ThinkProgress Home
ThinkProgress
ThinkProgress Logo

Stories tagged with “Lobbyists”

Politics

EXCLUSIVE: Major Romney Bundler Is Agent Of Foreign Government

By Josh Israel on Feb 2, 2012 at 4:30 pm

Ignacio E. Sanchez

Ignacio E. Sanchez (credit: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars)

Ignacio E. Sanchez is a lobbyist at DLA Piper, an influential global law firm and a major bundler for the Mitt Romney campaign. A ThinkProgress review of public records reveals Sanchez is also a registered foreign agent representing the interests of the United Arab Emirates and of a former president of the Dominican Republic.

While political candidates are not legally required to identify bundlers — volunteer fundraisers who collect bundles of campaign contribution checks for the campaign — a 2007 law requires that federal candidates disclose the names of any registered lobbyists who bundle large amounts for their campaign. On Tuesday, Romney’s campaign reported that 14 lobbyists combined to raise more than $1.6 million last year in bundled contributions.

One of those lobbyist-bundlers was Sanchez, who raked in $86,700 for the former Massachusetts governor. This major fundraising raises questions about the level of access and influence Sanchez — and by extension, his corporate and international clients — would have in a Romney administration.

Unlike the other 13 identified lobbyist-bundlers, Sanchez is a registered foreign agent. A form filed Monday with the U.S. Department of Justice reveals that he beyond just representing the interests of those domestic clients, Sanchez also represents the embassy of the United Arab Emirates and the presidential campaign of Dominican Republic former president Hipolito Mejia.

Mejia is seeking to reclaim the job he held from 2000 to 2004 and lost in a landslide defeat, amid a national economic crisis and financial near-collapse.

The United Arab Emirates has been among the stronger U.S. allies in the Middle East and is a key player in OPEC, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. But the interests of the two countries don’t always converge and groups like Human Rights Watch have raised concerns about the country’s suppression of free speech and political disagreement.

In the past, Sanchez also represented the governments of Turkey and Ethiopia. Current federal lobbying disclosure forms show that he lobbies Congress and the administration on behalf of Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide (which includes the Sheraton, W, and St. Regis brands) and Diageo North America, the makers of Guinness, Jose Cuervo, Captain Morgan, and dozens of other alcoholic beverages.

President Obama does not accept campaign contributions donated or bundled by federal lobbyists or foreign agents. In last week’s State of the Union address, he called for a ban on bundlers lobbying saying “Let’s make sure people who bundle campaign contributions for Congress can’t lobby Congress, and vice versa — an idea that has bipartisan support, at least outside of Washington.”

But Romney — who has not voluntarily disclosed any other bundlers — is apparently all too happy to accept money from those who are paid to influence policy decisions on behalf of special interests, foreign and domestic.

Security

Senior Gingrich Foreign Policy Adviser Lobbied For Foreign Companies And Governments

By Eli Clifton on Nov 22, 2011 at 5:30 pm

The Newt Gingrich campaign’s choice of foreign policy advisers follows the trend of GOP candidates borrowing heavily from the neoconservative policymakers who helped form the hawkish foreign policy of the George W. Bush administration. But Gingrich, who denied his own history of influence peddling for corporate clients, made an interesting choice in adding Stephen Yates, a Washington lobbyist specializing in foreign companies and governments, to his national security team.

Yates, whose biography on the Newt Gingrich campaign website only lists him as president of DC International Advisors, “a consultancy,” since 2006, had an extremely active lobbying career in the two years following his job as Deputy Assistant to Vice President Dick Cheney for National Security Affairs from 2001 to 2005. The Gingrich campaign’s decision to leave Yates’ career as vice president of the “global affairs practice” at Barbour Griffith & Rogers off his official bio, might have something to do with the two years of active lobbying he conducted on behalf of foreign clients.

In 2005 and 2006, while he was based at Barbour Griffith & Rogers, Yates was listed on lobbying disclosures as having represented the interests of:

  • Taiwan
  • The Indonesian National Shipowners’ Association
  • Moneygram International
  • Lebanon’s National Dialogue Party
  • The Republic of India
  • British Nuclear Fuels, Plc. (via a contract with Sutherland Asbill & Brennan)

    • Yates also serves as a director at the U.S.-Taiwan Business Council.

