Party on carefully, says panel

It’s official. There will be no lobbyist-funded “Dreier Martini” or “Boehner Warehouse” blowouts at the summer’s presidential nominating conventions.

But the convention partying is hardly over.

{mosads}The House ethics committee on Tuesday issued its long-awaited guidelines on member attendance at events taking place during the party conventions.

Ethics watchdogs hailed the guidance as a strict interpretation of both the spirit and letter of the new ethics and lobbying law.

“I’m pleasantly surprised,” said Craig Holman of Public Citizen. “The guidelines are really well thought through and follow what was intended by the law.”

Most important, lobbyists or organizations that employ lobbyists cannot underwrite parties that honor a member or members of Congress by name.

“Thus, an event that is organized to honor a delegation or caucus, without naming any specific Member of the delegation or caucus, or providing any special benefit or opportunity to a particular Member, would be an event that Members may participate in,” the House ethics advisory opinion states.

But ethics experts hired to interpret the rules for lobbyists or their parent organizations are not crying in their beers.

In fact, according to ethics lawyer Ken Gross, there are plenty of opportunities for lobbyists to sponsor events at the national political conventions as long as the events are held for a group of members, such as the Congressional Black Caucus or the Ohio and California delegations.
One would likely never notice any difference in the number and lavishness of the soirees in Minneapolis and Denver in 2008 from the party scenes in Boston and New York four years before, Gross added.

The main difference, he said, will be in the language on the invites. In 2008, many more will be written to honor caucuses and state delegations rather than chairmen of powerful committees or party leaders.

“Maybe it will be known through the grapevine who’s going to be there and who’s not,” Gross said. “But it won’t nominally honor them during the convention.”

And there are other ways “to skin the cat,” Gross said.

If a lobbyist or lobbyist-employer belongs to another ideological group that doesn’t employ lobbyists, that group could sponsor a party honoring one member of Congress by name.

Lobbyists or organizations that employ lobbyists also are allowed to sponsor widely attended parties and receptions before the convention officially begins or ends as long as they comply with the underlying gift rules that are enforced year-round.

Lobbyists also can underwrite fundraising and charitable events at the conventions or host widely attended events honoring no one in particular, which would be subject to the same type of ethics restrictions that apply outside of the convention.

“The reception exception is still in the law,” Gross said. “You can still have your meatballs on toothpicks as long as the Sterno is glowing in the room.”

Despite these party-throwing options, most ethics experts agree that the new rules will change the atmosphere surrounding events where members rub elbows with the corporate world — and lawmakers and staff can’t party-hop with complete abandon.

Marcia Hale, a longtime public policy strategist at McKenna, Long & Aldridge who was involved in planning the Democratic conventions that nominated Al Gore and Michael Dukakis, urges caution.

“I won’t say [the new guidelines and rules] will change the level of partying or the activities, but people should not be cute about this,” she said. “If members have questions about whether they [should] go do something, they should consult the ethics committee and counsel.”

Hale added that she believes the convention host committees could benefit from the new lobbying rules, because lobbyists may be more inclined to underwrite the official event rather than draw members away from it with parties.

If members push the envelope, there is a good chance a reporter will write about it at a convention, given that many of them will be looking for fresh angles to a scripted event with little real news to write about.

Holman argues that just the threat of scrutiny could act as a deterrent for groups that interpret the law creatively.

“Most Americans find these conventions disgusting, just soirees that allow the moneyed interests to hobnob with lawmakers,” he said. “If members are holding fundraisers at the convention, it would just bring back images of the old Roman Empire with Caligula. That just won’t sit well with the American public.”