Influence's Blog

Altrius Group Puts Up Its Shingle

There’s no reason to doubt that William Morley’s newly minted bipartisan trade lobbying shop, the Altrius Group, is off to a strong start. But there is cause to question Morley’s description of the group as bipartisan: So far, he’s the only member.

“Can’t people be bipartisan anymore as individuals?” asks the former counsel to Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.).
It’s hard to blame Morley for looking ahead. The former head of the MWW Group’s lobbying practice and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s top trade lobbyist, he’s signed Pfizer, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Colombia, and the Central American Sugar Association since opening up to lobby on various free trade agreements. Several other registrations are in the works, he says, and he also does nonlobbying trade consulting.

Morley says he began thinking about going solo last year at a client’s suggestion. While he enjoyed working at the MWW Group, Morley says he wanted to build his own firm. “Some of my friends have done very well in building businesses and selling those businesses,” he says.

While the shop’s Democratic — and first-person plural — credentials aren’t yet established, Morley says it won’t be long: “I had a conversation with somebody today about joining up.”

Riding to the Rescue of Lobbyists Under Siege

For a bunch of highly paid spinmeisters valued for their ability to deliver a message, lobbyists haven't done a great job at getting themselves good PR. In other words, most of the country sees them as the used car salesmen of the Beltway.

Lobbyists, who have been very aware of their status as the villains of the presidential campaign, seem to be realizing they have an image problem. Defenders are beginning to emerge. In today's Washington Post, Charles Krauthammer takes on the job, albeit lukewarmly.

"Lobbying is constitutionally protected, but that doesn't mean we have to like it all," he says, before going on to say that lobbying has become so vilified, the example of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) "writing to the FCC demanding a ruling — any ruling — while explicitly stating that he is asking for no particular outcome" is an example of how "the demagoguery about lobbying has so penetrated the popular consciousness."

Krauthammer isn't the only defender of lobbying. Nicholas Allard, the head of Patton Boggs' public policy practice, has written an article titled "Lobbying is an Honorable Profession" that has been published in the Stanford Law and Policy Review. For Legal Times' take on Allard and his piece, see Monday's issue.

Laurie Sullivan Passes Away

Laurie Sullivan, the founder of top health care lobbying shop Avenue Solutions and a prominent Democratic activist, passed away on Feb. 20 at the age of 56, according to an obituary in The Washington Post. Her obituary is here.

From The Post:

In a statement, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) praised Ms. Sullivan's "humor, candor and intelligence" and called her "a true friend."

[Amy] Tejral, her business partner, added: "She was known for her thoughtfulness, for sending huge bouquets of flowers. She never missed a birthday; she never missed an important event for anybody. Her touch was so heartfelt and so appreciated in this town."

No Free Lunch in Baton Rouge

Last week, the Influence blog noted that new Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal had picked quite a fight when he took on reforming Louisiana's lobbying and ethics rules. In a state where winning government contracts and sitting in the legislature have rarely been mututally exclusive, Jindal called a special session and forced the legislature to take the matter on or stand up for business as usual.

Looks like Jindal won. Campaign finance rules are now in, as is personal financial disclosure for government officials. And $50-plus free dinners at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse are decidedly out. And Jindal, meanwhile, appears to have become the editorial pages' darling.

Unsavory perks for legislators are far from unique to Louisiana, as the New York Times reports this morning. "Here, however, they are carried out with particular frankness: lawmakers are known to scour the chambers for willing lobbyists when a day's session ends, hoping to cadge a dinner invitation. They need not look far."

The free meals might not be over, but they'll certainly be less fancy:

"In a town where legislators have been known to proclaim paid-for meals a principal draw to public service, [a $50 cap on freebies] was an especially unpopular move. Last week, State Representative Charmaine L. Marchand of the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans said the limit would force her and her colleagues to dine at Taco Bell, and urged that it be pushed to $75 per person, to give them 'wiggle room.'

"No public groundswell took up her cause, and the $50 limit held."

The state capital's reputation for unsavory dealings, Jindal told the Times, had become an obstacle to Louisiana's economic recovery.

Again from the Times:

"'I've talked to C.E.O.'s in New York, even the president of the United States,' Mr. Jindal said in an interview, and when "you ask them for more investment, more help on the coast and other areas, their first reaction always is: 'Well, who do you need to know? Who do I have to hire? Is this money going to end up in somebody's pocket?'"

Trade Association Backs Sovereign Wealth Funds?

A fledgling trade association says it wants to represent sovereign wealth funds in Washington, which have drawn increasing scrutiny for their buying power and political ties.

Thomas Karol, the president and chief operating officer of the new Sovereign Investment Council, says it started about a month ago, when he and other lawyers, and bankers working with the funds "found there were no advocates for the funds. We thought this would be an opportunity to provide that clearinghouse of information for the funds about why they are not as suspicious and fearful as everyone thinks."

