General lobbyist picks telecom forte

Alan Roth describes himself as a generalist.

The Washington veteran has served as a campaign volunteer, congressional aide, contract lobbyist and even a
litigator during a nearly 30-year career in politics and policy.

{mosads}Now Roth sees himself settling down at USTelecom , which he will join as a senior executive vice president in June.

“It’s time to grow up. Pick an issue and stick with it,” said Roth, a longtime aide to Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. “I don’t know if I would have done this with any other association.”

Roth’s colleagues at his own firm, Lent Scrivner & Roth , which he is leaving after eight years, say he’ll be missed.

“He is one of the smartest and most reputable people I know,” said Norm Lent III, a principal at Lent Scrivner & Roth. “Alan combines excellent analytical skills with excellent interpersonal skills. He’s tops in both areas.”

The Brooklyn, N.Y., native will have a lot on his plate at the trade association. In the first quarter of this year alone, USTelecom spent more than $1.5 million on lobbying, according to disclosure documents filed with the Senate.

Roth’s primary focus at the association will be lobbying for legislation and regulations that would help extend broadband access to more parts of the country. This is of critical importance to the telecom providers that pay dues to his new association. It’s also an issue that would put Roth back in touch with his former boss, the legendary Dingell.

Roth first got involved in politics during the upheaval of the 1960s. He was drawn in as a teenager when he heard news of the 1968 assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. on his 13-inch television while doing homework. Soon enough, he was stalking the halls of his junior high school with a Eugene McCarthy campaign button.

“It was kind of weird. Kids at that age are usually not that politically aware,” Roth said.

Roth ended up volunteering at a phone bank in New York, where he worked to get out the vote for his local assemblyman as well as the Hubert Humphrey-Edmund Muskie presidential ticket.

That was the first of many campaigns Roth has worked on. Over the past 40 years, Roth, an American University graduate, estimates he has been involved with 18 campaigns overall, either as a volunteer or in a paid position.

Through the campaigns, Roth built contacts that led to his return to Washington in the mid-1980s.

Roth had been working with a Connecticut law firm on a variety of cases, from dog bites to corporate mergers.

Politics called again in the summer of 1984, when Roth took a leave of absence to help run a friend’s congressional campaign. His friend narrowly lost, and Roth decided he could not return to his law firm.

“I took a leave of absence from my law firm because, frankly, I was bored,” said Roth. “Good lawyers, nice people, but I didn’t like what I was working on and was not getting any fulfillment from it.”

Roth sold his house, packed up his car and headed to Capitol Hill. He began calling and meeting with everyone he knew from past campaigns, using a day calendar to keep track of meetings. He still keeps the 1984 calendar to remind him of those hectic days.

“It’s just a little reminder to me of how people, total strangers, were so helpful to me during this networking process,” said Roth.

One prior campaign contact in particular paid off.

Roth had worked for Mike Kitzmiller, the press secretary for former Rep. Ogden Reid’s (D-N.Y.) New York gubernatorial campaign in 1974.

A decade later, Kitzmiller was in Washington working as staff director to Dingell, and he had an opening that needed to be filled in his congressional office.

Roth won the job, and spent 12 years in Dingell’s office. Eventually he became staff director and chief counsel for the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the powerful panel on which Dingell serves as chairman.

“Alan is a man of tremendous decency, integrity and ability,” Dingell told The  Hill. “He is one of the most capable and responsible advisers I have ever had.”

Roth said he learned much from Dingell while helping the committee draft its annual budget resolution proposal.

The experience exposed him to the panel’s wide jurisdiction, which led him to work on everything from cable industry regulations to instituting drug testing.

Roth only started to pine for a new job after Republicans took over the House in the 1994 midterm elections. Life in the minority led Roth to look for new challenges.

“It had gotten to a point where I just stopped learning. I could do the job with my eyes closed,” said Roth.

Again, an old friend would help with Roth’s transition. This time it was Walter McCormick, a former general counsel in the first Bush administration’s Transportation Department.

McCormick helped convince Roth to give up the Hill for a lobbying career at the law firm Bryan Cave in 1997. He stayed there for three years before becoming a name partner at his own firm.

Now, as president and CEO of USTelecom, McCormick is hiring Roth once again.

Roth is a longtime Democratic operative, but says he looks forward to working with both sides of the aisle as a telecom lobbyist. He said the industry’s issues traditionally have not been partisan.

“I do miss the good old days,” he said. “When I worked on the Hill, I never remember asking a lobbyist what party he was a member of.”

“There should be more of that. We should get back around to it.”