From the K Street Corridor

Sat. Mar. 8, 2008


Blue Dogs for Rahm

Parven Pomper Strategies, the lobby shop that touts its "relationships with the 'muscular middle' of the Democratic Party," flexed some of that muscle on March 6 for House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel of Illinois. The firm honored the chairman at a fundraising breakfast at swank Capitol Hill restaurant Bistro Bis.

Congressional ethics rules forbid lobbyists from buying meals for lawmakers. But the dozen or so lobbyists who signed up to attend -- including former Rep. Tom Downey, D-N.Y., chairman of Downey McGrath Group; Mark Irion, CEO of Dutko Worldwide; and Lisa Nelson, who was an aide to then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., and is now senior vice president and director of government relations at Visa USA -- could pay for Emanuel's breakfast because the event was a campaign fundraiser.

Scott Parven, president of the firm and a former House aide for the Blue Dog Coalition, wouldn't say how much Emanuel took in. The invitation asked for a $2,500 donation from political action committees and $1,000 from individuals. --Bara Vaida

Makers of Heparin Seek Help

The nationwide recall of the drug heparin, which the Food and Drug Administration has linked to 19 deaths, has prompted companies that produce the blood thinner and its active ingredient to hire K Street help. Baxter International has tapped Mark Brown of King & Spalding; Scientific Protein Laboratories is using Stuart Pape of Patton Boggs and Dan Kracov of Arnold & Porter. Baxter gets some of its supply of heparin from a factory in China largely owned by Scientific Protein. That facility reportedly may be associated with the drug's problems and was recently visited by FDA inspectors. Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., and other lawmakers have sent letters to the two companies inquiring about the situation. Heparin, used in kidney dialysis and to prevent postsurgical blood clots, is made from the linings of pig intestines. --Peter H. Stone

Gassing Up

A new Washington nonprofit, the American Clean Skies Foundation, which was launched by the chief of independent natural-gas producer Chesapeake Energy, is running a multimillion-dollar print and online media blitz to promote cleaner energy sources -- including, you guessed it, natural gas.

The group has already run full-page ads in The Washington Post and is readying an April launch of what it calls an "independent 24/7 online TV network" focusing on energy and the environment. The foundation, which declined to reveal its budget, is chaired by Chesapeake CEO Aubrey McClendon and has a four-person staff headed by Denise Bode, a former member of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission and a former president of the Independent Petroleum Association of America.

Chesapeake Energy is based in Oklahoma City and includes Republican Frank Keating (a former Oklahoma governor and now the president of the American Council of Life Insurers) on its board. The company previously helped to bankroll the Texas-based Clean Sky Coalition, which opposed coal-fired power plants in that state with a hard-hitting "Coal Is Filthy" ad campaign. McClendon, a generous political donor, recently gave $28,500 to the National Republican Congressional Committee.

The foundation is part of the jockeying for influence within the industry in advance of a renewed debate over energy and congressional moves toward passing global-warming legislation. --Julie Kosterlitz

  •  
  •