SouthCoastToday.com - Lawmakers turn to lobbyists for fundraising - January 29, 2006: "Lawmakers turn to lobbyists for fundraising
By BRODY MULLINS, The Wall Street Journal
/File photo by The Associated Press The Justice Department’s public-corruption and bribery case against lobbyist Jack Abramoff (right), seen here with his attorney, Abbe Lowell, in September 2004, has refocused attention on the financial ties between lawmakers and lobbyists. While Mr. Abramoff’s lobbying activities reportedly crossed the line into illegality, the practice of lobbyists raising large amounts of money for lawmakers is both legal and commonplace in Washington today.
Nearly three years ago, Gregg Hartley left his job as a top aide to Republican Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri to become a lobbyist. Mr. Hartley began helping companies like BellSouth Corp., Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Viacom Inc. get audiences with Mr. Blunt and other top House Republicans and win some important legislative battles.
At the same time, Mr. Hartley was helping his old Capitol Hill boss raise campaign money and offering him political advice. Mr. Hartley is now assisting Mr. Blunt in his bid to succeed Rep. Tom DeLay as House majority leader. For the last three weeks, the lobbyist has offered strategic advice during regular visits to Mr. Blunt's office in the U.S. Capitol, according to people familiar with the meetings.
Mr. Hartley's dual roles highlight a practice that is becoming more common in Washington: Lobbyists are serving as principal fundraisers for lawmakers they're trying to sway. Bruce Gates, the top political strategist for Mr. Blunt's main rival to become Majority Leader, Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, also is a lobbyist for private clients. William Oldaker, a lobbyist with numerous health-care clients, oversees fund raising for two dozen Democratic lawmakers, including Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts.
The Justice Department public-corruption and bribery case against lobbyist Jack Abramoff and a half-dozen members of Congress has refocused attention on the financial ties between lawmakers and lobbyists. While Mr. Abramoff's lobbying activities crossed the line into illegality, the practice of lobbyists raising large amounts of money for lawmakers is both legal and commonplace in Washington today.
Federal Election Commission records show that 71 lawmakers now list lobbyists as treasurers of their re-election or political action committees. In 1998, the number was just 15, according to a review of FEC reports by the Center for Public Integrity. Lawmakers attribute the change to the sharply rising costs of running campaigns.
In the long-running debate about whether lobbying money corrupts politics, Mr. Hartley's relationship with Mr. Blunt shows how deeply the financial ties run between Capitol Hill and the lobbyists on K Street. Advocates of change argue that lawmakers who rely on lobbyists become unduly beholden to them, and thus more willing to help their clients.
"By putting a lobbyist in charge of your political operations, you are conflicted from the start," argues Alex Knott of the nonpartisan Center for Public Integrity, which favors reducing the role of money in politics.
A spokeswoman for Mr. Blunt says there's nothing wrong with the congressman's close relationship with the lobbyist. In the leadership race, says his spokeswoman, Jessica Boulanger, the only involvement of Mr. Hartley "has been in the capacity of an old friend." Mr. Hartley hasn't called other members of Congress on Mr. Blunt's behalf, she notes. Mr. Blunt declines to comment. Mr. Hartley declines to discuss his fundraising activities.
In the wake of the current lobbying scandal, lawmakers from both parties have been scrambling to introduce bills to reform the lobbying industry. But none of the leading proposals would ban lobbyists from continuing their fundraising activities for members of Congress. House Speaker Dennis Hastert wants to ban lawmakers from accepting privately financed trips. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist would prohibit lawmakers' spouses and children from lobbying.
"We are carping on trifles here," said Sen. Richard J. Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, during a Senate hearing on lobbying reform Wednesday. "Why is it that we warm up to all these lobbyists? It isn't for a meal. ... We know when it comes time to finance our campaigns, we're going to be knocking on those same doors."
The lobbying reform legislation proposed by Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican, wouldn't ban lobbyists from raising money for members of Congress. But it would require them to disclose when they host fundraisers for politicians. Lobbyists say they aren't violating any rules by moonlighting as fundraisers. "I'm not a rule maker, I'm a game player," says David Girard-diCarlo, a managing partner at Philadelphia-based law firm Blank Rome who serves as national finance director for Republican Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania. Blank Rome has numerous lobbying clients. Mr. Girard-diCarlo oversees a group of more than 40 Washington lobbyists who hope to raise $4 million for Mr. Santorum's re-election bid. "The senator is most appreciative" of such fundraising help, says Mr. Santorum's spokesman, Robert Traynham.
In addition to providing help with direct fundraising, Mr. Hartley is one of many lobbyists also helping members of Congress to raise money for specialized funding organizations called leadership PACs. Mr. Blunt and hundreds of other lawmakers in both parties have formed such PACs in order to help fellow party members facing close re-election races. Under federal election rules, lawmakers cannot donate more than $4,200 per election cycle from their own re-election coffers to the campaign of any colleague. But they can funnel as much as $10,000 per election cycle from leadership PACs to another campaign.
In practice, such financial support from politically secure lawmakers for the re-election efforts of vulnerable colleagues often translates to reciprocal support down the road. Lawmakers draw on such support when angling for leadership positions within Congress.
