A handful of former Republican electeds got a lot of media attention recently for opposing Trump's re-election bid.
Beyond the fact that many had endorsed Dems in 2016 or before, the reporting also ignored that *more than half* of them are lobbyists. 🧵usatoday.com/story/news/pol…
Beyond the fact that many had endorsed Dems in 2016 or before, the reporting also ignored that *more than half* of them are lobbyists. 🧵usatoday.com/story/news/pol…
We'll go through them alphabetically.
First, Tom Coleman of Missouri, currently of counsel for Stinson, Morrison & Hecker. (1) opensecrets.org/revolving/rev_…
First, Tom Coleman of Missouri, currently of counsel for Stinson, Morrison & Hecker. (1) opensecrets.org/revolving/rev_…
I think most people are familiar that Charlie Dent, former Representative of Pennsylvania, waited about 15 minutes longer than the mandatory 1-year cooling off period before becoming a lobbyist: (2) inquirer.com/news/pat-meeha…
Charles Djou, who formerly represented Hawaii, is on the payroll of Majority Group LLC, who bill themselves as "experienced professionals...steeped in the confluence of business demands, government processes and evolving political climates" (3) opensecrets.org/revolving/rev_…
Jim Greenwood, also formerly representing Pennsylvania, is now the CEO of BIO, an industry group that represents pharmaceutical and life sciences companies. (4) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_C._…
Jim Kolbe, former Representative from Arizona, is now a member of the Board of Counselors for Kissinger McLarty Associates. That's Kissinger as in Henry Kissinger: (5) maglobal.com/team/jim-kolbe/
Steve Kuykendall of California now runs Steven T Kuykendall & Associates, which works on legislative advocacy: (6) bloomberg.com/profile/compan…
Former Illinois rep and Secretary of Transportation Ray Lahood is now at DLA Piper: (7) opensecrets.org/revolving/rev_…
Susan Molinari - formerly a Representative for New York - recently left her role as top federal lobbyist for Google, so I guess technically she may not belong on this list: (8) nytimes.com/2018/11/02/tec…
former Mississippi rep Mike Parker has been working for Welch Resources: (9) opensecrets.org/federal-lobbyi…
Jack Quinn - the former NY Rep, not the other DC lobbyist - moved on from running a local community college to now serve "in the newly created role of senior advisor for public and community relations for Barclay Damon." (10) news.wbfo.org/post/quinn-fin…
Honestly I'm not entirely sure what Claudine Schneider of RI is doing but her website says: "My Goal is to: optimize my knowledge, skills and experience to facilitate and accelerate this transition for Governments, Business, NGOs or Foundations" (11) claudineschneider.com
Peter Smith of Vermont is currently Senior Vice President for Academic Strategies and Development at Kaplan Higher Education Corporation. (12) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Ply…
Jim Walsh is at K&L Gates. (13) klgates.com/james-t-walsh/
and, finally, Dick Zimmer has faced scrutiny before for his deregulatory bent as a lobbyist. (14) observer.com/2008/10/unconv…
This isn't to say that there's anything wrong with these men & women taking their experience in elected office & using it in their current roles.
But can we not pretend they're a collection of altruistic elder statesmen just concerned about the direction of their (former) party?
But can we not pretend they're a collection of altruistic elder statesmen just concerned about the direction of their (former) party?
And the media could've done all this digging - all publicly available, took me ~half an hour to find - but something tells me that "big-money DC lobbyist" doesn't have the same ring as "27 Republican former members of Congress say they'll back Biden over Trump" right @USATODAY?
