Just Sayin'...

Lame Duck not the only ones talking about the Democrat lobbyist problem.

Frank Cagle weighed in recently on the coming change.  New York Times also featured a recent Sunday article about Republican lobbyists being courted.  Just how arrogant (or naïve) does one have to be to think Nashville Democrat lobbyists are immune to reality?

Excerpts from the Cagle column:

http://www.metropulse.com/news/2010/sep/08/republicans-vie-governors-mansion-house-senate-wha/

Who Controls the Lobby?
Republicans after governor, House, Senate, but what about the other branch?
By Frank Cagle

During the century that the Democrats controlled the Tennessee General Assembly, there grew up a cadre of influential lobbyists. They contributed money to Democratic candidates’ election campaigns, kept them wined and dined, and served as unofficial instruments of the Democratically controlled leadership.

…This is not to say the lobbyists didn’t buy the occasional meal for Republicans or give small campaign contributions to Republican members in safe seats. After all, they needed a Republican vote now and then. But lobbyists knew where the power lay and were loath to offend the Democratic leadership.

…There was a similar situation in Washington after the Republican takeover in 1994.

…Word went out that if you wanted your bill passed, maybe you ought to be hiring Republican lobbyists and not Democrats.

…Democrats have charged that this is an effort to intimidate lobbyists and prevent money flowing to Democratic candidates. Of course it is. And if Republicans get firm control, they will control redrawing all the legislative and congressional districts, a power the Democrats have held for decades. This could ensure Republican control of the Legislature for years, if not decades, to come. It has to give a lobbyist pause.

…The Republicans may take the governor’s chair and retain control of the Senate and the House in this election. It also looks like they intend to get control of that other branch of government: the boys and girls in the hall.

Craven Crowell vs. Craven Cowards

While Democrat lobbyists are scurrying about desperately trying to buy influence, maybe they could try to buy some courage as well.  The recent and much-discussed “Democrats for Haslam” list included such Dem luminaries as Craven Crowell and Drew Kim.  At least the people on the list had the political courage to admit that (a) they were Democrats, and (b) they were openly supporting Haslam.

Compare their acts of political courage with all those Democrat lobbyists who are frantically trying to hide their years of partisan back-stabbing of Republicans, now that the Republicans are looking at a clean sweep of state government.  The Crowells and Kims put their names out in the open for all to see, while the Lame Duck Lobbyists try to hide behind their client’s PAC checks.

The chickens for the Lame Ducks are finally coming home to roost...

Death Bed Conversions or Trying to Buy Fire Insurance?

A handful of Democrat lobbyists have at least made token attempts to hire a Republican or two as a front for their partisan shops. Unlike Miss Anna (see previous posting), they figure that even a token Republican is better than none. Of course, as you will see in the example below, such "affirmative action" hiring act does not even slow them down in funneling money to Democrats trying to beat the very Republican legislators they do business with.

Attack of the BINOs (Bi-Partisans in Name only)

Naturally, they would prefer to forego hiring any Republicans at all, but most Democrat lobbyists are only going through the motions. For example, a short while back, Johnson & Poss hired an intern for Lamar Alexander straight out of college and listed her as a name lobbyist with several of their clients (now that ought to satisfy those pesky critics among the Republican leadership). We're sure their clients are feeling very prophylactic (and perhaps under-represented) these days.

But one of the most obvious attempts to purchase some GOP good will by hiring a Republican comes from one of the most partisan Democrat lobbyists of them all: Randy Button.

"Are You Randy, Baby?"


Case Study: Randy Button – Capitol Strategy Group

Despite having an unfortunate name that sounds like the title of a B-grade porn movie, Randy Button has and continues to screw the GOP (metaphor intended).

The former two-term Democrat state party chairman, Button has put together a profitable business and shared his success almost exclusively with his Democrat friends. On the federal contributions level, Button has dedicated 100% to Democrats, contributing over $40,000 including nearly $13,000 to the Tenn. Democrat Party in the ever-popular scam of using Democrat federal accounts to hide money from Republican state legislators.

Seeing the writing on the wall, about a year or so ago Button tried to buy himself a Republican passport by hiring a former Republican legislator, Steve Buttry. But that didn't change Button's bias. Up to the time that he hired Buttry, Button gave 100% of his contributions to Democrats. Since hiring Buttry, has Randy changed his stripes? Nah. 100% of Randy’s contributions since hiring Buttry have continued to go to Democrats. Now that’s bipartisanship in action, isn’t it?

All told, over the last several years Button has given over $65,000 exclusively to Democrats, including over $20,000 since he hired his lone Republican.

For his part, Buttry has given just a few hundred bucks to the GOP since signing on with Button.

Cleary, Randy is not paying Steve enough.

Facebook Faceoff -- Day14.


