Countdown

Reports and Other Projects

Richard Lugar

A political consultant once, “told [Richard] Lugar to shave off the top of his eyebrows because he looked sinister.” Lugar knew then that consultants do not always know what’s best. As Lugar’s general counsel told the Center, “Lugar made a decision a long time ago to run a campaign that was lean and clean.” Or as the campaign’s press secretary, Terry Holt, put it, the campaign remains “blissfully consultant-free.”

Even if Senator Lugar publicly shuns paid consultants, his nearly 20 years in Washington have helped him create a group of friends willing to help him informally on the road to the White House.

Lugar & Lilly

Mitch Daniels, president of Eli Lilly’s North American Pharmaceuticals division, is an unpaid senior adviser to Senator Lugar — and the best example of the special relationship between Eli Lilly, an Indianapolis-based pharmaceutical company, and Lugar. Campaign press secretary Terry Holt told the Center in The Buying of the President, “Mitch cut his teeth in politics in Lugar’s mayor [of Indianapolis] days.” Daniels was Lugar’s chief of staff in Washington and went on to become political director of the Reagan White House. In 1990, Daniels went to work for Lilly.

At least three other people from Lugar’s staffs — mayoral or senatorial — have both Lilly or its foundation on their resumes. As Holt said, “Indiana is fairly intimate.” Others who worked for both Lugar and Lilly include Thomas Hasbrook, who worked for Lilly and then served as deputy mayor of Indianapolis under Lugar; Mark Miles, an employee of Lilly who previously worked for Lugar in his Senate office; and Michael Carroll, an aide to Mayor Lugar who went on to become vice president of community development at the Lilly Endowment.

Eli Lilly, its employees, and its endowment have given at least $103,743 to Lugar over the course of his political career. Eli Lilly also gave $75,000 to the Republican Party in the first three quarters of 1995.

Lugar has been a steadfast ally of Lilly throughout his political life. In 1994, he fought President Clinton’s health care reform plan, specifically opposing price controls on drugs, which Lilly opposed. In 1992, he voted against another drug cost-containment measure that failed 36-61 in the Senate. The Associated Press reported that Lilly stood to lose tens of thousands of dollars if it had passed. In 1991, Lugar arranged for a meeting between then-Brazilian President Fernando Collor de Mello and Lilly president Sydney Taurel to discuss pending Brazilian patents legislation that would have adversely affected American pharmaceutical companies (Taurel was also head of the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association at the time). In 1986, Lugar helped Lilly CEO Richard Wood win an appointment to the president’s Export Council — an appointment announced through Lugar’s office. In 1985, Lilly was granted a special exemption from customs duties for its Indiana plants. Lugar, who announced the exemption in conjunction with then-Senator Dan Quayle, said “The benefits of a trade zone also encourage companies to continue manufacturing in this country This is good news for Lilly.”

Advisers

Charles “Chip” Andreae is an unpaid adviser to Lugar and president of Andreae & Associates. Andreae has helped the campaign with fundraising and, he said, “thinking through issues.” He has mainly focused on foreign policy issues, he added. His firm, Andreae & Associates, does “analytical work for U.S. corporations. . . . We don’t do any lobbying.” Andreae worked for Senator Lugar and for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence before leaving government in 1990.

Jeff Bergner, the campaign’s policy director, is also chairman of Bergner, Bockorny, Clough, & Brain, is registered as a foreign agent, and is registered to lobby the Congress. “At this point,” Bergner told the Center, “Lugar is very solid on policy issues.” Bergner coordinates people who volunteer to help out when an issue needs to be fleshed-out. It is not a full-time job, and he is not paid.

Bergner’s clients include American Medical Security, The Business Roundtable, Blanco Animal Health, Electronic Industries Association, Georgetown University Medical Center, McDonnell Douglas Corporation, National Soft Drink Association, News Corporation USA, Northwest Airlines, Ogden Corporation, and Ticketmaster. Other Bergner, Bockorny clients include the Biotechnology Industry Organization, Dow Chemical, Fox, Inc., HealthCare COMPARE Corp., Philip Morris, the Government of Quebec, and Taipei’s Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States.

