John A. Boehner’s campaigns have benefited from hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions from people representing some of the nation’s biggest businesses.
(Morry Gash/ Associated Press)
Political Notebook
GOP leader enjoys tight ties to lobbyists
John A. Boehner’s campaigns have benefited from hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions from people representing some of the nation’s biggest businesses.
(Morry Gash/ Associated Press)
House Democrats were preparing late last year for the first floor vote on the financial regulatory overhaul when Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio and other Republican leaders summoned more than 100 industry lobbyists to Capitol Hill for a private strategy session.
The bill’s passage in the House seemed inevitable. But Boehner and his deputies told the Wall Street lobbyists and trade association leaders that by teaming up, they could perhaps block its final passage or at least water it down.
“We need you to get out there and speak up against this,’’ Boehner said that December afternoon, according to three people familiar with his remarks, while also warning against cutting side deals with Democrats.
That sort of alliance — they won a few skirmishes, though they lost the war on the regulatory bill — is business as usual for Boehner, the House minority leader and would-be speaker if Republicans win the House in November. He maintains especially tight ties with a circle of lobbyists and former aides representing some of the nation’s biggest businesses, including
They have contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to his campaigns over the years, provided him rides on their corporate jets, socialized with him at luxury golf resorts and waterfront bashes, and are leading fund-raising efforts for his Boehner for Speaker campaign, which is soliciting checks of up to $37,800 each, the maximum allowed.
Some of the lobbyists readily acknowledge routinely seeking his office’s help to advance their agenda in Washington. And in many cases, Boehner has helped them out.
The woman he hopes to replace, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, derided him Friday as having met “countless times with special-interest lobbyists in an effort to stop tough legislation’’ that would regulate corporations and protect consumers.
Boehner, who declined to be interviewed for this article, and his lobbyist allies ridicule such criticism as politically motivated by desperate Democrats. His actions, they say, simply reflect the probusiness, antiregulatory philosophy that he has espoused for more than three decades.
If elected as his party’s leader in the House, Boehner will certainly lean on his industry allies for help as he builds coalitions necessary to push legislation through Congress, his office acknowledges. His friends say there is nothing wrong with that. — New York Times
Democrats could lose eight House seats in N.Y.
For all the Democrats’ strength and swagger in New York, the party could lose as many as eight US House seats in the Empire State in November.The top of the Democratic ticket is formidable. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo enjoys a hefty, double-digit lead in polling for the governor’s race, and Senator Charles Schumer is cruising to a third term against token opposition. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, an appointed replacement for Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, is far head in the polls after initially being tagged as vulnerable.
Gillibrand is expected to easily capture the party nomination in Tuesday’s primary, and all three top Democrats stand as prohibitive favorites in a state where registered Democratic voters outnumber Republican 2-to-1. Complicating the GOP prospects, Republicans don’t have a single A-list name running statewide this year.
But recession-weary voters probably will not be as kind to some of the lower-profile New York Democrats who control 26 of the state’s 29 seats in the US House.
Democrats captured seven of their eight at-risk House seats in the 2006 and 2008 elections, when they made gains in suburban and upstate districts that had long been dominated by Republicans. They won two of the seats in special elections where turnout and organization were critical. Party strategists fear those two elements will be lacking this year.
They’ve already pretty much written off their chances of holding a seat in the Republican-leaning Rochester area left vacant when Representative Eric Massa resigned in March amid an investigation into whether he sexually harassed male staffers.
Just to the east, second-term Representative Michael Arcuri is facing a steep rematch challenge from GOP businessman Richard Hanna, who nearly defeated him in 2008. Other lawmakers who may be in danger include Representatives Tim Bishop, Bill Owens, John Hall, and Scott Murphy.
“There’s a groundswell out there that I don’t think is being properly appreciated. And I think it’s happening in New York, just like everywhere else,’’ said Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York. — Associated Press
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