This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Dec. 10, 2012 - WASHINGTON – When former U.S. Rep. and House Majority Leader Richard A. Gephardt drops by his old stomping grounds in St. Louis, he sometimes has business goals as well as personal and philanthropical reasons for his visits.
That’s because a few of the Atlanta-based Gephardt Group’s big clients have offices in St. Louis, including Anheuser-Busch/Inbev, Peabody Energy Corp., Boeing Co. and Ameren. And records indicate that Gephardt does some of the Capitol Hill lobbying for those firms, on issues ranging from F/A-18 Super Hornet funding to the surface transportation bill.
Last year a prominent lobby-tracking group rated Gephardt among Washington’s top 10 former-lawmaker lobbyists; this year his group reported more than $4 million in lobbying income, with more than 30 clients.
But Gephardt is hardly alone among former Missouri members of Congress who have graduated to new careers that involve dealing with Capitol Hill or the federal government in one way or another.
In fact, at least half a dozen formerly prominent Missouri lawmakers – senators, governors, House members – have been involved in providing or supervising lobbying, consulting services or “strategic advice” for clients. It’s legal but is part of what critics call the “revolving door” between lawmakers, federal rulemakers and the $3 billion a year influence industry.
The Open Secrets watchdog group lists 163 former members of Congress who lobbied in 2009 in its “revolving door” index. That list doesn’t include the thousands of congressional and agency staff members who have at times shifted back and forth.
And the Missouri list doesn’t yet include U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, R-Cape Girardeau, who will leave Congress in February to become chief executive of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, which spends about $2 million a year on lobbying. While Emerson herself won’t lobby – it’s forbidden for a year after a House member leaves office – the NRECA is listed as a “heavy hitter” in Washington’s influence sphere.
Emerson could also be joined in the government-influence sphere by one or more of the three other U.S. House members from the St. Louis area who will leave Congress in early January: Reps. Russ Carnahan, D-St. Louis; Todd Akin, R-Wildwood; and Jerry Costello, D-Belleville. They haven't yet announced what they plan to do after leaving public service.
Ashcroft firm: 'strategic consulting,' legal advice
As will be the case with Emerson’s new job, many former lawmakers don’t personally lobby on Capitol Hill but are involved in providing clients (or association members) with “strategic advice,” legal services, or simply expertise related to federal government agencies.
For example, former Missouri Gov., U.S. Sen. and U.S. Attorney General John D. Ashcroft chairs the Virginia-based Ashcroft Group (closely associated with the Ashcroft Law Firm), which offers “strategic consulting” for firms on topics such as government regulation, national security and corporate governance.
“We don’t do much lobbying, if any at all,” Ashcroft told the Beacon in December 2010. “I haven’t been to the [Capitol] Hill – except to get a haircut – for a year. It is a law firm and consulting firm that assists institutions and individuals in complying with federal regulations.”
Seated in a spacious conference room in the firm’s Washington office, with a pleasant view of street scenes near McPherson Square, Ashcroft said: “I don’t know if we’re registered [as lobbyists] on any issues right now, or not. We generally go into a company and say, ‘This is what you need to do to get your act [together] in order to avoid problems'.”
While the Ashcroft Group avoids discussing its clients, news reports over the years have linked the firm – at one time or another since its founding in 2005 – to several companies or associations, including General Dymanics, Oracle Corp., eBay, the National Association of Broadcasters and the Rockefeller Family Fund.
Last year, Ashcroft also became an "independent director" of Xe Services LLC, a formerly controversial security and training firm previously called Blackwater Worldwide -- and since renamed Academi. Ashcroft's role was to lead an advisory subcommittee focusing on efforts to bolster the firm's governance, compliance and accountability. The new owners wanted to improve the tarnished image that included a deadly 2007 shootout in Iraq.
Among the Ashcroft law firm’s top attorneys is Catherine Hanaway, a partner in the Ashcroft Hanaway law firm in St. Louis. She is a former U.S. attorney for Missouri’s eastern district and was the only woman to serve as speaker of the Missouri House of Representatives (2003-05).
Last month, Hanaway was named to head the congressional “transition team” for U.S. Rep.-elect Ann Wagner, a Republican from Ballwin who will represent Missouri's 2nd congressional district. Hanaway and another lawyer were to interview job applicants and help organize Wagner’s congressional offices in St. Louis County and in Washington.
A prominent former partner of the Ashcroft Group was former Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt, a Republican from Springfield who joined the firm in April 2009 as a consultant focusing on government issues. In February 2011, Blunt – the son of U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo. – became president of the American Automotive Policy Council, a trade group that represents policy interests of the Big Three U.S.-based automakers.
Some former lawmakers lobby, others consult
Among the other former members of the U.S. House from Missouri who have lobbied on Capitol Hill are former U.S. Reps. Kenny Hulshof, a Republican from central Missouri, and Alan Wheat, a Kansas City Democrat.
In fact, Wheat founded his own firm, Wheat Government Relations, which records show has had lobbying income of more than $1 million this year, representing health services and casino gambling firms.
Hulshof, who lobbied as a prominent attorney for the Polsinelli Shughart law firm for three years after leaving office -- and still lists six clients there -- recently also joined the
In its news release announcing Hulshof’s hiring last February – subtitled, “Former House Ways & Means Committee member boosts firm’s lobbying activities" – the
Former congressman and U.S. Sen. Jim Talent, a Republican from St. Louis County, lobbied for the Arent, Fox firm between his stints in the House and Senate and was later associated with the Fleishman-Hillard Inc. public affairs and consulting firm.
