Corporate Donors Seek Return On Investment in Bush Campaign
By TOM HAMBURGER, LAURIE MCGINLEY and DAVID S. CLOUD Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
WASHINGTON -- For the businesses that invested more money than ever before in George W. Bush's costly campaign for the presidency, the returns have already begun.
MBNA America Bank was one of the single largest corporate donors to the Bush campaign and other GOP electoral efforts last year. The bank and its employees gave a total of about $1.3 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a non-partisan clearinghouse here. Charles Cawley, MBNA's president, was a member of the Bush "pioneers," wealthy fund-raisers who each personally gathered at least $100,000 for the presidential campaign.
Mr. Cawley hosted Bush fund-raising events at his home in Wilmington, Del., last year and, in 1999, at his summer home in Maine, north of the Bush family retreat in Kennebunkport. At the Maine affair, 200 guests gathered in the early evening on the large porch of the Cawley home, situated on a hill with a sweeping view of the Atlantic Ocean. Guests sipped cocktails and heard a brief talk by the candidate.
The money didn't stop on election day. Mr. Cawley and his wife each gave the maximum of $5,000 to help fund Mr. Bush's fight in the Florida vote recount. Mr. Cawley gave an additional $100,000 to the Bush-Cheney inaugural committee, the most the committee would take from a single donor.
Last week, MBNA's investment began paying off. The company, one of the nation's three largest credit-card issuers, has been pushing for years to tighten bankruptcy laws that allow certain consumers filing for court protection, in effect, to disregard obligations to credit-card companies and other unsecured lenders. On Wednesday, the White House announced that President Bush would sign a bill now moving through Congress that would make it tougher for consumers to escape such debts. If enacted, the measure could translate into an estimated tens of millions of dollars in additional annual earnings for each of the big credit companies.
MBNA's vice chair, David Spartin, says his firm has no way to estimate how the legislation would affect the company's bottom line. MBNA has backed the bill for years "because we think it is good for consumers," as it will "reduce the cost of credit for everyone," Mr. Spartin says. The donations to President Bush and other candidates were made because "we think they would make excellent public officials," he adds. No MBNA official "has ever spoken to President Bush about the bill," Mr. Spartin says.
'Out of the Cave, Blinking'
Many corporations feel like a new day is dawning in Washington. "We have come out of the cave, blinking in the sunlight, saying to one another, 'My God, now we can actually get something done,' " says Richard Hohlt, Washington lobbyist for several other major banks which, like MBNA, are backing an industry coalition whose members provided some $26 million to Republicans during the 1999-2000 campaign cycle.
President Clinton last year vetoed a similar bill that would have toughened bankruptcy law. Consumer groups argue that such legislation would weaken protection for working families, many of whom have been the targets of aggressive credit-card marketing.
Also in action last week were members of a large coalition of Mr. Bush's business backers who want to roll back new federal rules designed to protect workers from repetitive-motion injuries.
In a private meeting with congressional leaders last Tuesday, President Bush signed off on a plan to kill the ergonomic regulations, using the powers of the Congressional Review Act. That act, passed in 1996, gives Congress 60 days to reject regulations issued by federal agencies. But it was never used during Mr. Clinton's term because to take effect, a resolution rejecting new rules has to be approved by the president.
Repealing the ergonomic rules ranks high on the priority lists of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers and the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors. The trade groups technically don't endorse candidates, but each of them mounted major grass-roots and advertising campaigns that benefited Mr. Bush and other Republicans in the 2000 elections.
A repeal would be a particularly hard loss for organized labor, which has fought for enactment of the ergonomic rules for 10 years, saying they are needed to protect workers from wrist, back and other injuries.
On employee safety, consumer bankruptcy and a host of other issues, Bush administration officials maintain they are acting strictly on the merits, not the money. Proponents of the bankruptcy bill, for example, point out that personal bankruptcy filings reached a record 1.4 million in 1998. The bill that would toughen the bankruptcy law won strong bipartisan support in the House last week, passing 309-106.
Business advocates maintain that the ergonomics rules include an overly broad definition of "musculoskeletal disorders" and that the new standards give employees claiming to have such disorders overly generous treatment: 90% of their salary and benefits for up to three months.
But as strongly as they believe in their arguments, business lobbyists acknowledge it's no accident that, following their massive support for the GOP, Republicans are moving quickly to address some of their top issues.
Mr. Bush ran the most costly presidential campaign in American history. Donors to his campaign and the Republican National Committee contributed a total of $314 million. Of that, more than 80% came from corporations or individuals employed by them. Al Gore and the Democratic National Committee raised $213 million, receiving strong support from labor organizations and their members. But more than 70% of the Democratic total also came from businesses and their employees.
