Lobbyists take on diminished role in Denver

DENVER — The parties raged. The glad-handing hasn’t stopped. But lobbyists say their formal role in the Mile High City’s convention has been much more subdued than at past events.

Some of Washington’s most prominent Democratic lobbyists are not handling key jobs that they performed for the past several conventions.

{mosads}Tim Keating, who lobbies for Boeing, has helped handle credentials at every Democratic convention since 1996, but did not volunteer in Denver. John Orlando, a lobbyist with CBS, also isn’t working the convention.

Several lobbyists said the lower K Street presence in the convention hall is directly related to Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) presidential campaign, which has worked to distance its candidate from K Street while vowing to clean up Washington.

“It’s clear that they don’t want media outlets to know about us,” said a lobbyist attending the convention. “It is basically Obama World.”

Some lobbyists who reached out in advance to see if they could help out at the convention didn’t get the sense they were welcome. Steve Palmer, a vice president at Van Scoyoc Associates, asked six months ago but was told at the end of July he would not be needed to volunteer.

“I think it was pretty clear. They didn’t want any registered lobbyists involved,” said Palmer, who had no hard feelings over the episode.

Palmer volunteered as a liaison at the 2000 and 2004 Democratic conventions, where he helped seat lawmakers’ state delegations and arranged private meetings for senior officials. Palmer was told congressional aides would have that responsibility this year.

Of course lobbyists still have a presence. Several K Street firms have hosted parties attended by lawmakers, staff and delegates, and new ethics rules seem to have done little to tamp down the partying. Party invitations often said the events were cleared by the House and Senate ethics committees.

But this presence isn’t in the convention hall, where in the past professional lobbyists have helped ensure the actual convention works smoothly.

Some say lobbyists are stepping back voluntarily because they don’t want to hurt Obama. “People are stepping aside because they don’t want to be part of the story,” said a senior Democratic lobbyist.

{mospagebreak}Obama’s campaign does not accept contributions from registered lobbyists, and none of his fundraisers are lobbyists. In addition, if the Illinois Democrat wins the election, lobbyists hired by an Obama administration cannot work on regulations or contracts affecting their former clients and cannot lobby the executive branch when they leave their government posts.

Obama has often criticized his GOP rival Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) for having several former lobbyists in senior positions running his campaign.

The anti-K Street mood was best symbolized by Democratic lobbyists Tony and Heather Podesta, who wore scarlet L’s to mark themselves as lobbyists.

{mosads}Some lobbyists skipping the Denver convention say it has nothing to do with their profession.

“The convention folks decided they wanted to start bringing in some new blood into this thing since most of us are into our 60s,” said Robert Healy, a senior vice president at Wexler & Walker Public Policy Associates, who has helped coordinate the Democratic convention’s master schedule since 1980. He’s skipped Denver.

“It didn’t have anything to do with lobbyists because there were lobbyists and non-lobbyists on my team,” said Healy, whose work included making sure speakers were ready to take the podium when scheduled and ensuring their names were pronounced correctly.

The convention has turned to some lobbyists for help. For example, Steve Farber of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck is a member of the convention’s executive committee and helped raise funds for the event.

But some lobbyists in Denver said they are staying on the fringes of the convention’s operation instead of in the center, like at past events.

Many lobbyists saw the Democratic National Convention’s decision in June to ban contributions from lobbyists as a sign of a cultural shift. It was a decision that brought the convention in line with Obama’s campaign, but may have led some lobbyists to distance themselves from the event.

Mike Berman, president of the Duberstein Group, declined the offer from convention staff in 2007 to help in Denver this year. He had worked every Democratic convention since 1968, either as a Capitol Hill aide, campaign official or lobbyist, often working with Healy on backstage preparations.

This year, he planned to be on vacation in San Francisco.

“I decided if I am not going to really work the convention, I shouldn’t go,” Berman said in an interview before the convention began. “I enjoy my social life outside of the convention more than my social life at the convention.”