LOBBYING & LAW

From the K Street Corridor

Sat. May 10, 2008


At the Top of the PACs

Two years after the International Union of Operating Engineers broke away from the AFL-CIO, the union has established itself as the top contributor among political action committees in the 2008 election cycle. As of March 31, it had doled out $1.75 million to federal candidates, 86 percent to Democrats and 14 percent to Republicans, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Operating Engineers spokesman Joe Brady credits the PAC's strength to President Vincent Giblin's multiyear effort to energize the union's 400,000 members. "We restructured our entire political operation, and we educated our members about the importance of being a player at the legislative table," Brady says. Before Giblin took the helm in 2005, the operating engineers union, which represents heavy-equipment operators, had never been on the list of the top 20 PAC contributors.

The union's chief legislative priority is ensuring the reauthorization of the highway bill (last authorized in fiscal 2005 at $244.1 billion), which creates jobs for union members.
--Bara Vaida

Fratelli Pens Colombia Contract

The government of Colombia, which recently ended a public-relations contract with Burson-Marsteller after a firestorm concerning remarks by Burson CEO Mark Penn, has signed a $25,000-a-month agreement with the Fratelli Group. Eric Thomas, a principal at Fratelli, said that the firm will focus on helping with communications on the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement, a top priority for Bogota. President Bush sent the agreement to Congress, which has not acted. Among other PR firms that bid on the new contract were the Dittus Group and Qorvis Communications, according to sources. Burson was let go in April after Penn, then the chief strategist for Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign (she opposes the trade pact), said that a meeting he had with his Colombia clients was an "error of judgment." The Colombian government responded that Penn's comments showed a "lack of respect to Colombians."
--Peter H. Stone

Dream Weavers

Home down-payment-assistance companies, now battling efforts in Congress and the Bush administration to put them out of business, have found an ally in a self-styled consumer group: the Association for Homeowners Across America.

The Senate-passed Foreclosure Prevention Act has a provision that forbids homebuyers from making down payments with cash provided by the home's seller--whether directly or through these nonprofit companies. The AHAA, which bills itself as a "nationwide member-based homeowners association," asks visitors to its website to urge their senators to drop that provision. AHAA also just hired Abel Olivo to lobby on "homeownership-related issues."

Unmentioned on the group's website are its myriad ties to AmeriDream, one of the leading down-payment-assistance companies. The AHAA created AmeriDream in 2005; according to tax records, AmeriDream provided all of AHAA's $377,400 in membership dues in 2006. The two outfits have the same Gaithersburg, Md., address. AHAA's five officers and board chairman in 2006 were highly paid executives or consultants to AmeriDream. Olivo himself was registered to lobby for AmeriDream before registering for AHAA.

AmeriDream, meanwhile, which already has a stable of outside lobbyists working the issue on its behalf, also recently added John Mashburn of Womble Carlyle, a former top aide to Senate Budget Committee ranking member Judd Gregg, R-N.H.
--Julie Kosterlitz

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