William Canfield, general counsel to the campaign, is a partner in the Washington office of the Florida law firm of Holland & Knight (a firm that is registered as a foreign agent), where he is registered to lobby Congress.

He describes himself as “just their lawyer. I try to keep them out of the clutches of the Federal Election Commission . . . to make sure that they’re not violating federal law.” He said, “Lugar made a decision a long time ago to run a campaign that was lean and clean.”

Canfield’s clients at Holland & Knight include the Community Service Society of New York and the Detroit Department of Water and Sewage. Other Holland & Knight clients include the American Insurance Association’s Superfund Improvement Project, Envirotest, the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association, the Florida Tomato Exchange, the Government of Jamaica, the Government of Trinidad and Tobago, and the United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Association

Mitch Daniels. See Lugar & Lilly.

Mark Helmke was the Campaign’s communications director. Helmke resigned from the campaign in the wake of his involvement in the scandal involving former Bush adviser James Lake. Helmke had been employed at the public relations firm of Robinson, Lake, Sawyer, Miller. While employed there, he gave Lake $1,000 to retire the debt of Henry Espy’s failed congressional campaign, and was reimbursed with corporate funds.  Henry Espy is the brother of former Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy. Helmke claims that he did not know that the money came from corporate clients. Helmke, while not indicted, resigned so as to avoid tainting the campaign with the scandal. Previously, he had been press secretary to Senator Lugar from 1981 to 1986.

William Ruckelshaus is national finance chairman of the campaign and the chairman of Browning Ferris Industries, one of the largest waste disposal companies in the country. The Dallas Morning News reported that when asked if he and Lugar were close friends growing up in Indianapolis, Ruckelshaus replied, “‘No, I certainly would not claim that.’ After a pause, he adds, ‘If he reaches the White House, I will claim that.’” Ruckelshaus and Lugar knew each other in their youth and describe themselves as longtime friends.

A two-time Environmental Protection Agency administrator, Ruckelshaus has also been acting director of the FBI and worked at the Justice Department. During the Watergate scandal, he gained a reputation for integrity when he refused to fire Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox and was himself fired in what came to be known as the “Saturday Night Massacre.”

After leaving government in the mid-1970s, Ruckelshaus, along with two other former EPA aides, founded the environmental law firm of Ruckelshaus, Beveridge, Fairbanks, and Diamond, now known as Beveridge & Diamond. In 1976, Ruckelshaus joined Weyerhaeuser Company. From 1977 to 1982, when he left, Weyerhaeuser was cited 277 times by the EPA for air and water pollution violations and was sued several times. After leaving the EPA for the second time in 1984, he became a consultant for the Washington D.C. and Seattle law firm of Perkins Coie, and founded Ruckelshaus and Associates, an environmental consulting firm in Seattle. In 1987, he helped to develop the Coalition on Superfund, which, as the Center reported in its 1993 study Toxic Temptation was, “an industry-backed panel that would examine Superfund regulations and offer recommendations when the program came up for reauthorization. Companies such as Monsanto, General Electric, and du Pont were behind the coalition.” That same year, he joined BFI. As Industry Week noted, his appointment came “about a month after EPA filed a $70 million lawsuit against the firm alleging thousands of violations of pollution standards at a BFI landfill in Louisiana.”

Susan Tyndall is the campaign’s media director. She helped to create Lugar’s four-part nuclear terrorism advertisements. Tyndall was formerly a senior producer at the Republican National Congressional Committee.

Meg Walker runs Washington-based MWM, Inc., a political consulting firm specializing in direct mail.

Joe Bill Wiley, the campaign’s finance director, is a financial consultant and pension fund adviser in Indiana.

Campaign Staff

Campaign Manager: Mark Lubbers
Policy Director: Jeff Bergner
Political Director: Craig Whitney
Midwest Political Director: Richard Schwarm
Press Secretary: Terry Holt
Finance Director: Joe Bill Wiley