    The campaign’s decision to present Yates’ biography without any reference to his career at Barbour Griffith & Rogers or his representation of Taiwanese, Indonesian, Lebanese, Indian and British interests in Washington, raises questions. Indeed, Yates’ two-year career as a lobbyist focusing almost exclusively on foreign clients seeking influence in Washington is an interesting omission from a biography that portrays Gingrich’s national security adviser as a career civil servant.

    Yates’ background in public service would indicate that he has a strong interest in U.S. foreign policy and national security. But his two years as a professional lobbyist might also suggest that annual contracts of $740,000 with the Indonesian National Shipowners Association, $720,000 with the Republic of India, and $1.5 million with the Republic of China (Taiwan), held a certain appeal in more recent years.

    Special Topic

    Washington Lobbyists Crafted $850,000 Secret Plan For Bank Lobbyists To Undermine Occupy Wall Street

    By Zaid Jilani on Nov 21, 2011 at 9:45 am

    This firm wanted $850,000 to kill Occupy Wall Street

    This weekend, the MSNBC show Up! With Chris Hayes broke a stunning story about how Washington lobbyists are scrambling to undermine the protesters on Wall Street and across the country.

    Hayes’ report, which can be viewed here, details how the Washington, D.C.-based lobbying firm Clark Lytle Geduldig & Cranford (CLGC) compiled a secret plan to undermine Occupy Wall Street for the American Bankers Association (ABA).

    The plan, which CLGC was demanding $850,000 to implement, was presented in a secret memo that was leaked to Hayes’ staff. The memo warns that Occupy Wall Street, particularly if it is embraced by the Democratic Party, threatens to “have very long-lasting political, policy, and financial impacts on the companies in the center of the bullseye.”

    Interestingly, the memo also cautioned that Tea Party protesters may join forces with Occupy Wall Street because “well-known Wall Street companies stand at the nexus of where [Occupy Wall Street] protesters and the Tea Party overlap on angered populism. [...] This combination has the potential to be explosive later in the year when media reports cover the next round of bonuses and contrast it with stories of millions of Americans making do with less this holiday season.”

    In order to combat Occupy Wall Street’s growing movement, the firm offered to engage in research and advocacy to “undermine their credibility in a profound way.” This included researching activists’ financial histories and civil and criminal information, and monitoring social media. The goal of this research was to “create negative narratives of the [Occupy Wall Street] for high impact media placement to expose the backers of this movement”:

    “Our Government Relations staff did receive the proposal – it was unsolicited and we chose not to act on it in any way,” said ABA spokesperson Jeff Sigmund to Hayes’ show. However, CLGC admits on its website that it has had ABA as a client before in the past, in addition to the Financial Services Roundtable, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Fidelity Investments, and other financial players.

    Politics

    Not Just Freddie Mac: Newt Gingrich’s Long History Of Influence Peddling For His Corporate Clients

    By Lee Fang on Nov 17, 2011 at 10:05 am

    Newt Gingrich

    Caught flatfooted in the CNBC debate when a moderator asked about his past work for Freddie Mac, Newt Gingrich has since twisted and turned, making up every excuse under the sun to obscure his post-politician career as a K Street operator. Despite the revelation that he was paid at least $1.6 million by the troubled mortgage giant to do far more than give “history” lessons, the former speaker has stubbornly stuck to his guns. On Laura Ingraham radio show yesterday, Gingrich, again attempting to spin his work for Freddie Mac, claimed his firm literally does “no lobbying”:

    GINGRICH: We do no lobbying. We look at what they do. We offer them advice. We help them think through their problems, and they’ve got lots of different problems depending on what kind of company there are.

    Listen here:

    To help clear the record, ThinkProgress has compiled a short history of Gingrich’s influence peddling:
    Read more

    NEWS FLASH

    Super Committee Members’ Staffers-Turned-Defense Lobbyists Fighting Against Military Spending Cuts | The service chiefs were on Capitol Hill today scaring members of Congress about the (baseless) dangers of further reducing America’s bloated military spending budget. But lawmakers, particularly on the Republican side, and their allies in the Obama administration, have already been campaigning against further cuts. But the real lobbying is coming from the defense industry. The National Journal reports that 22 of the super committee members’ former staffers are now defense industry lobbyists. And according to a new report, they “are using their clout to derail Pentagon cuts just weeks before the panel’s deadline to make its deficit-reduction suggestions to Congress.” The defense industry gave more than $1 million to the 12 members of the super committee over the last two election cycles, while “the industry as a whole spent $144 million on lobbying in 2010 and now employs 1,000 lobbyists.”

