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Westine: The Valley's White House Connection
By Bara Vaida
The White House Office of Public Liaison (OPL) is one of the most important organs for enacting the president's key policies, and it generally reflects the nature of the president's core constituency. Some big-name politicos, including former presidential candidate Elizabeth Dole, former Labor Secretary Alexis Herman and former EMILY's List Executive Director Mary Beth Cahill, have served as director of the office.
Now there is a leading technology industry candidate in the job. President Bush picked Lezlee Westine, a centrist from the heart of Silicon Valley and a former Republican political strategist for TechNet, the valley's bipartisan lobbying group, to be his OPL director, and that may say something about the status of technology policy in the new administration.
"Choosing someone like Lezlee says two things — one, that the tech community and the new economy [are] front and center in the Bush administration, and two, that this is a person that worked very hard for him in the campaign," said Minyon Moore, one of several people who served as OPL director during the Clinton administration. "OPL is the heart and soul of the White House."
The Path To The White House
Although Bush has yet to name a technology policy team, the industry's voice already is being heard, thanks in part to the connections of officials like Westine. Since January, Bush has held two meetings with about two dozen high-tech CEOs and plans an even larger meeting at the end of March with up to 100 CEOs who supported his campaign.
Bush owes some of his early campaign momentum to Silicon Valley and to Westine. The glamour of high-tech CEOs' eager support for Bush grabbed the headlines in 1999 from then-Vice President Al Gore. Gore had been expected to have the region's endorsement secured, and his shortcomings there was an early signal that his campaign was struggling.
"Lezlee was one of the great forces to help galvanize the valley and get us going politically," said Laura Ipsen, director of Cisco System's government affairs division, who also served on Bush's advisory transition team for the Commerce Department.
And with California remaining tough political territory for the GOP, Westine's ties to Silicon Valley executives are crucial to Bush as he works to build grassroots support for his policy initiatives such as tax cuts, education, Social Security and Medicare reform. Westine also served for years as an aide to former California GOP Gov. Pete Wilson and remains close to Republicans who are working to reverse the rout the party suffered in state and local elections last November. There are now no Republicans representing Silicon Valley in Congress.
"From what I've heard, Bush has said he intends to spend time in Silicon Valley and California and that the state is important to the administration in terms of the political agenda," said Ipsen, when asked if she thought Westine's appointment had anything to do with looking forward to November 2004.
A Two-Party Animal
Westine also brings a third dimension to her role as OPL director, and that is her known ability to work with Democrats and independents to pass legislation. Technology officials have a history of working with both sides of the aisle, both for practical and ideological reasons, and hence neither party has fully won the heart of the industry.
A perfect example of Westine's ability to work both sides of the aisle occurred two summers ago after TechNet Democrat political strategist Wade Randlett left the lobbying group for a technology startup. In his absence, Westine started organizing Democratic events in addition to Republican events, Ipsen said, and Democrats respected her enough to return her calls.
"Lezlee was always a team player," Ipsen said, "and she understood and was active with both sides of the aisle in the valley."
Giving opposing voices a forum in the White House is one of the roles OPL plays to help the president build coalitions, according to White House historian Bradley Patterson, who wrote the book White House Staff: Inside the West Wing and Beyond. Patterson, who worked for former Presidents Eisenhower, Nixon and Ford, said OPL is the chief conduit through which the voices of 22,900 nonprofit organizations and 17,000 Washington representatives are heard.
"From where he sits, the president views interest-group lobbyists - on issues where he and they agree — as extramural power," Patterson wrote. "They can amplify his influence — first to their membership, then through their memberships to Congress. With skillful staff work, the president can mobilize a few more House or Senate votes he needs to achieve his high-priority objectives."
The Political Grunt Work
OPL builds support and communications based in part on how it is organized. Under Clinton, there were four OPL directors — Herman, Maria Echaveste, who became Clinton's deputy chief of staff, Moore, and then Cahill. They divided their core constituents into client groups and created "desks" to focus on black, Jewish, Hispanic, gay, women, Asian and other ethnic and religious group interests, as well as labor, business, agriculture and other special interests, according to Moore.
Northern Virginia Technology Council President Bobbie Greene Kilberg, who was OPL director under former President George Bush, the current president's father, said under the elder Bush, OPL focused its constituent outreach not on ethnic or social groups but on issues such as culture, agriculture, the environment or business.
"The strategy for good politics for public liaison is that you spread that net wide strategically," Kilberg said. "You bring people in that may oppose you, and then you work to develop common ground."
In an interview with National Journal's Technology Daily last week, Westine said her office's outreach efforts would be based on a combination of both issues and special interest groups. Currently, the OPL staff is organized to focus on small business, labor, agriculture, rural, Asian, black, conservative, Hispanic and other ethnic and religious groups. Westine noted that unlike Dole, who had 50 aides when she was at OPL, Bush has provided for an OPL staff of 12.
But now that she has spent the past two months organizing her office and hiring staff, Westine has been freed to spend more time on high-tech issues. OPL aide Adam Goldman has been designated to help Westine with high-tech outreach.
"I will be extremely involved in building and developing relationships with new-economy leaders," Westine said when asked how much time she will have to work on high-tech issues.
Last week, Westine started making the rounds with others in the White House who plan to lead in shaping high-tech policy. Along with Cesar Conda, domestic policy adviser for Vice President Richard Cheney, and Richard Russell, chief of staff at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Westine had lunch with 25 high-tech officials and members of the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA).
"They were mostly there to listen, and Lezlee took copious notes," said Robert Cresanti, ITAA's general counsel and senior vice president. "I was impressed with her follow-up questions, which displayed a real depth of understanding about our issues."
No 'Czar' Needed
The makeup of the White House high-tech team still will not be known for several weeks, but Commerce Secretary Donald Evans publicly has said he would like to be the administration's tech-policy point man. An inter-office high-tech working group similar to the structure developed under Clinton may be housed within Commerce, according to industry sources.
Although speculation about the naming of a high-tech "czar" continues, it is clear that the industry need look no further than Westine. She remains close to three Silicon Valley heavyweights — Cisco CEO John Chambers, Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers partner Floyd Kvamme and former Netscape CEO Jim Barksdale — and she has the president's ear.
Westine also said she plans to bring Democrats from Silicon Valley into the White House to ensure that their voices are heard.
"It was a smart move on Bush's part to put Lezlee at OPL," said Kevin Varney, former chief of staff for the National Economic Council under Clinton and now a partner at Public Strategies. "[Bush] spent a fair amount of time courting the tech industry, and he wants them to know that he places a premium on their advice and input, and wants them to have a pipeline to the White House."
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