How long before the Cock Crows for Nathan Poss?

As reported by LDL, Republican wannabe Nathan Poss is acting all GOP and stuff, yet his hard-core Democrat roots are showing up in unexpected places. On Poss’s personal homepage on Facebook under "Likes and Interests" he highlights mostly Democrats, including linking to his friend Mike McWherter’s campaign site.

But does Poss even mention the most recent target of his amorous (read: sucking up) advances – Bill Haslam? Does he link to him? Has he, like several thousand other Tennesseans, even added Haslam to his "Friends" list?

Nope.

Still waiting, Nathan. Gee, Judas Iscariot 'fessed up faster than this…..


Coming Up:

Miller & Martin, Mandy & Moola

and

Even more Johnson, Poss: “Money Laundering” vs. “Money Drycleaning”

and

Take a Number: You lobbyist will be with you shortly.

October Surprise?

Retiring Congressmen John Tanner and Bart Gordon each have over $1 million in leftover funds in their campaign coffers.  That could prove to be an enormous problem for state legislative Republicans in the 2010 elections.

If John & Bart decide to transfer huge sums to the Tennessee Democratic Party (and they have done so many times before) or to other Democrat party organizations or even an independent expenditure committee to be spent on defeating House Republican candidates – look out.  In the past, their contributions totaled in the six figures.  But that amount could increase into the millions.  Spread out over a half-dozen or so House races could make a huge impact in who controls the House next session.

There are early signs of this phenomenon starting to take place (for example, a $2,000 to David LaRoche on June 12 of this year from the Bart Gordon for Congress Committee).  More is sure to follow.

It would take a monumental effort by the Republican leadership just to get back to parity if that were to occur.  And as we saw in our last edition (“Hide the Money”), you can thank your Democrat lobbyist “friends” for helping make it happen.

Will they do it?  History says it's likely they will.  Stay tuned.

Love Your Hair (Hate Your Guts)
The Queen Bee with a Capital "D"

Case study: The Windrow Group

Anna Windrow has long been a Belle of the Ball among the Dems, epitomizing the way their lobbyists operate in Nashville. She took a whirl with Phil Bredesen and turned it into a profitable lobbying enterprise. But along the way she decided that only Democrats would be allowed to milk the cash cow she’s created. If you are a Republican, in perfect Southern Belle fashion Miss Anna can smile when she brings in a client to meet you, then go back to her office to scheme how she can get you beat in the next election.

Windrow doesn't even pretend she likes Republicans. Trickling down two paltry $1,000 contributions to the GOP in 2009 (believed her first ever to the GOP), Windrow has saved the vast majority of her largess for Democrats only (over $35,000 the last few years). Windrow is an old hand on the Underground River. In recent years, Windrow has also contributed 100% of her federal contributions (over $20,000) to her fellow Democrats.

"Oh, Lawdy, Miss Anna. I don’t know nothin' 'bout lobbyin' them Republicans!"

Marrying into Money

Windrow's contribution habits extend to her company's personnel practices as well. Unlike those Democrats who try to hire a token Republican or two, she has concentrated on hiring the progeny of two of the most notorious Democrat lobbyists/fundraisers in the state: Dick Lodge and Charles Bone. This has only added to the available campaign cash she has helped direct (exclusively) to Democrats. How much cash are we talking about?

Combined with her own contributions and those of the daddies of her only two employees, Windrow's firm has become the indirect beneficiary of their families' $150,000+ in accumulated contributions to Democrats since 2000.

And what did they give to the Republicans? Exactly $0. Zip. Nada. Butkis.

Faced with the prospect of new Republican regime, Miss Anna is now probably asking herself: "But what will I do? Wherever shall I go?"

Frankly, Miss Anna, we don’t give a damn.

Coming Up:

Praise the Lord and Bless the Statesman’s Dinner. I’ve been redeemed.

See Dem lobbyists trying to buy a second mortgage on their souls in order to avoid being cast out of the Garden of Politics

and

Are you Randy, Baby?

How The Dems Do It: Hiding the money from the Republicans

Democrat lobbyists such as Anna Windrow or Randy Button may occasionally give some money (or had their clients' PACs contribute) to Republicans, especially recently. But these paltry sums pale in comparison to what they have personally given and continue to give to Democrats, particularly at the federal level.

Why are federal contributions made by Democrat lobbyists important? For one, they are easier to research than state contributions (LDL will also be releasing their state contributions as well, so stay tuned).

Federal contributions are also an accurate and revealing window into the depth of an individual's partisanship. State campaign finance reforms made it illegal for lobbyists to contribute directly to state legislative candidates, but it did make it possible for them to use their clients' PACs to donate and Democrat lobbyists have used that shell game to maximum effect. But when it is their own money at stake, when they think the Republicans are not looking, Democrat lobbyists show their true colors – and the results are stunning.

