A coal trade group has a lot more to worry about than just the fraudulent climate change letters sent to lawmakers, Democrats warned today. The group's overall lobbying tactics on energy legislation -- in the form of advertisements, phone calls and outreach on Capitol Hill -- have been misleading, Democrats said at a hearing of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.
"You remind me of a guy who hired a hit man and said to him, 'Don't tell me if you used a knife or a gun,'" Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., told Steve Miller, president and CEO of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity. Inslee compared the coal industry's lobbying on climate change to the tobacco industry's attempts to hide information about the harms of smoking in previous decades.
"This is a deeper defrauding," he said, pointing to a training document given to individuals who made phone calls for a company hired by ACCCE. The document instructed callers to say the House climate change legislation would double electricity bills, Inslee said, which was a lie meant to "scare the dickens out of voters."
Miller apologized for the sending of the fraudulent letters and maintains his group "never opposed" the House climate change bill. Rather, he said his group was lobbying to change portions of it and supports a cap and trade bill "so long as it is reasonable." He also said the training document that Inslee pointed to wasn't authorized by ACCCE.
ACCCE hired a public relations firm, the Hawthorn Group, which hired a subcontractor, Bonner & Associates, to handle grassroots efforts related to climate change legislation. Miller and Jack Bonner, Bonner & Associates' CEO, said during the hearing that the fraudulent letters were written and signed by a temporary employee on his first day of work at Bonner, who was fired after the incident was uncovered.
Cross-posted from the blog of my colleagues at Government Executive:
It looks like every federal department is getting into the blog act -- now, the Federal Election Commission has debuted its "Disclosure Data Weblog." According to its first post, the blog will highlight new disclosure features and Web site tools, as well as answers to common questions about the FEC's site.
Click here to see the whole post.
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.
At a recent training session on social media attended by grassroots conservative activists, Austin James of American Majority encouraged conservatives to give low ratings to books about President Obama on Amazon.com and to write reviews that aim to dissuade users from buying the books -- or buying into Obama's ideas.
James spoke Friday about engaging in "guerrilla warfare" against liberals online at Americans for Prosperity's "Defending the American Dream Summit," where conservatives cheered when Chicago lost its Olympic bid. Americans for Prosperity has been a key force in trying to channel the anti-Obama vitriol into a viable political movement through efforts such as tea parties.
"What if I went to every Obama book I could find and I went 'one star, one star, one star?'" James asked the crowd. "I mean, 80 percent of the books that I view and put stars on online, I never read, people. That's just how it works."
Continue reading Conservative Promotes Online 'Guerrilla Warfare'.
Frustrated by a country that argues about sound bites instead of facts, veteran marketing team Eric Yaverbaum and Mark DiMassimo launched the "Read to Vote" campaign today. The initiative calls for lawmakers and citizens alike to read high-priority legislation facing Congress today, including the health care and climate bills.
"If you can't read it, you can't pass it" is the motto of the campaign, which is asking for 1,018 "chalkers" to write every page of America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 on the steps of Capitol Hill.
"I'm a regular on Fox and find myself to be somewhat of a lighting rod," said Yaverbaum. "We all argue about 'mis'facts and we all should all read the bill."
Drawing funds from their successful "tappening" campaign to promote tap water and discourage the unnecessary use of bottled water, Yaverbaum and DiMassimo have invested $750,000 in the Read to Vote campaign. The whole pot of money, directed to marketing and advertising, includes Web site development, public relations, "creative" on ads and wild posting -- ads (see here) will be posted in Washington, New York City, Chicago, L.A. and Miami.
DiMassimo founded DIGO in 1996, an advertising, design and digital agency whose clients have included Crunch Fitness, Pfizer and Gateway among others. Yaverbaum, founder of Ericho Communications, has authored five books including "PR for Dummies."
There's a bewildering question hanging over the intriguing report in The Washington Post on the $520,189 tax refund that imprisoned former lobbyist Jack Abramoff received this month from the IRS. Abramoff quickly used some of the money to pay bills to lawyers and accountants, to his father, and to pay other debts. See Post story here.
Why was Abramoff due such a refund in the first place? Could it be there was a miscalculation in how much he owed the government in back taxes when he pleaded guilty in January 2006 to tax evasion, fraud, and conspiracy to bribe public officials? At the time, the plea stated that he owed Uncle Sam $1.7 million.
Meanwhile, the Justice Department is upset that Abramoff used the IRS refund to pay off these debts before making restitution to the Indian tribes that he and his covert partner Michael Scanlon defrauded. (Scanlon has pleaded guilty but has not been sentenced.)