Karol says no funds have officially joined as members of the new group yet, and the money for the SIC has been put up by "service companies" that work with the funds, and would probably join the council as affiliated members. He declined to name the companies involved.

Karol, a former consultant and former chief operating officer of the global financial services industry at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, says he's the council's only full-time employee. Jeffery Walter, president of the Walter Group, a lobbying firm, is listed on the council's web site, along with Palmer Hamilton of Miller, Hamilton, Snider & Odom and Jim McCray, a managing partner in Highwood Capital.

Lobbyists on the Campaign Trail

The debate over the influence lobbyists have over presidential candidates continues to rage.

The latest salvo comes from the Center for Public Integrity's "Buying of the President 2008" project. The group is citing the "Kerry Precedent" — Sen. John Kerry's 2004 decision to release a list of nearly 200 meetings with lobbyists that dated back to 1989. According to the center, the move made Kerry the first presidential candidate and first member of Congress to make such a disclosure. Read their piece on the issue here.

This year, the center says, "The Clinton, Huckabee, McCain, Obama, and Ron Paul presidential campaigns did not respond to the Center’s inquiries, by telephone and e-mail, as to whether they are willing to make public their candidates’ meetings with lobbyists over the past five years." Should they?

Foley Hoag Minds Its Health Practice

Kelly Childress, the former health policy advisor to Congressman Mike Rogers (R-Mich), has joined Foley Hoag’s Washington federal health care practice.

Working primarily with the House Energy and Commerce Committee, she handled matters pertaining to health insurance reform, biomedical research, Medicare, Medicaid, and FDA regulation. Stints with Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) and the American Heart Association are also on her resume.

Since November, the firm’s added two other health specialists, former California Medicare official Bruce Quinn and Barrett Thornhill, a former lobbyist for the Biotechnology Industry Organization and staffer to U.S. Senator Mike Crapo (R-Idaho).

Comcast's Sleepy Supporters

Portfolio Magazine is alleging that Comcast used shills to keep its critics out of an FCC hearing yesterday, a particularly embarrassing prospect given that the company was defending the fairness of its Internet access practices.

Comcast tells Portfolio it hired line standers to hold spots for Comcast employees — a common practice for D.C. hearings — but denies that any of them took seats at the hearing.

But Portfolio, and its photographer, seem to suggest otherwise:

"Some audience members appeared to sleep through the proceedings, according to photos taken during the hearing. Other applauded enthusiastically when Comcast executive vice president David L. Cohen delivered key points in his presentation."

Accompanying the article is a snapshot of two scruffy young men, heads rolled back and eyes closed. Given that the hearing filled up more than an hour in advance, the magazine suggests, it's hard to imagine they stood in line just to take a nap.

It's not as if the Internet advocacy groups in favor of net neutrality didn't also try to pack the hearing: Craig Aaron, spokesman for Free Press, admits to recruiting net neutrality backers to attend as well. He just didn't pay them to come, he says.

Livingston Adds Three Consultants

The Livingston Group has hired three new consultants, including a former Democratic congressman.

Former Rep. Bob Clement (D-Tenn.), who left office in 2003, will work within several of Livingston's practice groups, the firm said in a statement, including energy and environment as well as education and nonprofits. The firm, headed by former Rep. Bob Livingston (R-La.), has been beefing up its Democratic bona fides lately. The firm named two Democratic partners late last year, former Rep. Dennis Hertel (D-Mich.) and former Commerce Department official Lauri Fitz-Pegado.

Livingston also announced that John Duncan, a former assistant secretary of the treasury for legislative affairs in the Bush administration, and Jason Chung, who worked for the Livingston Group before joining Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich Jr.'s administration, will be joining the firm. Both will be consultants working on financial services and tax and defense technology/homeland security issues.

The (One Man) Cockfighting Lobby

Sometimes there's only so much a lobbyist can do.

Yesterday Scott Johnson, a lobbyist for the the Virginia Gamefowl Breeders Association, made a last-ditch effort to exempt the group's members from state legislation making cockfighting exhibitions a felony. In an emotional appeal to the Virginia Senate Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources Committee, Johnson put on a heck of a show himself.

From The Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star:

"Words cannot express or accurately describe the affection that these families have for their roosters," Johnson said. "It's far too emotional for them to come to this podium and tell you what it's going to mean for them to get rid of their birds."

To demonstrate his point, Johnson gave committee members a picture of association president William-Bernard Britton with one of his roosters on his shoulder.

"I think that look on that bird's face and the look on Billy's face says it all," Johnson said.

But apparently the rooster didn't say enough. The committee voted overwhelmingly against an exemption, then unanimously moved the bill to the senate floor.