LOBBYING & LAW

From the K Street Corridor

Sat. Apr. 26, 2008


Feeding the Future

The Republican-leaning American Future Fund—one of the new members of a bumper crop of issue-advocacy groups aiming to influence the results of the November election—is pumping up its outreach to K Street.

Lawyer Ben Ginsberg, ad man Larry McCarthy, strategic consultant Phil Musser, and pollster Jan van Lohuizen were among the big-name supporters of the fund who were slated to attend an April 24 briefing, at a Washington-area Marriott hotel, designed to spur fundraising. The fund made pitches to help finance its plan for television issues ads in seven or more states where GOP candidates are facing tough races.

In March, the fund launched a high-six-figure TV ad blitz in Minnesota to aid GOP Sen. Norm Coleman in his re-election contest against comedian-turned-candidate Al Franken, the Democratic challenger.

Like its pro-conservative, higher-profile cousin, Freedom’s Watch, the AFF was set up as a 501(c)(4) to shield the identities of donors and the amounts they contribute. One GOP political consultant in the know estimated that the fund’s multistate effort to assist Republican candidates “will need at least a $20 million war chest to be effective.” —Peter H. Stone

Targeting McCain on Abortion

Saying that Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is “ripe and a vulnerable target” on the issue of abortion and women’s health issues, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, a 501(c)(4) arm of Planned Parenthood, is preparing to spend $10 million during the presidential race detailing the reproductive rights record of the presumptive GOP nominee. The action fund says that a poll it commissioned in February found that 49 percent of women who plan to vote for McCain favor abortion rights and that the majority of those voters don’t know McCain’s position on the issue. When they learn that McCain opposes abortion, “they express serious reservations about supporting him,” the group says. “For women, we’re going to be able to say there’s a very clear distinction here,” says Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood. —Bara Vaida

Coal’s Hired Guns

The new coalition pushing the embattled coal industry’s agenda has already dropped at least $50,000 in lobbying fees since March.

The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity has hired a small army of lobbyists from the firm Quinn Gillespie, including former top staffers from the executive branch and from the offices of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.; former Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott, R-Miss.; and Republicans on the House Ways and Means, and Energy and Commerce committees. The coalition also hired longtime energy lobbyist Paul Bailey of the Keelen Group.

Americans for Balanced Energy Choices and the Center for Energy and Economic Development—both supported by coal producers, transportation, and utility companies—joined forces to create the coalition. The new group picked up ABEC’s $35 million-a-year advertising and grassroots organizing campaign as well as CEED’s state and local lobbying efforts.

Headed by former ABEC official Steve Miller, the coalition is lobbying Congress to shape pending climate-change legislation and to get Uncle Sam to kick in more money for clean-coal technology. With a staff of 20 and a budget of more than $45 million, the coalition plans to hire a new director of federal relations, but it is handing off most of its lobbying to hired guns. —Julie Kosterlitz