Under his sentencing, Abramoff was not supposed to start making restitution to the tribes until he is released from prison, but he was also supposed to apply the value of his tax refund towards the money he owed the tribes. This week Justice went to court seeking to prevent Abramoff from using any of what's left from his IRS refund for other purposes before he and Scanlon pay back more than $23 million they jointly owe to several casino-owning tribes that they bilked.
According to DOJ's court filing more than $400,000 of the IRS refund has been spent.
-- Peter H. Stone
UPDATE (May 6 @ 5;45 p.m.): We have obtained two letters related to the Chevron case. One is by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo ( Cuomo Letter.pdf), and the second is from Amnesty International to Cuomo ( Amnesty Letter to Cuomo.pdf)
This past Sunday, "60 Minutes" aired a tough piece about oil pollution in the Amazon region of Ecuador and the massive lawsuit by some 30,000 Ecuadorans against American corporate giant Chevron.
(View the "60 Minutes" piece: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4988079n)
But weeks before the May 3 CBS program, the oil company was already fighting back through an Internet video narrated by former CNN television newsman Gene Randall that portrayed Chevron in a more positive light. Randall's video blamed much of Ecuador's oil pollution problems on its state-owned oil firm, and it downplayed criticism from Ecuadorans and their lawyers about Chevron's responsibility for toxic oil wastes in many Ecuadoran rivers and streams owing to more than two decades of oil drilling by Texaco, which Chevron bought in 2001.
(View Randall's video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YMCGC-2ytE)
Randall's news report has an authentic feel - but the video was paid for by Chevron, which hired Randall last fall, not long after the company got wind that "60 Minutes" was working on a big story.
"I don't portray it as a piece of journalism, but I used journalistic techniques in telling Chevron's side of the story," Randall said in an interview. "I belong among the people who don't think Chevron has gotten a fair shake over the years."
Randall, now a corporate consultant who has done one other project for Chevron, worked with the Alexandria, Va. firm CRC Public Relations to produce the video. He would not say how much he was paid. Two environmental groups have called on Chevron to cease airing the video unless it discloses its role.
Randall's project is just one part of Chevron's legal, lobbying and PR full-court press to influence a court proceeding in Ecuador that could result in civil damages of up to $27 billion against the company. A court in Ecuador is expected to rule this year.
Continue reading Former CNN Reporter Pitches for Chevron (Update).
Oilman T. Boone Pickens spoke to more than 100 Washington energy elites Tuesday night at a private reception hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations. Touting natural gas and cracking jokes with audience members, Pickens was adamant about the U.S. becoming energy independent.
With his plan, Pickens emphasized that the Mideast could be "clear out of the picture" in 10 years. Pickens' plan would generate energy from natural gas and wind. Wind energy, though, raises this concern: Where to put the transmission lines from wind energy sources? This obstacle, while not addressed in any great detail at this event, was a hot topic at the Clean Energy Summit Pickens spoke at earlier this week in Washington.
Indeed, Pickens has been all over the country, airwaves and op-ed pages this month pushing Congress to go further with its clean energy investments than what the stimulus allocated. He says, for example, the country should build a more reliable electrical transmission grid and develop "smart-grid" technologies. The Pickens Plan, not surprisingly, fits squarely into the oilman's vision for what the new administration's energy plan should be.
Feeling heat from lawmakers, consumer groups, investors, and others to provide a concrete plan on loan modifications that would help millions of people facing foreclosure, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner yesterday hosted a roundtable of dozens of interested parties.
The meeting, held at the Treasury Department, drew lobbyists from the American Bankers Association, the Financial Services Roundtable, Mortgage Bankers Association of America, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, and more. Also in attendance were representatives from the Center for Responsible Lending, La Raza, the NAACP, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac. "It was a listening session," says one financial sector lobbyist who sat in on the session. Geithner, he adds, "asked for everybody's ideas" and their priorities in dealing with foreclosure mitigation.
Lobbyists say that the administration seems to be on a very short timetable and may unveil a proposal in about two weeks that would detail how the $50 billion pledged by the administration to assist distressed homeowners would actually work. Shaun Donovan, the new Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, was also at the meeting.
-- Peter H. Stone
With the creation of Organizing for America, President Obama has deployed his own lobbying tools in an effort to build grassroots support in Congress for his agenda.
The group is housed at the Democratic National Committee and is the keeper of Obama's e-mail list of supporters, which reportedly contains 13 million addresses. A number of lobbyists in D.C. wondered to me how the Obama administration would use the list and whether it might try to bypass K Street. National Journal will be paying close attention to how Organizing for America evolves.
On Friday, David Plouffe, who was Obama's campaign manager, announced that Mitch Stewart would be the executive director of the organization.
