Tom Carper’s Chief of Staff Now Lobbies for Wellpoint
You read that right — the nation’s largest insurer has hired Tom Carper’s ex-Chief of Staff as a lobbyist to campaign for their interests on the health care bill:
Then, on September 25, insurer WellPoint hired Jones’ firm to lobby in the issue areas of health care, insurance, and Medicare/Medicaid, according to the lobbying registration filed last week, which lists the anticipated “specific lobbying issues” as “Healthcare reform legislation, specifically proposals affecting health insurance providers.”
Jones’ other health-sector clients include drugmakers Astra-Zeneca and Amgen, the trade groups Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers of America and the Biotechnology Industry Organization, as well as the American Insurance Association.
In his brief 22 months as a lobbyist, Jones has given $46,800 to Democrats, including White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel. Jones has also given to Majority Leader Harry Reid, Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, health-care waffler Evan Bayh, as well as the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
You aren’t surprised at this, right? But the narrative does click into place as Senator Carper continues to work at doing everything he can to try to rid the bill of any possibility of real competition for insurance companies. It isn’t enough that the public option as it exists has been pretty well watered down, Senator Carper is working and getting rid of it and letting the Congress walk away with the fig leaf of triggers — for local co-ops, for national co-ops, for some option that will simply never be invoked. Like his trigger for the Medicare Part D drug costs.
Some months back, David Shuster of MSNBC asked Carper directly if the amount of money he gets from insurance companies, drug companies and other medical businesses influences his vote. Time for someone in the media to ask this question again — especially since his ex CoS and friend is now the face of WellPoint in Congressional offices.
(h/t Allan Loudell’s news program this afternoon)
Tags: Health Care Lobbyists, Health Insurance Reform, Tom Carper
Take heart, Carper, Castle and the whole panoply of fools we have for poiticians can’t live forever, it just seems like it.
When will it end. Maybe term limits aren’t such a bad idea after all.
He ceased working for TRC three years ago. “I am not my ex-staffer’s keeper.”
“I am not my ex-staffer’s keeper.”
No. You’re his enabler.
http://www.pmj-dc.com/expertise/clients.html
No one thinks that TRC is his ex-staffer’s keeper.
What I do think is that the usual revolving door makes sure that the interests of your ex-staffers and the people they represent likely way more important than the interests of the people you may actually represent.
I just looked at anon’s link — NCCo has its own lobbyist, huh?
I’m glad I don’t follow politics. It would be maddening. It all just seems so pointless. The fix is sooooooo fucking in.
Ex staffer paving the way, that’s a good one. The boss is soon to follow. As they say, signed sealed and delivered ….
Sen. Carper……. Fundraising, 2005 – 2010, Campaign Cmte
Raised: $3,936,039
Spent: $3,904,940
Cash on Hand: $781,327
Debts: $0
Last Report: Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Top 5 Contributors, 2005-2010, Campaign Cmte
Contributor Total Indivs PACs
Citigroup Inc $55,300 $48,300 $7,000
Norfolk Southern $42,260 $34,000 $8,260
JPMorgan Chase & Co $38,668 $36,168 $2,500
Bank of America $29,330 $20,750 $8,580
DuPont Co $26,850 $10,250 $16,600
Top 5 Industries, 2005-2010, Campaign Cmte
Industry Total Indivs PACs
Lawyers/Law Firms $301,332 $219,600 $81,732
Insurance $225,460 $42,820 $182,640
Commercial Banks $205,079 $125,269 $79,810
Securities & Investment $199,392 $101,614 $97,778
Real Estate $156,780 $91,350 $65,430
Carper voted for Schumer’s public option. He’s not one of the shaky Senate votes. His partisan voting index is quite high. His former staffers have become professors, judges, non-profit administrators, civic activists and yes, lobbyists.
But Carper is working at weakening the Public Option by any means necessary — which would be exactly the point I made in this post.
Carper told the WNJ in 2006 that he was sooooo happy to be sending off his COS to K Street and that it was ‘now our turn’.
He meant that now the DEMs would dominate the sleeze like Delay had done. POWER and INFLUENCE, the DLC way.
