Lobbyists Try to Parlay a Presidential Campaign
Success After Election Can Depend on Outcome at Polls
By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, April 12, 2004; Page A01
On the battlefield of national politics, Michael Whouley and Thomas J. Synhorst are enemies.
Whouley's Dewey Square Group provides broad-gauge political advice to John F. Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. Synhorst's Feather, Larson & Synhorst DCI helps raise money for George W. Bush's reelection campaign and will soon start calling voters on his behalf.
But Whouley and Synhorst are not just political consultants. Their firms also lobby, and in that business they are comrades in arms.
The firms or their affiliates have worked in tandem for such diverse clients as General Motors Corp., the American Insurance Association, AT&T Corp., Blue Cross-Blue Shield Association and Microsoft Corp.
To the general public, the November election is all about who becomes the next president. But for many in the multibillion-dollar influence industry, far more is at stake. The campaign trail can lay the path to lobbying riches. Heavyweight lobbyists are often made or broken by their performance as consultants to major-party candidates. Winning the White House is not essential; merely playing at the top level is credential enough.
"More often than ever these days, political operatives go on to lobby in the post-election season," said James A. Thurber, director of American University's Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies. "The better that political consultants do during an election, the more lobbying clients they can attract when the election is over."
Politicos-turned-lobbyists are sprinkled throughout the campaigns of both presidential contenders. Former Christian Coalition executive director Ralph Reed and former representative Vin Weber (R-Minn.), both of whom do lobbying-related work, are volunteer regional chairmen of the Bush campaign. John Sasso, who recently became Kerry's top aide at the Democratic National Committee, is president of Advanced Strategies, which describes itself as "a business consulting firm specializing in government affairs and communications."
Critics question the tendency of political consultants to hire themselves out as lobbyists. "It's obvious that there could be special favoritism given to a person who worked on the campaign and is now a lobbyist," said Edward B. Arroyo, director of the Ethics and Public Policy Center at Georgetown University. He added that there is also a "potential conflict of interest" when a consultant represents both a candidate and a client who may want that candidate to hold a particular point of view.
All the joint clients of Dewey Square and FLS-DCI have serious issues in Washington that the next president and Congress will have to address. AT&T is locked in a long running regulatory battle with the regional phone companies over the cost of access to local networks. General Motors is constantly fending off federal efforts to force it to manufacture more fuel-efficient cars. And Microsoft is always working to protect its software copyrights and to keep its taxes as low as possible.
Both presidential campaigns are worried enough about showing favoritism to their consultants' lobbying clients to have taken precautions. The Bush campaign requires its volunteer officials to sign a pledge that, among other things, prohibits them from using their position "to further the interest of any of my clients or other private entities" with anyone in the Bush administration or the Republican Party. Paid consultants have to give similar assurances.
The Kerry campaign does not demand such a promise from its helpers, but a spokesman asserts that no registered lobbyists are on the Kerry payroll.
Still, for firms like Dewey Square and FLS-DCI, forays into electoral politics clearly help them lure corporate clients. "Is it helpful that they work on major campaigns?" said Kenneth W. Cole, vice president of government relations for General Motors Corp., which uses both firms for its lobbying efforts. "Sure it's helpful."
The list is long of former campaign operatives who have gone on to successful careers helping corporations work their way in Washington. Campaign pollsters regularly test popular opinion for interest-group clients in the off-season. And many firms whose principals started out making election commercials now spend a lot of their time producing ads that sell interest-group issues in Washington. On the Democratic side they include former vice president Al Gore's adviser Carter Eskew, now of Glover Park Group, and Frank Greer of Greer, Margolis, Mitchell, Burns and Associates Inc., which places ads for the Kerry campaign. Republicans who fit the same pattern include frequent Republican adman Alex Castellanos of National Media Inc. and Mark McKinnon, whose Maverick Media is producing commercials for the Bush campaign.
Dewey Square and FLS-DCI march along that same road. But the nature of their advantage is surprising. Neither company puts a lot of emphasis on gaining direct access to the officials they help elect. Rather, they dip into elections in large measure to keep in touch with political operatives whom they later can hire to organize lobbying campaigns centered not in Washington, but in lawmakers' districts and states.
The companies specialize in a cutting-edge form of influence peddling called "grass tops," which attempts to get prominent local citizens and organizations to lobby on behalf of interest groups. Unlike conventional lobbying, the technique does not require the firms' principals to meet with or even talk to lawmakers. The advocacy is indirect.
Employees of the companies, who often are regional political operatives awaiting the next election, scout for people who are close to important members of Congress. The agents then ask those "influentials" to make the lobbying case to the lawmakers.
The method is considered effective because lawmakers usually do not even know that they've been lobbied. Dewey Square is expert at reaching Democrats; DCI Group, the sister company to FLS-DCI, is a leader in Republican grass tops.
Both firms hire experienced political-campaign aides for this work because they are expert at organizing people and interest groups at the local level. By dint of working in regional campaigns, they also know the types of pressure that are likely to work on their own congressmen or senators.
The two firms "are mirror images of each other," GM's Cole said. "They're also the best in the business."
That business began a decade or so ago when campaign operatives helped make ends meet in between elections by doing part-time lobbying work for corporate and other interests. Now, for many veteran political organizers, working on campaigns has become an avocation meant to sate their political hunger and to refresh their bona fides as partisan insiders.
Both Whouley and Synhorst cut their teeth as election organizers. Whouley has served in the top ranks of Democratic presidential campaigns for a dozen years. Synhorst, a Republican mainstay for decades, made his name by helping Bob Dole win the Iowa caucuses in 1988. But both now make their livings servicing corporate clients.
According to filings with the Federal Election Commission, Dewey Square Group has been paid more than $110,000 since July for general political consulting, In addition, Whouley received $14,000 in expenses for swooping into Iowa this year and helping to pull off a come-from-behind victory for Kerry in the caucuses there.
FLS-DCI is paid millions of dollars a year to handle fundraising for the Republican National Committee and state parties. The firm also assists the Bush campaign's fundraising and is expected to be hired soon to help it contact and mobilize likely Republican voters, according to Tony Feather, an FLS-DCI partner.
When it comes to lobbying, however, both firms are frequently on the same side. Almost any legislation requires the backing of both Republicans and Democrats to pass in Congress. In their joint lobbying campaigns, Dewey Square tends to concentrate on Democrats and DCI Group focuses on Republicans.
For the American Insurance Association, for example, the two firms came as a package. Spokeswoman Julie Rochman said AIA hired Dewey Square to help it try to settle asbestos lawsuits through legislation. DCI Group was Dewey Square's "subcontractor," she said.
"Dewey Square has a previous relationship with DCI," Rochman said. "They'd worked together before."
But by now, their roles are not based solely on their partisan leanings. In addition to trying to influence the voting of Democratic senators, Dewey Square helped set up "fly-ins" of people from back home to make visits to lawmakers on Capitol Hill. DCI arranged for pro-business organizations in key congressional districts to publish information favorable to the insurers' cause.
In interviews, spokesmen for the firms' joint clients did not express any qualms about the work they do for the presidential candidates. The campaigns' spokesmen saw no problem either.
Employees of the firms are as active as ever in electioneering. From Dewey Square alone, Nick Baldick was John Edwards's presidential campaign manger, and Kiki McLean was a volunteer spokeswoman for Joseph I. Lieberman.
Political researcher Brian Faler contributed to this report.
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