Will Lobbyist Flap Dampen Donors?
Meant to post this Friday ... This week's National Journal features a piece by my colleague, Bara Vaida, examining whether John McCain's much-reported ties to lobbyists will diminish donor enthusiasm. Read it in full after the jump.
First, here's a snippet:
"McCain has used more lobbyists and former lobbyists to raise money than have either Obama or Clinton. According to Public Citizen, 70 McCain bundlers are lobbyists while 22 Clinton bundlers are; for Obama, 14 formerly registered lobbyists are bundlers. (The McCain campaign’s new policy on lobbyists doesn’t affect those who are raising money, only paid staff and volunteers doing non-fundraising work. As of April 20, McCain had raised $613,500 from registered lobbyists.)"
Will Lobbyist Flap Dampen Donors?
Some say that McCain stumbled in not acting sooner and that he handed the Democrats a ready-made issue.
by Bara Vaida
Sat. May 24, 2008
Just as John McCain’s presidential bid was gaining fundraising momentum, the controversy over his campaign’s ties to lobbyists has raised fears among some supporters that the flap will dampen donor enthusiasm for the presumptive Republican nominee.
Earlier this month, campaign manager Rick Davis (himself a former lobbyist with the firm Davis Manafort) implemented a conflict-of-interest policy requiring staff to stop representing their lobbying clients. In addition, volunteers must identify their clients to the campaign, and they may not participate in any policy discussions that would affect their clients.
Within days of Davis’s action, one of McCain’s key fundraisers and closest allies, lobbyist and former Rep. Thomas Loeffler, a Texas Republican, stepped down from the Arizonan’s campaign. Loeffler, who has represented corporate clients and foreign governments, including Saudi Arabia, was overseeing a team of about three dozen fundraisers seeking to collect at least $500,000 each for McCain. Four others, all with lobbying ties, have also left the campaign.
“A lot of people think this is going to hurt fundraising,” says a GOP lobbyist who had supported another candidate in the Republican presidential primary and is debating whether to raise money for McCain. “The question is: How do we know how we are going to be treated down the line? Will McCain say to us that we can’t lobby, or that we can’t get an ambassadorship or something like that?”
McCain’s fundraising has lagged behind his two Democratic rivals. As of April 30, McCain had raised $96.7 million, while Barack Obama had raised $265.4 million and Hillary Rodham Clinton, $214.9 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
McCain has used more lobbyists and former lobbyists to raise money than have either Obama or Clinton. According to Public Citizen, 70 McCain bundlers are lobbyists while 22 Clinton bundlers are; for Obama, 14 formerly registered lobbyists are bundlers. (The McCain campaign’s new policy on lobbyists doesn’t affect those who are raising money, only paid staff and volunteers doing non-fundraising work. As of April 20, McCain had raised $613,500 from registered lobbyists.)
A number of paid staff and volunteers still have ties to K Street, even if they have stopped lobbying. Besides Davis, they include senior adviser Charles Black, former chairman of BKSH & Associates Worldwide; campaign vice chairman Wayne Berman, managing director of Ogilvy Government Relations; and foreign-policy adviser Randy Scheunemann, founder of Orion Strategies.
“The McCain campaign should have made this policy change in March. Now it’s showtime.” --a McCain supporter
McCain supporters worry that the campaign has handed the Democrats a ready-made issue by implementing the conflict-of-interest policy while continuing to use staff and volunteers with K Street connections. The liberal group MoveOn.org has already funded a television ad calling on McCain to fire Black. Obama, the Democratic presidential front-runner, has made the lobbying profession a campaign issue by refusing to accept donations from federally registered lobbyists, although he does take advice from lobbyists through his policy committees and has received donations from family members of Washington lobbyists.
“The McCain campaign should have made this policy change in March,” one anxious McCain supporter said. “Now it’s showtime. They are going to have to reboot this whole campaign. Charlie and Rick are going to be targeted by Obama’s campaign and Democrats until they are gone.”
Said Ralph Hellmann, senior vice president at the Information Technology Industry Council: “It’s the environment right now. Being connected with a lobbyist is toxic.”
Meanwhile, Berman, Davis, and Black all say they are in compliance with the campaign’s policy. Davis took a leave of absence from the firm two years ago, and a spokesman said he receives no compensation or benefits from it. Black, who retired from BKSH, declined to comment, referring a reporter to a McCain statement this week: “We have enacted the most comprehensive and most transparent policy concerning lobbyist activities, and I challenge Sen. Obama to adopt a similar policy.” A source said that Scheunemann is on a leave of absence from his firm.
This spring, McCain’s fundraisers and the Republican National Committee created a joint committee, McCain Victory ’08. The money is intended to bolster McCain’s coffers and the party’s get-out-the-vote operation. Lewis Eisenberg, head of the New York City firm Granite Capital International, and Berman are overseeing the effort. A source familiar with the effort said that it is bearing fruit and that “our events are ahead of target across the country.”
Some on K Street who are raising money for McCain are dismissive of the latest dustup. Longtime McCain friend and fundraiser Tim McKone, executive vice president of federal relations for AT&T, said, “This will have zero impact on fundraising.” Former Rep. Steve Bartlett, R-Texas, now head of the Financial Services Roundtable and a bundler for McCain, doubts that the candidate is vulnerable on the lobbyist issue.
“This whole little tempest has been inconsequential,” he said. “For crying out loud, you are talking about John McCain. I don’t know anyone who has successfully lobbied him and I say that lovingly.”
Staff Correspondents Edward T. Pound and Peter H. Stone contributed to this article.