TRANSITION | Forming the next government
28 May 2008
McCain, Obama Built Images by Pushing Lobbying Restrictions
Now they trade charges of hypocrisy on lobbyists staffing campaigns
Washington -- Lobbying, according to the U.S. Senate’s Web site, is “the practice of trying to persuade legislators to propose, pass, or defeat legislation or to change existing laws.” A lobbyist “presents information on legislative proposals to support his or her clients’ interests.”
OpenSecrets.org, a Web site of the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, takes a more provocative view: “Professional advocates make big bucks to lobby members of Congress and government officials on the issues their clients care about. But the money that industries, companies, unions and issue groups spend on lobbying is often just a drop in the bucket compared to what they can reap in return if their lobbyists are successful.”
But former lobbyist Megan Carpentier, on washingtonpost.com May 24, challenged the notion that lobbyists are "intellectually promiscuous" hired guns. She noted that many work for trade associations, consumer groups, universities and state governments.
"There's literally a lobbyist for every cause and every issue you can think of," she wrote, adding, "Most people who lobby focus on a specific set of issues about which they feel pretty strongly."
Lobbying is big business. OpenSecrets.org’s database shows total lobbying spending climbing steadily from $1.45 billion in 1998 to $2.80 billion in 2007. First quarter figures for 2008 suggest that amount might be eclipsed again.
Leading the group’s list in spending is the finance/insurance/real estate sector, with health and then communications/electronics close behind. Each sector spent much more than $2 billion over the decade.
A 2007 compilation shows more than 17,000 federal lobbyists based in Washington, many of whom are familiar faces on Capitol Hill. The watchdog group Public Citizen reported 43 percent of the 198 members of Congress who left government between 1998 and 2005 became lobbyists. The Washington Post described this migration as reflecting a “sea change” in lawmakers’ attitudes toward lobbying, an activity once thought by many of them to be “tainted and unworthy.”
McCAIN, OBAMA BOTH STAKE CLAIMS AS REFORMERS
Allegations of improper lobbying activity have become an issue in the 2008 campaign for the U.S. presidency.
Both Republican Senator John McCain and Democratic Senator Barack Obama have shored up their images as reformers by citing their efforts to curb lobbying and tighten restrictions on political campaign financing.
In 2007, each sponsored a bill to tighten lobbying restrictions and reporting requirements; Congress ultimately approved a third reform bill as the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act. Both candidates have worked with Senator Russell Feingold (a Wisconsin Democrat) to reform campaign financing.
Obama points to provisions of his measure, co-sponsored with Feingold, that were incorporated into the 2007 law. Obama particularly claims credit for a section requiring disclosure of contributions that registered lobbyists bundle (assemble from small donations) for candidates, political action committees and party committees.
In McCain’s case, the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, strengthening the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 – popularly known as McCain-Feingold – is recognized as a landmark piece of reform legislation and a major accomplishment of McCain’s legislative career.
LOBBYISTS AND THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN
Despite these records on reform, each campaign is accusing the other of hypocrisy for employing lobbyists. McCain responded to the criticism by dropping several high-ranking campaign aides with lobbying connections and adopting a stringent new code of conduct for his campaign.
McCain’s national finance co-chairman – former Texas Congressman Thomas Loeffler – on May 18 became the fifth official to leave the campaign based on his lobbying activity. His Loeffler Group has represented the parent company of the European plane manufacturer Airbus, and other foreign clients including the government of Saudi Arabia.
Loeffler quit after McCain adopted, on May 15, a strict new policy barring registered lobbyists and foreign agents from the campaign staff. The policy also requires part-time volunteers, like Loeffler, to disclose any lobbying ties, restricts their policymaking role and bars them from lobbying McCain’s Senate office while working for the campaign. In addition, it prohibits participation in independent 527 groups set up to support or oppose any presidential candidate. (See “‘527’ Committees Spend Millions on Political Discourse.”)
Two other campaign officials who resigned earlier in May worked for DCI Group, which has among its clients Burma’s military junta. In addition, an energy policy adviser who lobbies for energy companies and a campaign aide who simultaneously worked for a 527 committee attacking Obama have left the campaign.
The McCain campaign sought to turn the controversy to his advantage. Spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker called McCain’s code of conduct the most stringent such policy to date and said, “It now falls to Barack Obama to meet this level of transparency and disclose which lobbyists are serving as advisers to his campaign.”
But Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean has demanded McCain fire campaign manager Rick Davis, on leave from his lobbying business, and chief political adviser Charles Black Jr., whose firm has represented the governments of Zaire, Somalia and Nigeria, and Jonas Savimbi’s UNITA in Angola.
Meanwhile, news reports have detailed Obama’s own ties with lobbyists. USA Today reported in April that Obama had lobbyists as informal advisers and held multiple fundraising events at law firms employing Washington lobbyists. Moreover, even though he rejects contributions from federal lobbyists, he accepted money from their spouses, and from state lobbyists and former lobbyists who might return to the field.
The newspaper quoted Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor as saying Obama “has long believed that lobbyists exert far too much influence over the national agenda.” Obama has had a longtime policy that bars federal lobbyists from paid campaign jobs.
Obama acknowledged in August 2007 that he is “swimming in the same muddy water” as other candidates. “The argument is that I know it’s muddy and I want to clean it up,” he told reporters then.