    Politics

    Rick Perry’s ‘Washington Kickoff’ Fundraiser Hosted By Longtime Merck Lobbyist

    By Lee Fang on Sep 13, 2011 at 6:40 pm

    Rick Perry's first major K Street fundraiser is hosted in part by a longtime Merck lobbyist named Jeff MacKinnon

    Last night at the CNN Republican debate, Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) was forced to defend his executive order to administer the vaccine Gardasil to young women in his state. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) in particular said the effort was an example of “crony capitalism,” and that Perry was too cosy with the drug company poised to benefit from the decision. Perry dismissed the comment, stating: “The company was Merck, and it was a $5,000 contribution that I had received from them. I raised about $30 million. And if you’re saying that I can be bought for $5,000, I’m offended.”

    Regardless of the debate over administering the vaccine, there is no doubt that Perry grossly misrepresented the influence of Merck in his administration. For one thing, Perry has actually accepted $29,500 from the company’s PAC, and the Republican Governor Association, under Perry’s watch, took in $350,000 from Merck since 2006. Moreover, Mike Toomey, an Austin lobbyist that represented Merck during the Gardasil decision, has promised to raise $55 million to back Perry’s presidential bid using an independent so-called SuperPAC.

    The Merck connections don’t end there. A review of fundraising documents by ThinkProgress reveals that Perry’s big “Washington Kickoff” fundraiser, scheduled for later this month and already billed as his first significant event with K Street lobbyists and Beltway power brokers, is hosted by a longtime Merck lobbyist. Event host Jeff MacKinnon’s firm served as a registered lobbying agent for Merck from 2005 to 2010, and has pulled in approximately $860,000 from Merck in exchange for lobbying Congress on “drug safety” issues. MacKinnon’s firm stopped lobbying for Merck starting this year.

    View an invitation to Perry’s K Street fundraiser here.

    MacKinnon is among several top lobbyists hosting the event, which takes place on September 27 at the Willard Hotel in Washington DC. Perry strategists told the National Journal that events like the one with MacKinnon will raise $2 million to $4 million for the campaign by the end of the year.

    Another interesting note about Merck’s ties with Perry and his administration relates to third party allies. Merck is a major contributor to powerful Washington third party groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (providing $725,000 in donations last year) and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America trade group (providing $7,046,747 in 2010 and $12,767,272 in 2009). Perry has appeared at multiple Chamber events over the years, and it is likely these groups will again play an important role in the 2012 election.

    Women in Government (WIG), a nonprofit with close ties to Merck that has pushed the Gardasil vaccine in multiple states, has enjoyed a friendly relationship with the Perry administration. Not only did WIG consult with the Perry administration on the Gardasil decision, but Perry’s wife Anita has addressed the group in the past. According to Merck’s disclosures, the company continues to provide funds to WIG.

    Politics

    Romney Takes More Lobbyist Campaign Cash Than The Rest Of GOP Field Combined

    By Marie Diamond on Aug 11, 2011 at 10:30 am

    It’s no secret that Mitt Romney’s (R-MA) strategy for winning the Republican presidential nomination relies heavily on amassing more campaign cash than his fellow contenders. The GOP frontrunner has come under scrutiny in the past few weeks for several shady contributions from anonymous donors and political action committees. As ThinkProgress has reported, Romney’s biggest campaign donors are Wall Street bankers representing the very firms that caused the financial crisis, including Morgan Stanley and Bank of America.

    Now new financial disclosure forms filed at the end of July reveal that Romney has raked in more campaign dough from lobbyists than all of the other Republican candidates combined:

    According to disclosure forms filed at the end of July, 61 registered lobbyists and five lobbyist-linked political action committees contributed $137,650 to Romney’s campaign between Jan. 1 and June 30, 2011. The former Massachusetts governor raised more money from lobbyists during this period than all of his competitors combined.