These totals can be seen as somewhat inflated because most donors to either party work for a business. But the amounts don't included separate contributions from trade associations or independent business advertising. "The role of business last year was huge, and it overwhelmingly benefited Republicans," says Larry Makinson of the Center for Responsive Politics.
As the bankruptcy and ergonomics bills move through the Senate over the next few days, business groups also will be looking for early action on other key issues. Here's a preview.
Drugs and Privacy
With then-Vice President Al Gore and many Democratic congressional candidates railing against alleged profiteering by drug companies, the industry made its biggest-ever contributions to the GOP cause.
Drug companies contributed $14 million to Republican campaigns over the past two years and spent an additional $60 million to fund their own independent political-advertising campaign. Industry executives will be lobbying the new administration on a wide range of issues, such as the proposal to overhaul the Medicare program and include a prescription-drug benefit for senior citizens. The industry wants to make sure such a benefit doesn't lead to drug-price controls.
But that fight isn't likely to command center stage for many months. In the meantime, drug companies will press for a rewrite of federal rules protecting the privacy of patients' medical records. The rules were announced with much fanfare in the final weeks of the Clinton administration. The drug companies recently got a sign that they, too, were making progress with the new administration.
Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, in a move that infuriated consumer groups, invited additional public comments on the rules until the end of this month. The industry is hoping the move will lead to more delays and, ultimately, significant revisions.
Last December, Mr. Clinton heralded the rules as "the most sweeping privacy protections ever written." For the first time, patients would have access to their medical files and could correct mistakes. Providers, such as hospitals and health plans, would be required to get written permission from patients to use or disclose patients' health information. Providers also would have to create sophisticated record-keeping systems and privacy policies to document compliance with the rules.
Hailed by privacy advocates, the rules include provisions anathema to nearly every segment of the health-care industry. Drug makers, HMOs, drugstore chains and hospitals say that while they back the goal of increased privacy, the rules have a potential cumulative price tag in the tens of billions of dollars, much of it to overhaul data-collection and information-technology systems.
The companies warn that the new requirements mean that pharmacies would need signed customer consents on file before they could do something as simple as sending a prescription home with a neighbor. The drug industry also says that research critical to boosting corporate innovation and tracking the safety of drugs would be inhibited. Academic researchers seeking personal health information from hospitals would have to get authorization from the patient or undergo a special privacy review by a hospital panel.
Privacy advocates such as Janlori Goldman of the Health Privacy Project at Georgetown University counter that such dire predictions are inaccurate and "hysterical."
Technically, the regulations apply to the use of information by hospitals, doctors, pharmacists and HMOs. But they have big implications for drug companies, which depend on access to that data for research and marketing. Among the drug companies most concerned is Merck & Co., because of its Merck-Medco unit. Like other pharmacy-benefits managers, which obtain contracts from HMOs and employers to keep drug costs down, Merck-Medco fears it would it be hindered in its ability to track physician-prescribing patterns and other information.
Taking the lead on combating the rules is the Confidentiality Coalition, an industry group that meets at the offices of the Healthcare Leadership Council, overlooking Farragut Square, a few blocks from the White House. Dubbed the "Anti-confidentiality Coalition" by privacy advocates, the alliance has 120 members, including Merck, Eli Lilly & Co., Cigna Corp. and Medtronic Inc., the big medical-device maker. A core group of 20 to 30 lobbyists shows up regularly for strategy sessions.
During the second week in February, an industry contingent met with Sally Canfield, a senior counselor to Mr. Thompson of HHS. The industry team included Laurie Michel, a lobbyist for Merck, and Laura Gogal, vice president and chief counsel of the Federation of American Hospitals, the trade association of for-profit hospitals. Ms. Canfield was well known to the industry group because of her own past posts as a lobbyist for insurer Mutual of Omaha Inc. and a staffer to GOP Rep. Jim McCrery of Louisiana, who often works on health issues.
Meanwhile, Craig Fuller, who served as chief of staff to former President George Bush and now heads the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, met recently with Mr. Thompson to make the case on privacy and other issues. Mr. Fuller's current constituents include such behemoths as CVS Corp. and Walgreen Co.
The drug industry provides a case study of how the ties between the new Bush administration and its business backers run much deeper than money. There is often a shared worldview among people who have been colleagues and friends in both the private sector and government.
Raymond Gilmartin, chairman and chief executive of Merck, and Anne Marie Lynch and Bill Walters, top officials at the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the industry's main trade group, all served as advisers to the Bush transition team on health issues.
Deborah Steelman, a prominent lobbyist whose clients include Bristol-Myers Squibb and the drug-industry trade group, was sounded out for a top job at the Department of Health and Human Services, but declined. Mitch Daniels, a Lilly executive, accepted the offer he got to be director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, which oversees both budget and regulatory issues.
