The Party Is in the Lobby

[August 27th, 2008]

DENVER—Maybe the change we’re all supposed to believe in is that lobbyists are OK, provided they’re Democrats who represent progressive causes.

On Monday morning, on the much-anticipated opening day of the 2008 Democratic National Convention here in Colorado’s Mile High City, the Oregon delegation held its first official meeting—in a windowless banquet room at the Hyatt Regency Tech Center. They were 13 miles from the site of the actual convention, days away from experiencing Sen. Barack Obama’s scheduled acceptance of the Democratic presidential nomination Thursday. But they were all already excited.

Shortly after 7 am, the state’s 59 delegates, its congressional delegation, and other assorted dignitaries put down their silverware to applaud. They clapped not for Oregon Democratic Party chairwoman Meredith Wood Smith or the Obama-backing Rep. Earl Blumenauer (the Portland Democrat whose fiery words included calling 5th Congressional District Republican nominee Mike Erickson “a weasel”).

They clapped for longtime Portland lobbyist Len Bergstein, the stocky, ever-smiling powerbroker who has worked the halls of Oregon’s command centers since 1974.

In 2007, Oregon Democrats passed a sweeping new ethics law designed to reduce the influence of lobbyists (see “Ethics Bomb,” WW, Dec. 19, 2007). And in the current presidential race, Sen. Barack Obama has made a refusal to accept lobbyist money a central theme of his campaign. Lobbyists are considered so toxic onetime Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney angrily denied that his campaign employed any.

But this week in Denver, where Democrats are descending on the Pepsi Center like yellow jackets on an open bottle of soda at a late-August picnic, the issue is not so simple.

Bergstein’s clients not only paid $8,000 for breakfast, DPO Chairwoman Smith says they also bought enough carbon offsets to negate the fossil fuels consumed by the Oregon delegation’s travel to and from Denver.

Bergstein noted that a number of his clients—who include alternative energy developers First Wind, Ocean Power Technology and Sun Edison—are precisely the kind of green companies that Oregon both wants to attract and needs to meet the ambitious goals passed by the 2007 Legislature.

He also represents some old-line Portland manufacturers, including barge builder Zidell Marine and Gunderson, the railcar maker. He says his clients of all types are anxious to help shape a “cap-and-trade” system for regulating carbon emissions that will be a primary focus of the 2009 Legislature.

So how better to present his clients to the influential Democrats assembled in Denver than to buy breakfast?

Oregon Democratic Party Executive Director Trent Lutz says the party worked carefully with the state Ethics Commission to make sure sponsorships of the type Bergstein’s clients provided did not violate new ethics laws.

Previously, Lutz says, sponsors for events such as DPO breakfasts would pay the expenses directly. But now that new ethics legislation places strict limits on the type and amount of meals and entertainment lobbyists can give public officials, sponsors give money directly to the DPO, and the officials in the delegation—who include Supt. of Public Instruction Susan Castillo, Bureau of Labor and Industries Commissioner Brad Avakian, Sen. Ben Westlund (D-Tumalo) and Reps. Sara Gesler (D-Corvallis) and Larry Galizio (D-Tigard)—pay the cost of their meals directly to the DPO.

Although Lutz says most members of the Oregon delegation covered the travel and lodging costs themselves, the party solicited $65,000 to $70,000 in sponsorships for meals and parties.

“The care and feeding of the delegation is expensive,” he says.

Lutz says he understands why it might seem contradictory that Dems proclaim their desire to reduce the influence of lobbyists and corporations at the same time they are soliciting a big chunk of cash from lobbyists and corporations.

“I think there’s always going to be that paradox,” Lutz says. “What we’ve tried to do is solicit support from groups who are supportive of our message and to be absolutely transparent.”.

Oregon’s youngest delegate, Andrew Simon, 20, agrees with Lutz.

“The convention is expensive, and the money has to come from somewhere,” says Simon, who will be a junior this fall at Bard College in New York.

Simon says corporations have an important viewpoint and one that Democrats want to hear.

“Maybe I’m just young and optimistic,” he says, “but I don’t think we’re going to give favors to companies just because they sponsor events.”