More Than A Dozen Lobbyists Closely Associated With Mitt Romney Campaign
January 19th, 2008
By JOE GANDELMAN, Editor-In-Chief
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Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney recently got into a highly publicized shouting match with an AP reporter about whether a lobbyist “runs” his campaign — but the Boston Herald reports that if lobbyists don’t “run” Romney’s campaign, more than a dozen lobbyists raise money for his campaign and others advise his campaign:
Former Bay State Gov. Mitt Romney, who has cast himself as a Washington outsider and blasted his opponents’ ties to lobbyists, has more than a dozen federally registered lobbyists raising money for him and several others advising his campaign, records show.
At a Nashua event the day before the New Hampshire primary, Romney said, “I don’t have years and years of favors to repay, lobbyists who have raised all sorts of money for me.”
But at least 13 lobbyists work as so-called bundlers - those responsible for prodding deep-pocketed donors and generating vast sums of money for the candidate - according to records compiled by nonprofit Washington watchdog Public Citizen.
Further down in the Boston Herald piece, the reporter quotes political scientist Larry Sabato (a TMV favorite):
Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, called Romney’s denials “Clintonian.”
“This is just ridiculous. It’s a self-inflicted wound,” Sabato said. “Campaigns are just obsessed with the ideas of presenting their candidates as being lobbyist-free - but it isn’t true.”
One of the fund-raisers is a name very familiar to New Yorkers and to Senator Hillary Clinton:
One of those fund-raisers is former New York Rep. Rick Lazio, who ran for the Senate against Hillary Clinton in 2000.
Another fund-raiser, Ronald C. Kaufman, is a family friend and unpaid senior strategist. Kaufman is chairman of Dutko Worldwide, a lobbying and public affairs firm with deep Beltway ties. He raised at least $100,000 for President Bush’s 2004 campaign. Dutko President Craig Pattee is a co-chairman of Romney’s national finance committee.
Yet another lobbyist, former New Hampshire Attorney General Thomas D. Wrath, is a Romney senior adviser, as is former Missouri Sen. Jim Talent, who helped craft Romney’s domestic policy strategy.
And, the paper says, Romney has been holding back some information:
According to Public Citizen, Romney has refused to make good on a previous promise to release a list of top fund-raisers.
The other lobbyists who raised funds for Romney, according to Public Citizen: Gregory B. Butler Sr., who represents Northeast Utilities; Jack Gerard of Virginia, who represents the chemical industry; Alberto R. Cardenas, William G. Harrison, David A. Rancourt and John Thrasher, all of Florida; Scott Baugh of California; Daniel Dumezich and Robert T. Grand, both of Indiana; and Eric Tanenblatt of Georgia.
Look for this kind of info to be run in future anti-Romney ads by his opponents — and most assuredly by the Democrats if Romney gets the GOP nomination. And each day it seems more LIKELY Romney will get the nomination, since some conservative powerhouses such as talk show host Rush Limbaugh have been launching all-out efforts to get Republicans to topple McCain, who is perceived as not lock-step conservative enough and too cooperative with Democrats.
UPDATE: Read Ed Morrissey. Part of it:
It would be refreshing, if politically suicidal, for a candidate to point out what lobbyists do. They represent legitimate interests of people around the country on policies that impact them. Lobbying is not inherently unethical or dishonest. Just like any other profession that exists at the intersection of power and money, enormous opportunities exist for corruption that have to have vigilant oversight to prevent.
Mitt, with his massive self-financing, had the standing to make that point rather than the banal attack on lobbyists in general that left him vulnerable to yet another data point for those who consider him disingenuous. Of all of the candidates, he has relied least on outside financing, which makes him less beholden to special interests in terms of grubby paybacks. Why not say that, rather than making a fairly debunkable claim that he has no ties to lobbyists?
This entry was posted on Saturday, January 19th, 2008 at 7:07 am and is filed under Journalism, Newsweek Blogitics, Primaries, MSM, Media, 2008 Elections, Republicans, Mitt Romney, Politics. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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