During the last few years, leading Democrat registered lobbyists in Nashville have contributed $690,988 to candidates at the federal level. 96% of all federal contributions went to Democrats. During that same time period, they donated just $30,400 to Republicans through federal accounts (about 4% of the total).

But the most important reason for following lobbyists' federal contributions is the fact that a significant portion of Democrat lobbyists' federal contributions find their way right back into state Democrat coffers – organizations whose primary purpose is to defeat Republicans at the state legislative level.

LDL has uncovered over $130,000 that went directly from local Democrat lobbyists and their families to a federal account set up by the Tennessee Democrat Party just since 2002 (this is believed to be only a fraction of such re-routed money). And not one penny of these lobbyists' federal contributions showed up in the state's campaign finance reports. Pretty slick, huh? This amount is in addition to the huge sums they have given directly to Democrat leadership PACs and individual candidates (before the lobbyists reforms made direct contributions illegal). And they show no signs of slowing down in the face of a Republican takeover.

But even more money found its way back to Democrat legislative candidates through an even more circuitous route:

The Democrat "Circle of Funding"

Tennessee Democrat lobbyists have found yet another avenue to hide contributions to Democrat state legislative candidates. They do this by contributing to safe, entrenched Democrat Congressmen and to national party organizations who then turn around and send checks to the TDP and the Democrat Caucus. That way they can hide their contributions from Republican legislators they are pretending to befriend.

How much are we talking about? The amount of money coming back to the TDP just from the coffers of Tennessee Democrat congressmen is staggering, a veritable "underground river" of money flowing to the Dems. Since 2001, the Tennessee Democrat Congressional delegation has donated at least $840,000 from their federal campaign accounts just to the Tennessee Democrat Party. In one case, Bart Gordon, with no serious opposition that year, wrote a single check for $80,000 to the TDP. In one year (2004), John Tanner donated over $121,000. In the most recent election cycle of 2008, Tanner, Gordon, Davis and Cooper contributed over $120,000 to the TDP. And a lot of that money came from state Democrat lobbyists who contributed repeatedly to the campaigns of these "safe" congressmen.

Nothing like using your favorite Democrat Congressman as a convenient money laundering service, eh?

Check back later to see yet another way the Democrat lobbyists try to hide their contributions to Democrats in key legislative races from the eyes of the Republican Leadership.

After a Career of Moving to the Left, Nathan Poss Tries Another Direction.

When Republican lobbyists met week before last to plan their fundraising efforts for Bill Haslam, jaws dropped when in through the door sashayed a hard-core, long-time Democrat partisan who had built his entire lobbying career on screwing over Republicans.

According to our source, at least two people in the room separately confirmed the Democrat trying to pass for a Republican was none other than one Nathan Poss: Right-hand man to Sen. Bob Rochelle. Republicans remember Rochelle as the father of the state income tax. And they remember Rochelle as one of the meanest, nastiest, most aggressive, torture-Republicans-for-sport Democrat partisans ever to walk the halls of the LP (just ask Mae Beavers). And here was his butt-buddy Nathan Poss acting as though he had had a "born-again" conversion as a – gag! – Republican? To say the actual Republicans who were present were appalled would be an understatement.

Was this is the same Nathan Poss who headed a Democrat State Legislative Victory campaign a few years back? The very same Democrat who pulled every trick Bob Rochelle ever taught him in an effort to keep the Republicans from ever achieving majority status in the state legislature?

And now he proclaims: "Ich bin ein, Republican?"

Poss is doing nothing more than trying to purchase a Republican green card with some last-minute fundraising.

Just how stupid does Poss think Republicans are? Pretty damn stupid, apparently.

"But I'm a 'Non-Partisan' Kind of Guy!"

Poss is reportedly now desperately trying to convince his clients that he can "play both sides" of the aisle – that he is a non-partisan operator. Yet the fact remains the reason most clients originally hired him and his partner, Bo Johnson, was precisely because the Democrats were in control back then and Poss and Johnson were/are very partisan Democrats.

As the picture above shows, it's mighty hard to move towards the Republicans when the only way you ever learned how to ride was with the Democrats. Nathan's bald-faced attempt to paper over his past has created a deep animosity among many Republican legislators who have watched for years as Johnson, Poss would gleefully meet behind close doors with the Democrat leadership to help systematically kill, gut or even "steal" Republican bills as they saw fit.

Known By the Company He Keeps

Just to confirm that Poss was not undergoing some sort of spiritual conversion to the party of Ronald Reagan, we made a visit to our favorite source: Facebook. And guess what we found? Among Poss's "Likes & Interests," he listed mostly politicians and mostly Democrats, except for the couple of Republicans (for appearances sake, we presume) including Joe Haynes, Lincoln Davis, Jim Kyle, Kim McMillan, Ty Cobb – you get the picture. A quick perusal of his 375 friends on Facebook also reveals an large number of Democrat activists listed as Nathan's "friends."