"Leadership PACs originated as a way for one member to garner support from other members when seeking a leadership position in the House or Senate," Mr. Blunt wrote to the FEC in 2003. "More recently, leadership PACs have enabled the Republican party to maintain its majority in the House of Representatives."
When Republicans took over Congress in 1994, about 90 lawmakers operated such leadership PACs, which together raised a total of $28 million, according to the FEC. In the last election cycle, more than 300 leadership PACs took in $127 million.
Corporations represented by Mr. Hartley have donated more than $150,000 to Mr. Blunt's leadership PAC, the Rely On Your Beliefs Fund, known as the ROY B. Fund. Mr. Gates, the lobbyist with ties to Mr. Boehner, is treasurer of Mr. Boehner's leadership PAC, The Freedom Project. Mr. Boehner is Mr. Blunt's main rival for the majority leader post.
Both lawmakers are now recruiting congressional supporters for their majority-leader campaigns. Of the roughly 150 House Republicans who have announced who they will vote for, most have endorsed the candidate who has given them the most campaign money. Of Mr. Blunt's 91 publicly announced supporters, 68 have received money totalling $690,000 from Mr. Blunt's PAC, according to the Campaign for a Cleaner Congress, a congressional watchdog group.
Mr. Hartley, a 52-year-old fan of muscle cars and rock 'n' roll, was running a legal aid organization in his native Missouri when he met Mr. Blunt, who then worked as a country clerk. In 1992, Mr. Hartley raised money for Mr. Blunt's unsuccessful campaign for governor.
Four years later, Mr. Hartley helped Mr. Blunt, who is now 56, win a seat in Congress. Mr. Blunt, an ideological conservative, rose fast on Capitol Hill, winning the respect of moderate Republicans for his nonconfrontational approach. In 1999, when Rep. Dennis Hastert of Illinois was named speaker of the House, Rep. Tom DeLay tapped Mr. Blunt to replace Mr. Hastert as chief deputy whip.
Several years after arriving in Washington, Mr. Blunt married Abigail Pearlman, a lobbyist for the tobacco and food giant Altria Group Inc. Mr. Blunt's son, Andrew, is a lobbyist in Missouri whose clients include Altria, United Parcel Service Inc. and the former SBC Communications. Another son, Matt, is the current governor of Missouri.
When Mr. DeLay became majority leader in 2003, Mr. Blunt rose to Republican whip, the party's top House vote-counter. A few months later, Mr. Hartley left Capitol Hill to become a lobbyist with Cassidy & Associates, one of Washington's oldest and most successful lobbying firms.
Mr. Hartley's first clients were companies that had contributed money to Mr. Blunt and received legislative support from him. For example, Mr. Blunt had backed the Baby Bell phone companies in their battles with long-distance carriers and cable TV operators, and the Baby Bells had backed him with donations. They became Mr. Hartley's clients.
In July 2003, Mr. Hartley was hired by a coalition of major television networks — General Electric Co.'s NBC, Viacom Inc.'s CBS, News Corp.'s FOX and Walt Disney Co.'s ABC. The networks were seeking to loosen rules governing their ownership of local TV stations.
The Federal Communications Commission had proposed allowing the networks to own local stations covering 45 percent of U.S. households, up from the previous limit of 35 percent. By the time Mr. Hartley was hired, local broadcasters had mounted fierce opposition to the change, and more than two-thirds of Congress had announced their opposition to the move.
Mr. Blunt, however, joined other House Republican leaders in blocking the measure from reaching a floor vote. The standoff ended with a compromise: the network ownership limit was lifted to 39 percent. Mr. Hartley's network clients considered it a victory.
During this lobbying battle, Mr. Hartley was helping Mr. Blunt raise campaign money. Cassidy & Associates made available its skybox at Washington's MCI Center for a fundraiser at a Simon and Garfunkel concert. Mr. Blunt reimbursed Cassidy for the cost of the seats. Last fall, Mr. Blunt rented the skybox again for a fundraiser during a U2 concert.
At Cassidy, Mr. Hartley hired two former aides of Mr. Blunt and the husband of a third. After Mr. Blunt launched his campaign to replace Mr. DeLay as majority leader three weeks ago, Mr. Hartley began advising Mr. Blunt and his staff on the race, according to Republican aides involved in the matter.
"Roy has the trust and confidence in him that he had when Gregg was his chief of staff," says Drew Maloney, a lobbyist and former aide of Mr. DeLay who backs Mr. Blunt's campaign for majority leader. Dan Mattoon, a close adviser to House Speaker Dennis Hastert, calls Mr. Hartley "a very important part of Roy's outside operation."
Mr. Hartley joined a small group of lobbyists who have helped plot strategy and raise money for other Republican leaders, such as Messrs. DeLay and Hastert. In January 2004, Mr. Hartley attended a dinner meeting hosted by Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff at Signatures, Mr. Abramoff's now-defunct Pennsylvania Avenue restaurant, to discuss ways to persuade Republican lobbyists and their clients to give more campaign contributions to Republicans.
During the 2003-04 election cycle, Mr. Hartley himself donated $74,500 to Mr. Hastert, Mr. DeLay and other congressional Republicans. He is on pace to match that level of giving once again in the 2006 election season."
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