nytimes.com
February 18, 2002
Enron Pursued Plan to Forge Close Ties to Gore Campaign
By RICHARD L. BERKE
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ASHINGTON, Feb. 15 — The Enron Corporation (news/quote) quietly drew up a plan to cultivate close political ties to Vice President Al Gore during the 2000 presidential race and tried to build relationships with his inner circle even though the company was one of the biggest campaign contributors to George W. Bush and the Republicans.
The double-sided strategy was intended to ensure that Enron, the Houston-based energy company that has filed for bankruptcy protection, wielded influence with the next president, whoever he was, according to internal company documents and interviews with officials at Enron and from the Gore campaign.
In May 2000, shortly after Mr. Gore was assured of the Democratic nomination, Enron hired Sally A. Painter, a public relations executive, who drafted a "six-month action plan for Enron" for "Democratic political outreach in the 2000 presidential election," the documents show.
Ms. Painter identified influential advisers at the Gore headquarters in Nashville and in Washington whom she said Enron officials should get to know. Her plan called for writing briefs for Mr. Gore's staff on issues important to Enron and for Enron to play an "active and visible role" at the Democratic National Convention. She also suggested that Enron "actively participate in campaign activities on the ground in a key swing state." If Mr. Gore was elected, she said, Enron should "participate in senior team for inaugural planning."
In the summer of 2000, Enron hired one of Mr. Gore's old friends and a longtime financial supporter, Charles W. Bone. Mr. Bone, with contacts in Washington and at the Tennessee Valley Authority (news/quote), helped Enron settle a bitter contractual dispute with the T.V.A. The suit was settled in January 2001 for more than $200 million. The authority, not Enron, disclosed the settlement.
Former Enron officials said an important part of their strategy to win favor with the Gore campaign was a significant increase in the company's donations to Democrats. Enron documents outlined this approach; they show that in 1999 and 2000 the company gave $426,500 in so- called soft-money donations to Republicans and $362,000 to Democrats. That amounts to 54 percent to Republicans and 46 percent to Democrats. In 1997 and 1998, Enron's donations had tilted much more to Republicans — 67 percent, with Democrats getting only 33 percent.
But Enron continued to give much more to Governor Bush than to Vice President Gore. In all, it gave Mr. Gore's campaign $13,750 and Mr. Bush's $113,800, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Enron also gave $250,000 to the host committee for the Republican National Convention, and in 1999 and 2000, Kenneth L. Lay, then Enron's chairman, gave $250,000 in what the documents described as "personal money to the R.N.C.," the Republican National Committee.
The documents and interviews with officials at Enron and with the Gore campaign illuminate the Enron executives' determination to cultivate bipartisan relationships at the highest levels of politics.
In what one Enron official recalled as a desire to "have Enron's message become part of the energy and telecom policy of the Gore campaign," Enron organized a dinner in the private Nest Lounge of the Willard Hotel, two blocks from the White House, that included top Gore and Enron officials as well as executives in the high-tech industry.
Asked why he thought he was hired by Enron, Mr. Bone joked, "It's because of my brilliant skills and great personality." But he acknowledged that he and Mr. Gore "go way back to his first campaign in '76." Mr. Bone also said: "You never know a lot of times why people call to ask for your help. But all corporations try to make some effort to know the people on both sides of the aisle. It's just about relationships."
After the election, Mr. Bone said, he also helped arrange a dinner meeting of Richard S. Shapiro, Enron's top lobbyist, and Linda Breathitt, a Kentucky Democrat who is a member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Ms. Breathitt held a crucial swing vote on the commission, and the dinner, last March at Equinox, a restaurant near the White House, came as Enron was trying to exert influence over the appointment of new commissioners. Enron officials were pressing for changes in how the electric utility industry was structured.