The most prominent politician he "liked" was Mike McWherter. Nathan even linked to his campaign web page.

As for his new found love, Bill Haslam? Whoops, he's not on Nathan's list. In fact he is not mentioned at all. Yet there Poss was, acting all GOP at the Haslam fundraising meeting.

Let's just hope the Haslam folks understand who they are dealing with here. They may be able to panic Nathan and his cronies into coughing up some cash for the new Haslam PAC, but they will never have access to Nathan's soul. He sold that years ago to the likes of Jimmy Naifeh, Bob Rochelle and other creatures of the night. And Nathan Poss knows that when the chips are down, Naifeh and the boys always collect what's owed them. Just ask "Speaker" Mumpower.

[More on Poss in future editions of "LameDuckLobbyists.com." -- Join us as we explore the wacky world of Poss's personal contributions to candidates through the years. Earn a chance to win prizes with a "Find that Johnson, Poss Contribution" contest.]

Coming up Next:

Born again Republicans?

"You know I was always with you guys, right, right? I was always pulling for you, ya know? I mean those years with the Democrats meant nothing to me -- nothing! God Bless Ronald Reagan! God Bless Republicans! God Bless John McCain! Please, oh puh-leeze believe me."

Plus:

Love Your Hair (Hate Your Guts)

The Queen Bee with a Capital "D"

Quantum Shift in Tennessee: The New World Order

"I'm gonna tell you 'bout the coming of the judgment
Fare thee well, fare thee well.

"In that great gettin' up morning, fare thee well, fare thee well
In that great gettin' up morning, fare thee well, fare thee well"

-- Words and Music by Luboff/Belafonte, 1955

For the last 130 years, the lobbying community in Nashville has been dominated by Democrats. Just how dominant? Among the leading "contract" lobbyists, Democrat out-number Republicans by at least 4 to 1, and that doesn’t count their numerical advantage among in-house lobbyists in associations, corporations and other interest groups. For generations they have had almost complete say over who companies hire to represent them before the state legislature.

That is about to change.

In an election of potentially historic shifts, the Republicans will likely have something they have not had since Reconstruction: both houses of the legislature and the governor's office all at the same time.

What does that mean for Democrat lobbyists? That depends.

Some of them have gone into full-panic mode, desperately seeking a Republican -- any Republican -- whose name they can tape on the door to try and hide their years of partisanship. Others are more arrogant -- not even trying to re-route contributions or add even a token Republican to their firm. These lobbyists figure they have gotten away with it until now, so why change?

If you are a company or association, you are about to face the need to make an honest, objective assessment of just who is representing you in the legislature and the new administration.

In short, if you have nothing but Democrats for lobbyists, you are about to receive a rude awakening.

If you are a Republican legislator -- especially a member of the leadership -- you will need to know the critical, eye-opening information this site is set to reveal over the next few weeks.

You will need to know what that smiling, back-slapping good ol' boy you have welcomed into your office in the past is really doing behind your back. What are these Democrat lobbyists up to when they think you are not looking? The big question: Just how dumb do they think you are?

Whether a Republican office holder, staffer or supporter, you need to understand these lobbyists are not your friends. In fact, as they contribute to your PAC, shake your hand and take you to dinner they are actively plotting your demise.

And this website will prove it.

STAY TUNED as we expose the Republican wannabes.

Next up:

• HHide the Money: The Underground River of campaign cash that continues to flow from Democratic lobbyists to Democrats in the state legislature.

• Queen Bee with a capital "D": How Anna Windrow can even get an appointment with Ron Ramsey is beyond us.

• Nathan Poss: Political Opportunist, Political Prostitute, or both?

Welcome

In Washington, all the talk is about lame duck Democrats, who may call Congress back into session after the election in order to wreak havoc on the American people before they are swept out of power.

But in Tennessee, there's a different kind of lame duck Democrat -- the lame duck lobbyist. Nashville is full of yellow dog Democrats who, seeing the writing on the wall, have put on a Republican mask to appeal to the legislative leadership.

But behind the scenes, they're still hoping Democrats will return to power. That's why they've funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars to Democratic campaigns and causes, while directing mere pennies to the very people they beg for dollars and favors in the legislature.

They have been good at hiding the truth. At playing the good 'ol boy game. At pretending they are born-again GOP bona fides.

But the truth will set the record straight.

An analysis of state records as well as information from inside sources will be delivered on this blog each week, demonstrating just how deep the river of cash flows from lobbyists to their back room allies.