    The other Republican candidates who received contributions from lobbyists in the first half of 2011 were, in order of most money received, former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty ($63,204), former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman ($31,600), former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) ($25,500), former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum ($8,800), and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn) ($125). The Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) do not accept contributions from registered lobbyists.

    Chart of lobbyist contributions, courtesy of Huffington Post.

    Romney, a former venture capitalist who made his lucrative career by slashing jobs, has also relied on fundraising by Tea Party billionaire David Koch and a lobbyist for a robo-signing foreclosure mill. He’s also taken an early lead among the top bundlers who raised money for George W. Bush and John McCain.

    (HT: Huffington Post)

    Economy

    One Of Romney’s Top Fundraisers Is A Lobbyist For A Robo-Signing Foreclosure Mill

    By Pat Garofalo on Jul 19, 2011 at 3:00 pm

    2012 GOP hopeful Mitt Romney, who is basing his presidential campaign largely around his supposed economic bonafides, hasn’t missed an opportunity to bash the Obama administration for failing to stem the foreclosure crisis. “We’ve got housing prices continuing to decline, and we have foreclosures at record levels. This president has failed,” Romney said during a primary debate in March.

    Romney even made a campaign stop in a Nevada neighborhood blighted by foreclosure. However, Romney’s concern for the housing crisis seems to end where his campaign coffers begin. As the Boston Globe noted today, T. Martin Fiorentino Jr., one of Romney’s top fundraiser, is a registered lobbyist who lobbied on anti-predatory lending legislation on behalf of a company called Lender Processive Services, a notorious foreclosure mill:

    As he has built his fund-raising machine, [Romney] has relied heavily on a man who has lobbied Congress on mortgage reform and antipredatory lending legislation that contained strict rules aimed at preventing another subprime mortgage collapse.

    T. Martin Fiorentino Jr., who raised $102,900 for Romney, lobbied on the legislation on behalf of Lender Processing Services, a so-called “foreclosure mill’’ that was reprimanded in April by the government for “unsound practices related to residential mortgage loan serving and foreclosure processing.’’

    If anything, the Globe downplays the problematic nature of Lender Processive Services. As Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism explained, the company was at the forefront of the robo-signing scandal, during which banks approved thousands of foreclosures without verifying basic information or engaging in due process:

    Lender Processing Services has played a singularly destructive role in the mortgage servicing industry. The firm not only offered document fabrication services through DocX, a company it acquired and was forced to shut down after the Department of Justice started sniffing about, but is being revealed to be involved in more abuses as far as borrower records and legal process are concerned. [...]

    This abuses matter due to the role that LPS has come to play. It is the biggest player in default services, meaning it acts as the de facto selector and supervisor of foreclosure mills via its system, LPS Desktop, which manages and oversees the work of local law firms on behalf of its bank servicer clients. It also provides the servicing platform for more than half of the servicing industry. And as our two latest examples show, the company clearly places its profits over integrity of records and due process.

    The company was so keen to speed foreclosures on troubled borrowers that it hired temps to forge the signatures of its robo-signers. Considering that the Associated Press reported today that robo-signing is still very much alive and well, Romney should have to explain how his purported concern for homeowners squares with the actions of one of his top fundraisers.

    Security

    Pawlenty’s Senior Foreign Policy Adviser Honed Skills As DC Super Lobbyist, Donated To Michele Bachmann In 2010

    By Eli Clifton on Jul 7, 2011 at 10:00 am

    Vin Weber


    Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s recent speech at the Council on Foreign Relations led many pundits to describe him as the most hawkish, if not neoconservative, candidate in the GOP primary field. But discussion of his foreign policy stance would not be complete without a close examination of the lucrative lobbying, for both domestic and foreign clients, undertaken by his campaign co-chair and senior foreign policy adviser Vin Weber.

    Weber, who supported the campaigns of the neoconservative Project For the New American Century and served in Congress from 1981 to 1993, is the CEO and managing partner of Clark & Weinstock, a “strategic advice and consulting” firm whose client list includes, or has included Hyundai Motor Co., Goldman Sachs, BNP Paribas, American International Group, Gazprom, and JP Morgan Chase & Co.