Mr. Bone said "the dinner was to introduce some of the Enron people" to Ms. Breathitt and was not unusual. Ms. Breathitt said in an interview that Enron was probably trying to gain influence with the commission. "They were an aggressive company," she said. "But it was appropriate. I did not know Mr. Shapiro, and Mr. Bone asked me if I would meet with Mr. Shapiro to get to know him better and hear his views on a number of energy issues. I paid for my meal. There was nothing to hide."
The architect of Enron's outreach to Democrats was Mr. Shapiro, Enron's managing director and senior vice president for government affairs. Through a spokeswoman, he declined to comment for this article.
There is no evidence that officials at Enron or in the Gore campaign acted improperly. Gore officials said they were happy to meet with Enron executives, given the company's importance and size. Some said they did not know if Enron followed through on all the plans in Ms. Painter's memorandum for the 2000 campaign. Among those named in that document as having Mr. Gore's ear were Peter Knight, a longtime Gore confidant; Charles Burson, Mr. Gore's chief of staff in the White House; Jim Kohlenberger and Elaine Kamarck, top policy advisers; and Carter Eskew and Michael Whouley, senior strategists.
Christopher M. Long, who was a lobbyist for Enron, suggested in an internal memorandum that the company draft issue briefs for Mr. Gore on "four policy areas on which Enron has unique experience: electricity deregulation, e-commerce (trading), energy services and broadband."
Mr. Whouley said he had not thought twice about speaking at the Enron-sponsored dinner at the Willard on June 13, 2000.
"They wanted to get to know people and they wanted an update on the campaign," Mr. Whouley said. "I can't speculate on what their motives were, except the usual Washington meet-and-greet."
At the dinner, attended by about 20 people, Mr. Whouley and Mr. Kohlenberger were introduced by Mr. Shapiro. They gave presentations about the campaign and took questions.
Enron painstakingly prepared for the dinner. Ms. Painter wrote a document of "potential questions to consider for the dinner discussion" for the Gore officials, including "How can the vice president and the Democratic Party strengthen its business message?" and "What has been your reaction to the vice president's leadership strategies?" People at the dinner said the discussion roughly followed the questions outlined.
One participant, Robert H. Rosen, chief executive of Healthy Companies International, said he had not expected Enron to put on a dinner for Democrats. "When I first walked in I was surprised and a little confused because I always thought Enron was more of a Republican backed company," he said. He said he expressed his surprise to Mr. Shapiro. "He told me he was a Gore supporter," Mr. Rosen recalled, "but that his boss, Ken Lay, was for Bush."
Even so, Mr. Lay was no stranger to Mr. Gore or to President Bill Clinton. At a meeting at the White House in 1997, for example, Mr. Lay pressed Mr. Clinton and Mr. Gore to support a market-based approach to global warming. Enron was one of the most visible corporate backers of the Kyoto Protocol, which the Bush administration has rejected, because Enron wanted to participate in the market for buying and selling emissions permits for the greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.
As Ms. Painter was planning more public interaction between Enron and Gore officials, Enron officials said, Mr. Shapiro worked behind the scenes to hire people close to Mr. Gore. In the summer of 2000, they said, Mr. Shapiro wanted to hire Johnny Hayes, one of Mr. Gore's closest friends and top fund-raisers in Nashville. But Mr. Shapiro could not hire Mr. Hayes because he was already on the Gore campaign's payroll. After the campaign, Enron hired Mr. Hayes as a lobbyist.
Meanwhile, Enron hired Mr. Bone, a Nashville lawyer close to Mr. Hayes and Mr. Gore. Mr. Bone said he set up a meeting in the fall of 2000 between Mr. Lay and Craven Crowell, then chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority. That led to the settlement of the lawsuit the authority had filed against Enron, asserting that Enron had violated its contract to supply adequate power to the utility in 1998 and 1999.
"They engaged me to see if we could settle the lawsuit that they were in with the T.V.A.," Mr. Bone said. "I think it worked out to everybody's satisfaction." |
