Obama adviser lobbied for oil group
Posted: Wednesday, August 20, 2008 12:36 PM by Domenico Montanaro
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
Obama's newly named senior adviser and Jewish outreach coordinator, who joined Obama on his trip to Israel, lobbied on behalf of the American Petroleum Institute, according to the Senate Office of Public Records Lobbying Disclosure Act database.
Daniel Shapiro is listed as a lobbyist by Washington, D.C.-based Timmons & Co. and API is one of the company's clients. Shapiro is listed on five entries as one person who helped lobby the U.S. Senate or House on behalf of API on issues ranging from agriculture, energy -- including renewable fuel standards and greenhouse gas emissions, gas price gouging and regulation, labor and antitrust related to the oil industry, defense, the stimulus package, the farm bill, IRS code regarding refineries and more.
The entries, from February to August of this year, show Timmons & Co. was paid $660,000 by API for the instances in which Shapiro helped lobby. Since 1998, Timmons & Co. has collected more than $3.6 million from API, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Shapiro also was Florida Sen. Bill Nelson’s deputy chief of staff. Because of that, the Center for Responsive Politics has a “Revolving Door” profile of him.
Interestingly, also listed as one of the lobbyists with Timmons for API is Martin Paone, the former secretary of the U.S. Senate. That job is now Nancy Erickson's.
Shapiro also lobbied for several other clients, including Anheuser-Busch, Chrysler, Freddie Mac, Teva Pharmaceuticals and others. (See below for full list.)
Of course, the McCain campaign has several lobbyists working for it, but Obama has vowed to not to have federal lobbyists involved with his campaign or allow them in an Obama administration.
The Obama campaign has not yet given a response on the news of Shapiro’s lobbying past.
*** UPDATE *** The Obama campaign's response. The Obama campaign tells First Read that Shapiro de-registered as a federal lobbyist on Aug. 11, and is therefore not in violation of any standard the campaign has set, spokesman Hari Sevugan said. Prior to Aug. 11, Shapiro was an unpaid adviser.
Additionally, Shapiro is not advising the candidate on policies in which he had lobbied on, Sevugan said.
"That is the same as McCain's policy," Sevugan said, "except that we don't take money from lobbyists and McCain does."
Being that Shapiro is a former Hill staffer, here's Obama's "revolving door" policy: "No political appointees in an Obama administration will be permitted to work on regulations or contracts directly and substantially related to their prior employer for two years. And no political appointee will be able to lobby the executive branch after leaving government service during the remainder of the administration."
Sevugan further points out that senior McCain strategists Wayne Berman and John Green have lobbied for API and that McCain's energy policy is in line with API's -- and Obama's is not. Berman is McCain's national vice chairman and finance committee chairman. Green is McCain's liaison to Congress.
Here are the dates and amounts listed to Timmons from API for the instances in which Shapiro lobbied:
2/12/08: $180,000 (2007 year-end report)
4/10/08: $120,000 (first quarter report)
7/18/08: $100,000 (second quarter report)
8/7/08: $200,000 (Mid-year report)
8/11/08: $60,000 (Third quarter report)
TOTAL: $660,000 (adding these up)
List of clients Shapiro lobbied for:
Alliance for Sensible Airspace Planning
American Council of Life Insurers
American Medical Association
American Petroleum Institute
Anheuser-Busch
Centrex Corp.
Chrysler LLC
Cox Enterprises
Dun & Bradstreet
Freddie Mac
Kinetic Concepts
Lincare
M2Z Networks Inc.
Micron Technology Inc.
Primerica Financial Services
Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc.
Thoratec Corporation
Trueposition Inc.
Union Pacific Corporation
University of Miami
Vanguard Group Inc
Visa USA Inc.
SOURCE: Senate Office of Public Records Lobbying Disclosure Act database