    But Vin Weber’s lobbying expertise isn’t limited to private companies. Clark & Weinstock also represented the interests of Morocco, Greece, the Iraqi Governing Council, Panama, and the United Arab Emirates.

    In his January 18, 2005 “Proposal For Representation of United Arab Emirates” (PDF), Weber promised to:

    Enhance the reputation and understanding of the UAE as a U.S. strategic ally through major media and other opinion-makers, based mainly in New York and Washington.

    Weber advocated portraying the UAE as a U.S. ally in combating terrorism and an observer of human rights, and boasts of his close relationship with DC think tanks. In a section titled “C&W’s Approach,” he writes:

    In the area of foreign affairs, we would want to reach out to the Council on Foreign Relations, American Enterprise Institute, The Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Brookings Institution, the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies, among others. These are all groups with impecable reputations. Working with them goes well beyond writing a check — if that is even part of the relationship.

    And he advises the UAE to “avoid the costly and impactless advertising purchased by other nations” and establish direct relationships with members of the media. Weber suggests holding “message-delivering” meetings with editorial boards, columnists, producers, and news people. Weber said his services would run the UAE $65,000 per month. (His representation of the UAE appears have been terminated on March 30, 2007.)

    Weber’s understanding of Washington’s foreign policy circles and the importance of influencing editorial boards is a reflection of his Washington insider status, which, no doubt, played no small role in arranging Pawlenty’s recent speech at the Council on Foreign Relations (Weber sits on the Council’s board). While Weber and Pawlenty’s foreign policy positions are often in line with the more militarist, neoconservative, wing of the GOP, Weber clearly knows that in Washington you shouldn’t put all your eggs in one basket. In 2010, his campaign contributions showed a long list of Republican congressional candidates including Tim Pawlenty’s GOP primary opponent, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN).

    Politics

    Tea Party Senators Marco Rubio And Ron Johnson Selected Their Chiefs Of Staff From Same K Street Lobbying Firm

    By Lee Fang on Jun 30, 2011 at 10:04 am

    Lobbyists from this firm now run the office for both Sen. Johnson (R-WI) and Sen. Rubio (R-FL)

    In December, ThinkProgress first reported that at least 13 new Republican lawmakers had hired corporate lobbyists as their chiefs of staff. An investigation published by The Hill’s Kevin Bogardus and Rachel Leven reveals that a large number of corporate lobbyists have left lucrative jobs on K Street to manage the staff for important committees and top Republican politicians.

    One notable revelation from The Hill story relates to the fact that well-paid corporate lobbyists now occupy key positions at the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees pivotal healthcare and energy regulations. Another interesting fact is that a single corporate lobbying firm, called Navigators Global, has its lobbyists running the offices of Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Ron Johnson (R-WI). The two Tea Party politicians apparently thought that influence-peddlers from the same firm would best advance their interests:

    Cesar Conda made $376,000 from Navigators Global in salary last year, according to his financial disclosure report. He is now Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-Fla.) chief of staff.

    Conda’s former colleague at Navigators, Don Kent, now chief of staff to Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), made more than $227,000 in his bonus and salary last year from the firm.

    Rubio’s chief of staff, Cesar Conda, worked at Navigators Global on accounts related to AT&T, PG&E, New York Life Insurance, and other companies. Don Kent, Johnson’s number two, represented CSX, UPS, and several biotech and computer science firms. Navigators Global, a lobbying firm that still represents many of the same clients as well as private prison companies and investment banks, brags that it not only does “insider” lobbying, but also public campaigns as well. For instance, the firm set up a front group for oil speculators to kill efforts to regulate the scope of excessive oil speculation back in 2008.

    A chief of staff is the most important position on Capitol Hill outside of elected office. They are typically responsible for representing their boss at meetings, making staffing decisions, and helping the lawmaker decide how to cast a vote. It is not clear if Rubio or Johnson has an office policy for their lobbyist chiefs of staff. Are they allowed to still communicate with their former clients? Do they still collaborate with their colleagues at Navigators Global? Is there any sort of firewall to ensure they have stopped selling influence while working as a public servant?

    Related Posts

    Older

    Switch to Mobile