It’s sometimes easy to forget just how big the scam known as the “[tag]K Street Project[/tag]” really is. As long-time readers know, we’re talking about, in effect, an affirmative-action program for the GOP, in which practically all lobbying jobs in DC were reserved for [tag]Republicans[/tag] — and firms, corporations, and trade associations that failed to cooperate faced threats from conservative congressional leaders.
In fact, in 1998, Newt Gingrich and Tom DeLay intentionally blocked a vote on an intellectual property bill because the Electronics Industry Association announced it intended to hire a new director — who happened to be a [tag]Democrat[/tag]. No Republican meant no legislation, Gingrich and DeLay said. In some instances, [tag]GOP[/tag] leaders told lobbying firms they had to fire Dems who were already hired, to make room for a Republican replacement.
It helped establish a new precedent and K Street quickly learned that hiring Republicans for lobbying jobs was simply the price of doing business in Washington.
For about a decade, the lobbying industry assumed Republicans would be in the majority indefinitely, so it had a very strong incentive to avoid GOP punishment and go along with the scam. Now, however, the same lobbying industry isn’t so sure about the Republicans’ grip on power.
Washington lobbying firms, trade associations and corporate offices are moving to hire more well-connected Democrats in response to rising prospects that the opposition party will wrest control of at least one chamber of Congress from Republicans in the November elections.
In what lobbyists are calling a harbinger of possible upheaval on Capitol Hill, many who make a living influencing government have gone from mostly shunning Democrats to aggressively recruiting them as [tag]lobbyists[/tag] over the past six months or so.
“We’ve seen a noticeable shift,” said Beth Solomon, director of the Washington office of Christian & Timbers, an executive search firm that helps to place senior lobbyists and trade association heads.
The fear of GOP reprisals is apparently gone. Such a “shift” was almost unthinkable just a few years ago.
In June, one of Washington’s largest lobbying law firms, DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary LLP, transferred the chairmanship of its government affairs practice from a Republican, Thomas F. O’Neil III, to a prominent Democrat, James J. Blanchard, a former governor and congressman from Michigan.
“Being a Democrat didn’t hurt me, that’s for sure,” Blanchard said. “This is going to be a big Democratic year.”
At Patton Boggs LLP, another lobbying powerhouse, the calculation is similar. “Democrats’ stock has clearly risen in the interviewing process this year as the chances for a Democratic takeover [of the House] have increased,” said John F. Jonas, the head of Patton Boggs’s health practice. “Serious hiring” of Democrats, he added, has become “a high priority here at Patton Boggs.”
It’s particularly amusing to me to think of Republicans who have led the K Street Project feeling the frustration of seeing Dems get hired — but knowing they can’t do much about it. They can make all threats they want, but lobbying firms have reached the point in which they’re comfortable taking the chance.
As Kevin Drum put it, “When pollsters predict a Democratic win this November, I’m hopeful but cautious. But when the lobbyists start betting serious money on the proposition, maybe it’s time to start believing.”