Hopes of a big impact with a small practice

With the recent launch of a solo lobbying operation, ex-Timmons & Co. Chairman and Managing Director Rich Tarplin is hoping that going small will mean making it big. 

After seven years helping build Timmons’s book of business, the Democratic lobbyist envisages his new firm, Tarplin Strategies, as a practice through which he can focus his energies on creating more successes for fewer clients.

{mosads}For Tarplin, a former aide to Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and then-Rep. Leon Panetta (D-Calif.) and an official at President Clinton’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the rewards from striking out on his own promise to outweigh the risks of walking away from a successful shop.

“I think I have the ability to attract an excellent clientele and I have the ability to be a resource and be a good advocate for those clients on the Hill because of the relationships I’ve built up over the course of many years,” he said.

Tarplin also wanted to narrow his focus while deepening his commitments to his clients.

“One of the great things about Timmons & Co. was the diversity of interests among our clients,” he said. “We basically had one or two clients in every major sector of the economy.” During his years at the firm, Tarplin was registered to lobby for clients ranging from the American Medical Association to Freddie Mac to AT&T to Napster.

Variety can be the spice of life, but Tarplin says he wants to focus on his strongest areas, namely healthcare and financial services.

Particularly on healthcare issues, Tarplin believes his background at HHS provides him with an unusual blend of experience on both Medicare payment issues and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approvals. Most congressional aides, agency employees and lobbyists in healthcare specialize in only one of those areas. “I’m able, because of my background, to work on both the reimbursement and the FDA regulatory side of the healthcare issues,” he said.

“I’m going to be real careful to develop a client portfolio that’s a good mix for me,” he said. For competitive reasons, Tarplin declined to disclose his first batch of clients.

“Because I’ll have a smaller number of clients, I’ll have more time to spend with each one to understand their issues better [and] to offer them more strategic advice in addition to being a good lobbyist,” Tarplin said.{mospagebreak}

This approach, he explains, is driven by the changing needs not only of clients, but of lawmakers and congressional aides, too.

“I think, increasingly, people on the Hill want to deal with lobbyists who can be a resource as well as an advocate,” he said.

{mosads}Tarplin has some ideas about strengthening his clients’ positions in Washington that he feels he can only implement with a smaller practice.

“One of my observations about business is that a lot of companies and trade associations could make more effective use of the assets and resources they have outside the Beltway,” he said. “One of the things I want to explore with my clients is identifying those resources and strategizing about how they can be used more effectively in combination with the Washington-based lobbying.”

Getting employees, managers, vendors and suppliers to act in concert with a company’s advocacy efforts could pay real dividends on Capitol Hill, Tarplin contends. “I think members and staff up on the Hill are looking for that kind of feedback from their constituents,” he said.

Tarplin grew up in Chappaqua, N.Y., where his father, Maurice Tarplin, was a radio, TV and stage performer. Although his family wasn’t active in electoral politics, his parents had strong views, he said. They handed down that passion to their son, who was driven to politics by his opposition to President Reagan’s nuclear weapon policies. In Washington, Tarplin still is part of a political family: His wife, Linda Tarplin, is a prominent lobbyist.

Rich Tarplin cut his teeth under Panetta. He worked his way up from a volunteer to a staffer in 1982 after arriving in Washington with a degree in political science from Skidmore College but without much of a plan.

“I packed up my Dodge Colt, came down to Washington to seek my fortune. … I quickly realized that I didn’t have the kind of political connections I needed to get a job on the Hill.”

Tarplin did well enough for Panetta that three years later, he became a subcommittee staff director under Dodd. During those years, he helped Dodd draft and push through the Family and Medical Leave Act, which he marks as his proudest accomplishment.

“To have the opportunity at such a young age to work closely with a senator over a period of six years to pass something that’s turned out to be so meaningful for so many families, I feel like I can look back and say I’ve done something really, truly good for people in my life,” Tarplin says.

Dodd’s tenacious pursuit of that legislation inspired Tarplin.

“One of the great experiences I had with Dodd was going door to door to senators’ offices laying out the rationale for the Family and Medical Leave Act and asking the senators to co-sponsor the bill. He and I probably visited over 50 offices, one at a time. The sheer drive and determination and the mastery of the policy that he showed really convinced me that one person can make a difference,” Tarplin said.

The Family and Medical Leave Act also served as Tarplin’s bridge to the executive branch at the beginning of the Clinton administration. “I left Dodd’s office the next day after the signing ceremony and went to work at HHS,” he said.

During those eight years, Tarplin got to be a part of initiatives, some successful and some not, to institute welfare reform, healthcare reform, a Medicare prescription-drug benefit, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program and an overhaul of the FDA.