A lobbyist link in congressmen's visits to Cape

WASHINGTON -- Four Massachusetts congressmen have attended luxurious Fourth of July weekends at Cape Cod's exclusive Wequassett Inn in Chatham with representatives of various interest groups, courtesy of a little-known nonprofit group started by a longtime lobbyist.

The lobbyist, Jeanne Campbell, received millions of dollars in contracts to lobby Congress through her Washington-based firm, Campbell-Crane. Her clients, including several Massachusetts agencies and companies, routinely attend the Fourth of July events.

The trips to the Wequassett Inn, where room rates range from $475 to $1,300 per night, are intended as seminars where industry representatives can discuss legislative issues with members of Congress. But government watchdog groups say they represent a common route around federal lobbying restrictions.

The firm has paid more than $22,500 to cover Massachusetts congressmen attending the sessions since 1996, the first year for which records are available. Nearly $11,000 went to cover food and lodging expenses of US Representative Richard Neal, a Springfield Democrat, who has attended every year but 2002.

For Neal -- along with Representatives Michael E. Capuano, William D. Delahunt, and the late J. Joseph Moakley, each of whom attended at least two July Fourth weekends at Wequassett over the past 10 years -- costs were covered by the Invest to Compete Alliance, which describes itself as a nonprofit educational organization for service and manufacturing groups.

Invest to Compete shares a southeastern Washington, D.C. townhouse and a fax number and an e-mail address with Campbell-Crane & Associates, a lobbying firm that did nearly $3 million in business representing Massachusetts state agencies, including the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, and the Holyoke Community College Foundation, before Congress over the past five years. Raytheon, the Waltham-based defense manufacturer, also has paid Campbell-Crane for lobbying Congress.

Campbell, one of the lobbying firm's partners, is a founder of Invest to Compete and receives payments from the group to organize the Wequassett getaways. Many of the businesses and agencies that have sent representatives to the July Fourth meetings are current or former clients of Campbell-Crane, according to individuals who were present.

Garland Miller, executive director of Invest to Compete, said the trips were entirely ``legal and aboveboard."

Miller said that she uses Campbell's e-mail address because she doesn't have an e-mail account and that the groups share an address to ``conserve costs." Miller described Campbell as a ``meeting manager," adding that ``she plans the meetings."

Under the House's ethics guidelines, registered lobbyists cannot pay for trips taken by members of Congress or their staff . By filing tax forms as a non profit trade association, Invest to Compete is legally separate from Campbell-Crane. Legislation currently pending in the House would also bar lobbyists from arranging or otherwise participating in congressional trips.

Watchdog groups say that lobbying firms have found a way around the current regulations by linking up with nonprofit groups to sponsor travel.

``While these trips don't violate congressional rules, it appears as though they could violate the intent," said Alex Knott, political editor at the Center for Public Integrity, which tracks lobbying activity. ``Right now, a lobbyist could organize the trip, go with the congressman, play a round of golf with them, and then come back to D.C., lobbying them the entire time, and as long as they didn't pay for this out of their own personal funds or their lobby firm's funds, it's not a violation of the rules."

Campbell, who said she founded Invest to Compete 22 years ago, has attended all of the Cape Cod trips since they started nearly two decades ago. She said the trips began during the tenure of former House Speaker Thomas P. ``Tip" O'Neill, who had a house in Harwichport, near the Wequassett Inn.

Campbell said she has previously ``talked to people on the [House] Ethics Committee" about the trips. She said she saw no ethical issue in her role in planning the trips.

In a telephone interview, Neal said his nearly annual visits to Chatham allowed him to meet with groups that ``would be welcome in my office on any given day."

``They employ thousands of people in Massachusetts in my district, and I don't think it's a good idea to shut myself off from them," Neal said.

``I believe it's been cleared by the Ethics Committee -- I think that's no small consideration," he added. Asked if the trips passed his personal ethics standards, Neal replied, ``The Ethics Committee's OK'd it. If the ethics committee has OK'd it, I think it passes the litmus test."

Capuano, a Somerville Democrat, traveled to Wequassett with his family in 1999 and 2001. Invest to Compete paid more than $1,100 in travel costs for each trip.

``Am I not supposed to meet with people who employ a lot of people in Massachusetts?" Capuano said when asked about the trips. ``My understanding is that everything was done according to the requirements of the House at the time."

Delahunt, who represents Cape Cod, attended the July 4 events from 1997-1999. He said he did not recall details about the weekends, but said that the groups in attendance ``would have access to Massachusetts representatives anyhow."

UMass-Amherst tops Campbell-Crane's current client list, paying more than $2 million in fees to the firm over the past eight years to lobby for federal money for a science building and a new telescope, among other projects.

Campbell's other Bay State clients include the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, which paid Campbell-Crane about $100,000 a year between 1999 and 2001, and the Holyoke Community College Foundation, which has done $48,000 worth of business with Campbell since 2004. Raytheon paid Campbell-Crane about $600,000 in lobbying fees between 1998 and 2004.

Overall, Campbell's firm has done more than $10 million in business since 1998, according to the Center for Public Integrity.

Individuals who attended the Fourth of July events say the attendees include many clients of Campbell-Crane.

``This is an opportunity to learn about legislation," said Paul Freedenberg, who supervises government relations for the Association of Manufacturing Technologies, a trade alliance that is a Campbell-Crane client. ``You're not lobbying; you're learning. But obviously it's helpful to meet members of Congress and spend time in the sessions."

Hal Shoup, a former executive at the American Association of Advertising Agencies, a former Campbell-Crane client, said that ``a lot of substantive discussions" occurred during the retreats.

``It was an excellent chance to get to [members of Congress] for a period of time in which you could get their views on a wide variety of subjects, some of which were of direct interest to us, some of which were not," he said.

Shoup is also listed on a 2004 Invest to Compete tax form as one of the group's directors.

``Really?" Shoup asked when told about the listing. ``If I was, I am no longer one. . . . I've been retired for five years. And totally inactive as far as business is concerned."

James Leheny, a representative of UMass-Amherst, said he attended several Wequassett weekends in the 1990s. In an e-mail, he wrote that formal invitations to the events came from Invest to Compete, but that `` i nformally, Jeannie Campbell would give me, and I assume other clients, a heads up well in advance, so that we knew the dates for when the seminars were to be held."

A woman who answered Invest to Compete's listed telephone number last week at first said the line belonged to Campbell-Crane. Asked about the mix-up, she apologized and said the companies shared a phone system. The Invest to Compete line ``doesn't ring very often," she explained.

Miller later said the woman was a temporary employee.

Nationally, 26 congressmen and senators or members of their staff accepted free travel from Invest to Compete between 2000 and the middle of 2005, for a total of 54 trips. Neal, who received $5,800 in travel costs during that period, ranks fourth on the list. Representative Philip English, Republican of Pennsylvania, and his staff lead the pack with nearly $11,000 in travel expenses during the period, according to the Center for Public Integrity.

Last year, Senator Mike Enzi, Republican of Wyoming, amended a travel disclosure form to show that Invest to Compete -- and not Campbell-Crane, as originally reported -- had paid for a $2,600 trip to Chatham over the July Fourth weekend in 2004. A spokesman for Enzi said last week that the mix-up was a ``clerical error" and that Enzi had not attended any other July 4 events.

This year's seminar will go forward, Campbell said, but Invest to Compete is not paying for any congressional trips, saying all the scrutiny over lobbying relationships in Washington this year has made politicians very nervous.

Said Neal: ``I think I was invited this year. I don't believe I'll be attending."