Tobacco Ties
When it comes to being well-connected with the new administration, few industries rival tobacco. Cigarette makers are hoping those ties help accomplish such goals as snuffing out a multibillion-dollar federal lawsuit against it.
Cigarette companies adopted a much lower profile in the last election than drug companies, in part because Republican strategists worried that featuring close ties to tobacco would anger many voters. But the money flowed liberally. Tobacco interests contributed roughly $90,000 to Mr. Bush's campaign, part of the $6.7 million they provided to the Republican Party and its candidates in the last election cycle. Democrats received $1.4 million from tobacco interests.
Beyond the campaign, industry titan Philip Morris Cos. was one of the most generous contributors to Mr. Bush's inaugural, giving $100,000 itself and another $100,000 through its subsidiary, Kraft Foods. Along with a number of inauguration tickets, these donations entitled company executives to two tables at a candlelight supper attended by President Bush and Vice President Cheney the night before their swearing-in.
Philip Morris has numerous long-standing ties to the Bush administration. Karl Rove, a senior White House adviser, worked as a political consultant for the company from 1991 to 1996. Kirk Blalock, a Philip Morris public-relations official, took a job in the White House in January as a liaison to the business community. Handling the inaugural donations for Philip Morris was Thomas Collamore, a vice president for public affairs who worked for President Bush's father, both in the White House and the Commerce Department. Charles Black, an informal adviser to Mr. Bush during his campaign, is also a Philip Morris lobbyist in Washington.
Mr. Thompson of HHS, received more than $70,000 in Philip Morris campaign-related contributions during his years as Wisconsin governor. He disclosed before his Senate confirmation earlier this year that he owned between $15,000 and $50,000 in Philip Morris stock. An administration spokesman says that Mr. Thompson didn't realize he owned the company's stock because it was in a blind trust and that he planned to sell it.
British American Tobacco PLC's Brown & Williamson unit and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings Inc. are also well-positioned. Both companies are represented by Barbour, Griffith & Rogers, a lobbying firm stocked with Republican operatives, including former GOP Chairman Haley Barbour and Lanny Griffith, a former White House aide to Mr. Bush's father.
The industry's first objective is to get rid of a massive federal lawsuit, launched by the Clinton administration, that accuses cigarette makers of "racketeering" and lying about the health risks of smoking for 50 years. The case is pending in federal court in Washington.
Tobacco companies are so confident the Bush team will drop the suit that they claim to have no plans even to ask for it to be withdrawn. "We are not lobbying on this at all," says Philip Morris spokeswoman Peggy Roberts. Many in the industry say they think an aggressive push to kill the suit would be counterproductive, causing the Bush administration to worry about the perception that it is eager to do a huge favor for one of its most-generous donors.
One way to squelch the suit would be for Congress to cut or eliminate funding for it, which for the current fiscal year is budgeted at $23 million. Although skittish about approaching the Bush administration directly, Philip Morris officials say they have no qualms about lobbying this year for such a funding cut. Another possible scenario for terminating the suit is for the Justice Department to reach a settlement with the companies.
Mr. Bush has avoided making a definitive statement about the tobacco suit. But referring to the case in August, he said, "I think we've had enough suits," adding, "The lawyers I talk to don't feel they [the Justice Department] have a case."
Complicating the situation is the presence of one key person on the Bush team who historically hasn't had an easy relationship with the big tobacco companies: Attorney General John Ashcroft, who now oversees the federal suit. Mr. Ashcroft's dim view of the industry arises from having seen several friends die from cancer, aides say.
At a get-acquainted meeting with tobacco lobbyists soon after being elected to the Senate in 1995, Mr. Ashcroft damped the atmosphere with a diatribe. "Let me tell you up front that I believe you guys are the merchants of death, and I don't support your product or your industry," Mr. Ashcroft was quoted as saying by two people at the meeting.
Yet three years later, as Mr. Ashcroft was considering entering the race for the presidency, he took a different position. When the Senate Commerce Committee considered legislation to restrict tobacco marketing and raise cigarette taxes, Mr. Ashcroft was the only vote against the bill on the 20-member committee, even though he still denounced the industry. His vote was a surprise to industry lobbyists, who were even more pleased when his persistent attacks on the proposed $1.10-a-pack rise in cigarette taxes helped kill the measure on the Senate floor.
An aide to Mr. Ashcroft says that, while critical of the tobacco industry, Mr. Ashcroft concluded that the bill contained excessive tax increases and required too much bureaucracy to implement the marketing restrictions.
During his confirmation hearings in January, Mr. Ashcroft said that he had "no predisposition" to dismiss the federal lawsuit. He promised to consult with career attorneys at the Justice Department and make a decision based on a "careful examination of the facts and the law."
