Bloomberg Government
By Kate Ackley | November 1, 2024 5:45AM ET
- K Street insiders pitch to voters from Arizona to Pennsylvania
- Volunteers must use personal time, ethics watchdog says
Lobbyists are best known in politics for schmoozing at fundraisers, delivering campaign checks at chichi restaurants and receptions on roof decks with a view of the Washington monument.
With just days left until the election, some have left behind their familiar D.C. haunts and decamped for battleground states where they are doing mundane tasks such as knocking on doors and planting yard signs as campaign volunteers.
For lobbyists, helping their party win power in Washington, keeping old bosses and longtime contacts in office, can boost their business. But they say the main reason they get out on the campaign trail, especially when it comes to slogging door to door or ferrying voters to the polls, is because they’re political junkies at heart.
It’s for the same reasons they got into politics in the first place: loyalty to a party and a personal interest in the policy platforms.
Zack Laven, a vice president at the bipartisan firm Fulcrum Public Affairs, spent a day volunteering on the trail in Scottsdale, Ariz., his home town, delivering yard signs for the competitive re-election campaign of his former boss, Rep. David Schweikert (R-Ariz.).
“I was home visiting family but wanted to take some time to help,” said Laven, whose recent registered lobbying clients include the US Chamber of Commerce and the Society for Human Resource Management, disclosures show. “There was a list of people who had requested yard signs.” Laven said he drove around in his mom’s car with the signs in the trunk and “worked my way down the list.”
When lobbyists volunteer to help political campaigns, they must use their personal time, such as vacation or other leave from their day jobs, or risk an illegal corporate contribution by their firm, said Lisa Gilbert, co-president, and lobbyist Craig Holman, both of Public Citizen, an ethics watchdog group.
On the Bus
Democratic lobbyist Nicole Venable organized a day of canvassing through Black Girl Magic Network, a group she started for women of color in the business.
She and about 20 others loaded onto a bus on an October Sunday morning from the Democratic National Committee’s Capitol Hill headquarters and headed for west Philadelphia to motivate Democrats to vote for the Harris-Walz ticket, which says it doesn’t accept donations from registered lobbyists, as well as for Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), who faces a challenge from Republican David McCormick.
“We work in politics and policy, but I think as a Black women’s organization, this is very personal for us,” Venable said in an interview outside the DNC. “Everything we care about is on the ballot.”
“Given the polls continue to be so close, we just cannot sit on our hands,” she said.
To prepare, Venable and other participants took part in a DNC online canvassing training course that included role playing and reminders, such as not to put campaign materials in mailboxes. Canvassers used an app that provides the addresses of would-be voters to contact, she said.
Early voting had already started in the state, and Venable and her fellow canvassers let people know they could go straight to the polls. “A lot of people said, ‘I didn’t know I could go today,’” said Venable, who is with the strategic communications and government relations firm Invariant where her registered lobbying clients include the National Retail Federation and media conglomerate Urban One Inc., in an interview after canvassing. “That was powerful.”
Battleground Roots
Democrat David Jones, a founder of the lobbying firm Capitol Counsel, drove to northeastern Pennsylvania this week after attending game four of the World Series in New York.
“I spend most the year raising money for people I want to be elected,” he said by phone from Blakely, Pa., during a break canvassing for Democrats up and down ballot in the battleground area where Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-Pa.) is in a competitive race with Republican Rob Bresnahan. “All you can do right now is door to door, get out the vote.”
Jones said he was also planning to visit his 93-year-old stepmother who lives in a nursing home nearby and to stop by his father’s grave.
GOP lobbyists are also focusing on the near-to-Washington battleground state.
David Urban, a managing director at the lobbying firm BGR Group and CNN commentator, has been volunteering for the Trump campaign in Pennsylvania, his home state.
Urban calls himself a “cheerleader in chief” for the campaign and said his unpaid efforts include “high-level logistics” on the ground helping coordinate activities between the campaign and people on the ground.
“I feel very strongly, I have a great admiration for Donald Trump,” said Urban, whose registered lobbying clients include 7 Eleven Inc. and Voyager Space Holdings Inc. “I see it up close, the guy loves our country.”
Family Trip
Erik Olson, president of Venn Strategies, planned to land in his hometown of La Crosse, Wis., on Friday, getting out the vote to Election Day in the state’s 3rd District where Democrat Rebecca Cooke is challenging GOP Rep. Derrick Van Orden in a competitive race.
Olson was chief of staff to then-Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wis.), who represented the area for 13 terms but did not seek re-election in 2022. Olson said he was volunteering for Democrats’ ticket including Harris, Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) who has a tight re-election, and others.
He’s bringing his family, including his kids, ages 8 and 10, and plans to celebrate his sister’s 40th birthday with a 90s-themed dance party, he said.
“I’ve been campaigning, knocking doors since 1998,” said Olson, whose registered lobbying clients include Recology Inc. and the Battery Materials and Technology Coalition. “I was raised in a Democratic household, it’s in my blood.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Kate Ackley at kackley@bloombergindustry.com
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Bennett Roth at broth@bgov.com; George Cahlink at gcahlink@bloombergindustry.com
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