washington Journal" Sunday morning to talk about our lobbying package published in the March 21 issue, and it was clear from the callers' questions that most people don't understand the role that lobbyists play. The questions generally were, "Why are lobbyists allowed to bribe lawmakers?" It's not a surprise to me, but because C-SPAN viewers tend to be people who are politically engaged I hope that my answers might have helped some to better understand what lobbying is about.
Also, James Warren, the former DC bureau chief of the Chicago Tribune wrote a spot-on analysis of our lobbying package. See here.
-- Bara Vaida
Our annual State of Lobbying package can be found in this week's National Journal:
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