(Dan Tri) - With the prospect of Kamala Harris becoming the US president, lobbyists in Washington are said to be trying to approach her.
Kamala Harris campaigns in Las Vegas, Nevada (Photo: Reuters).
Lobbyists have been trying to build relationships with Biden’s inner circle for decades. Harris, meanwhile, has been in Washington for less than eight years. Lobbyists have a host of questions to answer: Who is Kamala Harris? What issues does she care about? Who are her trusted confidants? As a senator, Harris’s office was often seen as indifferent to corporate requests. As vice president, she was largely absent from major policymaking. But the rapidly changing political landscape has forced lobbyists to adapt. They are pouring money into Democrats, reaching out to staffers expected to continue working for Harris, and soliciting campaign donations. "Harris has limited time in Washington — much like Obama — and was thrust into a campaign she didn't run from the start. Those two characteristics make it more complicated to figure out who she listens to and how policy is shaped," Rich Gold, a veteran Democratic campaigner, explained to Politico.Hard-to-reach politician Soon after Harris replaced Biden in the presidential race, lobbyists and political consultants struggled to prove to clients that they had connections that could influence the Democratic candidate. When Harris was elected to the US Senate in 2016, lobbyists saw her as a progressive politician who didn't care much about business. Lobbyists said it was relatively difficult to get appointments with her office. Even companies in California — home to many of the world's leading technology companies — had trouble getting their messages across to Harris, a Democratic campaigner said. As a senator, Ms. Harris tended to focus on “progressive” issues like abortion rights and gun control — issues that the corporate world did not care much about. Her performance as vice president was also not very informative. “She was not a very important figure in the Biden administration’s policy-making apparatus,” said a veteran lobbyist. “In most areas, she did not have a role. She did not seem to have enough influence to make a difference in policy discussions.” The Biden administration is also considered relatively “closed” to lobbyists. Even under President Obama, Democrats tended to avoid lobbyists. Many politicians deliberately “avoided” donations from this group. During his time as president, Mr. Biden also rarely met with business leaders. The Biden administration’s ethics pledge also requires former officials not to participate in or support lobbying their former agencies. Now, lobbyists on K Street in Washington, D.C., are trying to figure out what makes Harris different. One lobbyist said they are building relationships with Harris’s staff to avoid being sidelined. He also advised clients to donate to her campaign. Harris’s campaign has said it does not accept contributions from lobbyists. However, according to the New York Times , that policy does not apply to donations directly to the Democratic National Committee (DNC), giving lobbyists a way around the rules. “I reiterate, the DNC accepts contributions from lobbyists,” David Reid, a lobbyist at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, wrote in a fundraising email shortly after Biden announced his withdrawal. “Every dollar will go to the Democratic presidential nominee.” Holland & Knight lobbyist Yasmin Nelson also said she is raising money for the Harris Victory Fund, which is co-managed by Harris’s campaign, the DNC and several state Democratic committees. Several of Harris’s staffers have close ties to the lobbying industry. Michael Fuchs, Harris’s former deputy chief of staff, is an adviser to the consulting firm WestExec Advisors and has worked for billionaire George Soros’ Open Society Foundations. Clint Odom, who was a legislative aide to Harris when she was a senator, is now working on public policy at T-Mobile. Deanne Millison, who worked for Harris, is a lobbyist for Ford. Christopher Keosian, who worked on Harris’s 2020 campaign, is a lobbyist on behalf of several foreign governments . Harris’s husband, Doug Emhoff, was a former lobbyist at DLA Piper. He has connections in the Washington and Los Angeles legal communities. Every time a new administration comes into office, lobbying firms—and their clients—have to figure out how to respond. The lobbying “industry” in Washington is made up of lobbying firms, law firms, and consulting firms that advise clients on how to protect their interests in Washington, but don’t actually lobby. Sometimes the investment is wasted if a candidate doesn’t win. In 2016, Microsoft hired the Podesta Group, co-founded by Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager John Podesta, to build a relationship with Clinton’s network. Microsoft cut ties with the Podesta Group almost immediately after Clinton lost the election. When Mr Trump first ran for office in 2016, he promised to cut the influence of Washington lobbyists. Initially, he had little to no ties to traditional lobbyists. As a result, a new generation of lobbyists emerged and has remained influential to this day. Meanwhile, over his decades in Washington politics, Mr Biden has built a close team of people who have moved between public and private jobs. Despite Mr Biden’s retrenchment, that has continued. “They’re always happy to have someone high up who they can reach out to on the sidelines,” says one lobbyist.
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