Airline Antitrust
When George W. Bush became president-elect, American Airlines was ready. On the Sunday after Al Gore conceded the bitterly contested election, the Dallas-based unit of AMR Corp. rolled a brand-new 737-800 onto the tarmac at the airport near Austin, the Texas capital. It had been specially painted in the airline's distinctive 1960s colors -- a silver fuselage with a bold red lightning bolt.
The triumphant charter flight, paid for by the campaign, ferried Mr. Bush and his inner circle, including aides Andrew Card, Condoleezza Rice and Karen Hughes, from Austin to Dulles for their first round of meetings here. The president-elect and his staff were treated to a dinner of Chateaubriand, shrimp Caesar salads and hot chocolate-chip cookies, baked on board.
"As a Texas-based airline, it was an honor and a privilege to carry Mr. Bush," Don Carty, the chief executive officer, said at the time. "American Airlines is proud to have the president-elect's vote of confidence."
Mr. Carty was an early booster, and, like Mr. Cawley of MBNA, one of Mr. Bush's pioneer fund-raisers. He personally gave the maximum donation of $5,000 to support Mr. Bush's legal fight following the contested Florida vote. The company also gave the maximum $100,000 gift to the Bush inaugural committee.
What American and other big companies hope for is a change in antitrust policy. In the airline's case that would mean the government's backing off the antitrust suit President Clinton's Justice Department brought against it. The suit, filed in 1998 and scheduled to go to trial in May in federal court in Wichita, Kan., alleges that American used illegal tactics to squelch competition at its Dallas hub. The case is being watched closely as a sign of the new administration's approach to antitrust enforcement.
The Bush team must decide whether to proceed with the trial as planned, or settle. Charles James, the nominee for Justice Department antitrust chief, hasn't been confirmed, and career officials at the Justice Department say they expect the case to be pursued on its merits.
But there are already signs that the administration may view the case skeptically. Timothy Muris, who has been close to Mr. James since the two worked together at the Federal Trade Commission during the Reagan years, has openly questioned the wisdom of the Clinton suit because it relies on an expansive interpretation of antitrust law. A law professor at George Mason University in Arlington, Va., Mr. Muris helped shape antitrust policy for the Bush transition team and is expected to be named chairman of the FTC, which also enforces antitrust laws.
Mr. James won't comment on American's case but has said he generally doesn't favor antitrust cases that "make new law."
Alaska Drilling
Of all the business interests that backed Mr. Bush, oil companies have the clearest ties and strongest personal meaning to the new president. He is a former oil man who revels in his attachments to Texas, and his best friends are oil men, too. Promoting the industry is an instinctive impulse for the president that goes beyond campaign contributions.
When Mr. Bush announced Mr. Cheney, former chairman of Halliburton Inc. as his running mate, Hollywood director Rob Reiner joked that the GOP's idea of diversity is having "two guys heading the ticket from two different oil companies."
The personal connections were strengthened with money. The oil industry donated more than it ever has before: $32 million during the past two years, with 80% of it going to Republican causes. As a result, "all the stars are aligned this year," says Roger Herrera, who heads a lobbying effort to allow oil drilling in Alaska's costal plain, known as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Mr. Herrera is a courtly, Oxford-educated oil company geologist, who has made more than 50 appearances before congressional committees, taken hundreds of politicians on guided tours of Alaska and built one of Washington's most innovative and influential lobbying operations, known as Arctic Power. Until now, his decade-long efforts to open up Alaska's coastal plain for oil and gas development have been consistently frustrated. In 1989, there was the Exxon Valdez oil spill; in 1991, a Senate filibuster threat; and in 1995, a veto by President Clinton.
Now, Mr. Herrera promises, things will be different. He's counting on the combined power of the new president, who favors drilling in the coastal plain, and Alaska's powerful congressional delegation, Senators Ted Stevens, Frank H. Murkowski and Rep. Don Young. All three of these veteran Republicans chair influential committees. In the White House, Mr. Cheney's energy-policy task force is directed by Andrew D. Lundquist, former staff director for Sen. Murkowski's Senate Energy Committee.
To build support last week, Alaska's Governor Tony Knowles, in town for a governors conference, took two days to discuss oil exploration with skeptical Democrats on Capitol Hill. "I am going to be in contact with people who have expressed opposition but seem to be amenable to reason," he told reporters last Tuesday. He went to the Hill that day carrying support and strategic advice from all corners of the new administration. He had met with Interior Secretary Gale Norton, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christine Todd Whitman.
This powerful network of industry allies will face a daunting alliance of more than 400 environmental organizations determined to stop Alaska drilling in the interest of preserving the area's pristine condition. But this year, Mr. Herrera says, the industry group feels up to the task.
-- John Wilke and John Fialka contributed to this article.