Shame on you, Manifold, for your deliberate obfuscations that this is a meaningless ‘connection’.
anon’s link also offers up these choice links on the firm’s News link page [http://www.pmj-dc.com/newsroom/default.html]. Both examples are prior to their hiring of Tom Carper’s Chief of Staff, Mr. WHEEE now I hit the big time Jones…
The first is their bragging about crushing the progressive DEM will by having influence over TOM CARPER ET AL:
CAUTION: bound to make you puke a little
The Hill
The Tuesday Profile: ‘The guy who knows how to get you to 60’
March 30, 2004
“It may seem odd that Republican lobbyists working on issues widely supported by Republicans, in a Congress controlled by Republicans, with a Republican in the White House, would call on a Democrat for help.
But that is sometimes the case these days, and the Democrat they call is Jeff Peck.
Peck has build a reputation as a lobbyist who can round up centrist Democrats in the Senate to support issues that Democratic leadership threatens to filibuster, such as asbestos litigation and class-action reform.”
And the second is the direct answer to John Manifold’s obfuscatory tones…
Influence
Democratic Senate aides reach out to allies on K Street to talk message, strategy
February 4, 2004
“Senate chiefs of staff Paul Bock and Jonathon Jones helped hatch an outreach effort between Democratic Hill staffers and like-minded lobbyists on K Street.”
GAH, looking further up the presser listing, Jones is representing Carper’s representing the interests of business and REPUBLICANS!!
The Politico, K Street Gets a Hill Democrat With a Business Bent -March 28, 2007
“For years, J. Jonathon Jones operated behind the scenes in the Senate as the business community’s go-to Democrat. Now, he’s arguing the case for business in a Senate controlled by Democrats, including his old boss, Tom Carper (Del.). The key to Jones’s success on the outside is his close relationship with Carper and his knowledge of which Democrats are inclined to support business interests.”
The Philadelphia Inquirer, Before Traveling to Uganda: A Lesson or Two on Lobbying – October 10, 2004
“That realpolitik wisdom is from Peter Madigan, a highly-regarded lobbyist. He worked for James A. Baker 3d in the administrations of Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush, and on the transition team of this President Bush.”
Washingtonian, Hired Guns -June 2007
David Johnson named one of Washington’s 50 top lobbyists.
“One of the savviest Democratic lobbyists in Washington, Johnson is a former adviser to Maine Democrats Edmund Muskie and George Mitchell. With the Democrats in the wilderness the past decade, Johnson had the wiles to join forces with the Republican lobby shop Boland & Madigan.
Michael Boland, a former aide to then-majority leader Trent Lott, and Peter Madigan, a trade official in the first Bush administration, carried the company during the GOP years; now Johnson promises to do the heavy lifting while the Democrats rule. He has beefed up ties to Senate Democrats by hiring Jeff Peck, a former top aide on the Senate Judiciary Committee.”
Yikes…
It can not be more clear that Carper does not represent the public’s interests nor even rank and file Democrats who give him their votes as Democrats who believe in Democratic values and just because there was a -D after his name, have believed that Tom Carper stood for these values too.
So-o-o-o, one of Jones’ corporate clients is Astra Zeneca. Wonder what, if any, involvement Jones had when Carper gave away the store to lure Astra Zeneca here.
ES: What would you characterize as “giving away the store” to AZ? If you’re referring to the highway improvements, it’s one of the things I would commend Carper for. Those improvements were sorely needed anyway, but would have been put off for years without the excuse of redoing the traffic patterns for AZ. Instead, the roads at that end of Concord Pike are good to go until our granchildren are grandparents.
Carper has a hell of a choice now that it appears HCR will pass with as little as 51 votes. He has to either vote with the Republicans, or go scurrying back to his donors and beg forgiveness for voting with Dems because it was going to pass anyway.
My bet is he joins the short list of Dems who vote against it.
Geezer, agreed the changes on 202 were needed. Mrs nemski and I were talking about this last night. We’re not fans of big pharma, but 202 is much better and it is nice having jobs in Delaware. Remember these jobs could have gone up to King of Prussia.
BTW, remember a few years ago with the Augustine Cut-off and Rt. 202 was one of the most dangerous intersections in Delaware? No more.
Bad as Big Pharma might be, it sure beats being the Big Chemical capital of the world. And sleazy as it might be, it sure beats being the Big Usury capital of the U.S. Now if they could just come up with a drug that actually works…
Thanks Nancy Willing, you said it all. I only became aware of Carpers “dealings” when he fought (with Republicans) to squeeze another $50 Billion in subsidies for the nuke builders into the Energy budget. So, I did a little research and shezzammm…holy cow, he needs to change his registration to Repub. All the while we were thinking that we were voting for Democrat