A Tale Of Two K Streets?
Posted in: DC/K Street elites, Lobbyists
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Or do they?
Exhibit A: the NYTimes reports on K Street changes, or lack thereof, depending on where you stand:
Many trade groups and Republican lobbying firms did not wait until the election on Nov. 4. The lobbying firm of Barbour, Griffith and Rogers, for example, was once almost synonymous with Republican power. Its three name partners were all well-known White House officials under President Ronald Reagan and the first President George Bush. One, Haley Barbour, went on to become Republican Party chairman and is now the governor of Mississippi.
But in the aftermath of the Democratic victory in the 2006 elections, the firm’s partners decided to shorten the name to the less evocative “BGR Group,” and started to hire more Democrats. Last month, the firm even held a fund-raiser for the Democratic campaign of Senator-elect Mark Warner of Virginia. And on Election Day, it acquired the Democratic firm of Westin Rinehart, headed by a former Clinton administration official, Morris L. Reid.
“To go bipartisan, we rebranded the business,” Ed Rogers said Friday, speaking by telephone from a business trip to Dubai, United Arab Emirates. “Lobbying is like a slow-motion jury trial. First you need to find out who the jury is and then meet with each of them one by one. So the more Democratic officeholders there are, the more you need effective, smart Democrats.”
Exhibit B: a change in type and tenor of lobbying efforts? Do tell:
The overthrow of House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-Mich.) by Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) is reverberating beyond Capitol Hill and shuffling the balance of power on K Street and among advocacy groups.
Environmental group leaders are thrilled to see a staunch supporter take the reins of the committee that is expected to draft a major global warming bill in the new Congress.
“It’s an exceptionally positive development,” said Greg Wetstone, the director of governmental and public affairs for the American Wind Energy Association.
Amongst the self-dealing and the graft, occasionally an interest group that puts public interests first gets an opportunity to step to the fore. And it is worth remembering that all lobbyists aren’t just out there to put payola in pockets, but actually give a crap about the issues on which they lobby.
The ACLU lobbies. So does the Environmental Defense Fund. And the folks who run CASA. And cancer research groups. You name an issue of public interest, there’s likely a lobbyist who works on their behalf. Even corporations aren’t all bad — you have to have a job in order to live unless you are a trustfund baby or a kept partner (and even then, someone somewhere has to be earning some cash, eh?).
So, here’s to keeping a big, fixed eye on K Street. Because sunlight is always needed there in my book.
But here’s to also allowing the underfunded little guy public interest folks a shot at some powerful ears for a change. Not because they’re buying asparagus in a buerre blanc on the side of a 12-oz. t-bone with a scotch on the rocks at the Palm. But because it’s high time the little guy got a seat at the table.
Here’s to at least a little restoration of balance in that regard. At least, here’s hoping…but not really expecting. It is the Beltway, after all.
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