The Kerry Precedent
Should presidential candidates make public their official meetings with lobbyists?
BY Josh Israel AND Devin Varsalona | February 26, 2008
By the time John Kerry had virtually locked up the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004, he’d already been branded “a handmaiden of special interests,” a Washington elitist, and a hypocrite — and that just by members of his own party. Early in the year, The Washington Post reported that the Massachusetts senator had raised more money from lobbyists over the previous 15 years than any other senator. Kerry’s campaign had sought to portray him as a presidential candidate who would block special interests from the corridors of power. The Post story suggested that he might hold the entryways open for them.
Republicans, unsurprisingly, were also eager to attack. The Bush/Cheney campaign assailed Kerry on everything from his ties with lobbyists to his military and medical records — even his wife’s billion-dollar fortune.
But the questions came to a momentary halt on April 22, 2004, when Kerry’s staff released a list of nearly 200 “official meetings” that he’d had with lobbyists since 1989. The 11-page document, though likely incomplete, was unprecedented. In releasing the list, Kerry, by all accounts, became not only the first presidential candidate, but also the first Capitol Hill lawmaker, to make such a disclosure. The genesis of what grew to become a three-month staff inquiry into his schedules was a simple but unexpected promise Kerry had made in mid-January: “I will happily release any lobbyist meeting I’ve ever had, because I’m not ashamed of them,” he said during an appearance on ABC’s This Week. “Anybody I’ve ever met with, I’m not ashamed of.”
The names of some 300 lobbyists appeared on the Kerry list, including representatives of organized labor, public-interest groups, and corporate interests. One of them was Vicki Iseman, the Alcalde & Fay lobbyist who’s now in the news over her dealings with Republican John McCain.
The Kerry campaign challenged Republican George W. Bush to follow suit. The Bush/Cheney campaign scoffed at the invitation, calling it a political ploy. “Senator Kerry used to say he would show special interests the door,” a campaign spokesman said. “It looks like he’s showing them the revolving door.”
Two weeks later, the Center for Public Integrity released a study showing that President Bush had taken in $1.8 million in contributions from lobbyists since 1998. Kerry, by comparison, had raised only $520,000 from lobbyists and had a much smaller number of lobbyist-fundraisers.
Though the influence of lobbyists in Washington has been a constant topic of debate throughout the 2008 campaign, none of the contenders — Democratic or Republican — have made public a list of their meetings with lobbyists. (And, according to Public Citizen, more lobbyists are at work “bundling” contributions for presidential candidates in 2008 than last time around, including 59 who have been shaking the money tree for McCain.)
Early in the campaign, Democrats Barack Obama and John Edwards made their refusal to accept contributions from Washington lobbyists big selling points. Last August, at the “Yearly Kos” progressive bloggers’ convention, Edwards challenged his opponents to refuse all such money. “I think my party, the Democratic Party, the party of the people,” he proclaimed, “ought to say from this day forward we will never take a dime from a Washington lobbyist.”
Hillary Clinton drew fire from the assembled activists for refusing to take such a stand. She argued that no lobbyist or interest had ever influenced any of her decisions and went so far as to as to defend the role of Washington lobbyists, saying that “a lot of those lobbyists, whether you like it or not, represent real Americans.”
On the Republican side, Mike Huckabee has come out against what he calls the “legions of lobbyists who manipulate” Washington. Two other GOP candidates now out of the race had even cashed in big from lobbying, Fred Thompson as a registered Washington lobbyist and Rudy Giuliani as a name partner in a huge lobbying firm.
As for McCain, a section of his campaign’s website highlights the Arizona senator’s commitment to lobbying reform and boasts that he “has fought for public disclosure of those who lobby lawmakers for a living.” But McCain, like the other remaining candidates, is mum when it comes to the issue of voluntarily disclosing — as Kerry did in 2004 — his own meetings with lobbyists.
The Clinton, Huckabee, McCain, Obama, and Ron Paul presidential campaigns did not respond to the Center’s inquiries, by telephone and e-mail, as to whether they are willing to make public their candidates’ meetings with lobbyists over the past five years.