But Talent has not registered as a lobbyist in Washington since 2001, and has focused most of his efforts recently on policy advising – as a senior adviser on security issues to GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, a senior fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, and vice chair of a bipartisan research group called the WMD Terrorism Research Center.
Talent also was listed as a co-chairman of the Washington-based Mercury public affairs firm – which has joined forces with the Clark & Weinstock government relations firm. Mercury’s clients have included the St. Louis-based Peabody Energy Inc., the world’s largest private-sector coal company.
Another prominent Republican – former Missouri Gov. and U.S. Sen. Christopher Kit Bond, who now lives mainly in Ladue – is more focused on business consulting. After he retired from the Senate two years ago, Bond became a partner in the law firm Thompson Coburn LLP and later established an international business consulting firm called Kit Bond Strategies (KBS), of which he is chairman.
Bond emphasizes that he does not lobby in either position -- and the Senate, aides say, requires a “cooling off” period of two years before a former senator can lobby former colleagues. Bond says his focus is on business development and advice: helping firms in Missouri and elsewhere expand their international markets, especially in the Far East.
With a long-term interest in Asia, Bond recently – in his position with KBS – accompanied trade missions, in partnership with the World Trade Center St. Louis – to China and Indonesia. "We've struck a responsive chord because businesses recognize that they can grow here [in Missouri] and create more jobs by exporting or setting up joint operations," Bond said earlier this year.
Bond also keeps his hand in Missouri politics – attending the Republican National Convention in Tampa and supporting Romney – and he is involved in nonpartisan initiatives such as co-chairing the Bipartisan Policy Center's housing commission, which held a hearing in St. Louis last summer. He wants to help find ways to bolster the nation's struggling housing industry.
One of Bond's former colleagues, former U.S. Rep. Ike Skelton -- a Democrat from Lexington, Mo., who chaired the powerful House Armed Services Committee before being defeated in 2010 -- went to work last year as a partner with the Missouri-based law firm, Husch Blackwell LLP.
In March 2011, Husch Blackwell announced that Skelton would join the firm to “advise firm attorneys and clients on a variety of legal and public policy issues, especially matters related to national defense, small business and international trade.” He has worked primarily from the firm's Washington, D.C., office.
"While other national firms courted me to come aboard, Husch Blackwell's national footprint and strong Missouri roots make it the right fit for me," Skelton said in the new release announcing his new job.
"Their government contracts group is among the strongest in the country, and I'm eager to start working with their impressive team of attorneys."
Gephardt portfolio includes labor-management advice
When the lobbying resource publication First Street listed what it considered to be Washington’s “top federal lobbyists” last year, Gephardt was among them.
The Gephardt Group's lobbying earnings are nowhere near as high as the firms of some other prominent ex-lawmakers -- notably, former U.S. Sens. John Breaux of Louisiana and Trent Lott of Mississippi, who work in tandem as the "Breaux Lott Leadership Group" at the Patton Boggs LLP lobbying powerhouse.
But First Street reported that Gephardt's reputation for "flexibility, along with a long list of connections, has helped him become one of the top earning lobbyists among former members of Congress."
Like many other firms -- such as the Ashcroft Group, whose CEO, David Ayres, was Ashcroft's chief of staff at the Justice Department and his top aide in the Senate -- the Gephardt Group was founded along with key staffers from Gephardt's years as a Democratic leader. Tom O'Donnell, who was the St. Louis congressman's staff chief on Capitol Hill, is the Group's managing partner. Gephardt's son Matt is the Group's chief operating officer and a partner.
Over the last few years, the Gephardt Group's major clients have included General Electric Co.; Peabody Energy; Boeing; Anheuser-Busch; the Goldman Sachs Group; Waste Management Corp.; and Rational Entertainment, which runs an online poker site.
“We’re involved all over the country. We’re doing really interesting stuff. And I really enjoy it,” Gephardt said in a brief interview last year.
The lobbying part of his operation is called Gephardt Government Affairs, which is listed as providing "strategic advice, government relations and issue management services across a spectrum of issues and industries."
But Gephardt told the Beacon that much of what he does involves consultations on labor-management relations. That part of the group, called the Gephardt Labor Advisory, advertises itself as specializing "in high performance workplace implementations, cultural change consulting and labor relations strategy."
Gephardt's reach extends well beyond his firm. For example, he serves on the board of the Ford Motor Co. and contributes both time and resources to the non-profit Gephardt Institute for Public Service, based at Washington University in St. Louis. He said the institute's goal is "to get young people, and others -- including seniors -- involved in public service."
Gephardt is also a major contributor to Democratic campaigns, with Open Secrets reporting his total contributions as a lobbyist at about $115,000 and the Gephardt family's personal contributions at $121,500 during the 2012 election cycle. Among the top recipients was U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., to whose re-election campaign he contributed $2,500 as a lobbyist, while he and family members contributed an additional $3,500.
And Gephardt has been outspoken on some major issues, recently taking part last month in a post-election forum sponsored by the National Journal about the need for a compromise to avoid the "fiscal cliff" of tax hikes and across-the-board spending cuts that could go into effect on Jan. 1 if Congress fails to act.
Last week, Gephardt joined a dozen other former congressional leaders in signing an open letter -- published in the Washington Post -- calling on Americans to urge action on the "painful and difficult compromises by Congress and the president" that will be needed to forge a long-term solution.