Stewart served as director of the Iowa caucus, Indiana state director and Virginia state director for the Obama campaign. Before joining Obama's camp, he was the coordinated campaign manager for the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party in Minnesota in 2006. In 2004, Stewart served as former South Dakota Democrat Sen. Tom Daschle's field director. He was also a regional field director in Iowa for former Sen. John Edwards, D-NC., during his presidential bid in 2004.
Plouffe and Stewart sent out this video to supporters.
-- Bara Vaida
A number of folks on K Street have wondered how President-elect Obama may deploy his millions of grassroots supporters in upcoming policy debates. Well, David Plouffe, Obama's campaign manager, shed some light on that topic in an interview with Lois Romano of the Washington Post. He told her he'll be overseeing Obama's grassroots network, which includes a reported 13 million email addresses.
Here's the video:
--Bara Vaida
There has been a lot of talk on K street about how President-elect Obama may use his 13 million-strong grassroots network to promote policy. National Journal's Corine Hegland takes an in-depth look at how the network may be deployed to bolster his administration in this week's issue of National Journal. (subscription only)
In other magazine stories this week, Peter Stone writes about labor and business teaming up to push Congress to spend on infrastructure projects.
In our K street Corridor section, we highlight how the League of Conservation Voters and labor groups are jointly sponsoring an advertising push for increased spending on "green" public sector jobs. We also feature a local firm, LDAFile, which aims to help lobbyists file their lobbying disclosure forms with Congress.
President-elect Obama took the first step toward following through on a campaign promise to make his transition, and presumably his White House, the most transparent ever.
Transition co-chair John Podesta on Friday announced a new policy called "Seat at the Table" under which proceedings of meetings between the Obama transition team and outside groups would be posted on the transition website, and the public would have the opportunity to comment on those meetings as well as see policy documents and recommendations under discussion. Still behind closed doors, and thus not to be disclosed, are discussions involving personnel matters, hiring recommendations, and issues involving classified information.
Here's a link to Podesta's memo:
It will be interesting to see if this affects policy development. For sure, it will provide fodder for news stories.
-- Bara Vaida
Veteran Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., 82 needs help. That's the message Dingell's staff sent to folks on K street as the lawmaker faces a serious challenge by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., for the gavel of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. See The Washington Post story here, along with the email.
I thought it important to note this story as I had already received emails this morning from lobbyists asking if I know whether former Dingell staff, now working on K street, were helping their ex-boss hang onto his chairmanship. The Center for Responsive Politics has a list of former Dingell aides who are now working downtown. See the list here. Waxman is seen as much more skeptical of K street, so many lobbyists wouldn't mind seeing Dingell stay put.
-- Bara Vaida
The economic downturn has hit Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson especially hard. And that could spell trouble for some of Adelson's favorite conservative groups, notably Freedom's Watch, which has received an estimated $40 million in donations from the Republican sugar daddy.
Sources say that Freedom's Watch, which launced in mid-2007 and has spent millions of dollars this fall on issue ads in about a half-dozen Senate races and some two-dozen House races to help embattled GOP members, could be forced to close its doors later this year. The group has had a hiring freeze for several months.
According to recent press reports, Adelson's personal fortune -- last year estimated at $28 billion -- has declined by about $4 billion just since August. Last month, too, in the most recent Forbes 400 listing of the richest Americans, Adelson, the chairman of the Las Vegas Sands, dropped from 3rd to 15th place.
-- Peter H. Stone
Independent soft money groups - 527s and 501(c)(3) organizations - are on course to spend almost $400 million to try and influence the outcome of the 2008 election, a significant increase from the past two elections, says the Campaign Finance Institute in a new report. Among the top spenders are the U.S. Chamber of Commerce ($30 million), the Service Employees International Union ($25.3 million), and Planned Parenthood ($10 million).
Candidates who win election will "presumably be somewhat responsive to" the interest groups that helped elect them, says Steve Weissman, CFI's associate director of policy.
Which groups have done the best job of getting their candidates elected? In our next issue, National Journal will tally the records for key interest groups on how effective they were in this election.
-- Bara Vaida
There's a new player on the business community's team in its increasingly tough battle with organized labor. The Workforce Fairness Institute was recently set up as a 501(c)(6) group with a grassroots mission to work in more than 16 states against one of the unions' top legislative goals -- the Employee Free Choice Act.
The WFI is worried that the bill, which would allow a union to be formed in a workplace without a traditional secret ballot election, will gain considerable momentum next year if the Democrats win a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. "We're out there educating the public on this issue," says Katie Packer, the executive director of WFI.
-- Peter H. Stone
