Lobbyists play key U.S. convention roles

Published: Aug. 6, 2008 at 9:58 AM
Order reprints
DENVER, Aug. 6 (UPI) -- Though criticized by both likely major-party U.S. presidential nominees for their influence, lobbyists are playing big roles in party conventions, analysts say.

Steve Farber, a key fundraiser for the $40.6 million Democratic National Convention in Denver is a founder of the Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck lobbying firm. And Anthony Foti, a lobbyist for Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, is playing a similar role for the Republican convention in St. Paul, Minn., USA Today reported Wednesday.

In total, five lobbyists, including three Republicans and two Democrats, are in key organizing and fundraising positions for the political parties' conventions this year, the newspaper said.

"Does that matter? Yes, because it influences decision-making in Washington and it's not very transparent to the American public generally," James Thurber, a political scientist at American University, told USA Today.

Farber said he hasn't met anyone through his Democratic Party convention work whom he would also work for as a lobbyist.

"Does it not help the firm? It doesn't hurt the firm," Farber told the newspaper. "Are we doing it for that purpose? No."

A spokeswoman for Foti said he wasn't available for an interview.


© 2008 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.



Croatia leads U.S. 2-0 at Davis Cup tennis (11 min)
MLB: St. Louis 8, Chicago Cubs 3 (22 min)
Report: Bailout funds could help small biz (50 min)
Werth named NL All-Star for Beltran (51 min)
Home sales rise in Baltimore area (54 min)
Lawsuit filed in cemetery desecration (58 min)
Canadian PM apologizes at G8 for blunder
fark
Patronizing Tijuana hookers while on drugs may be unhealthy, according to Dr. N.S. Sherlock, of...
Defense lawyers request words like "polygamy,""cult" and "compound" not be used in their client's...
TSG Mugshot roundup: Twin billing
Barbie-Con visitors split on major issue: Are you allowed to open her box and play with it?
It's been 10 years since "The Blair Witch Project." Where were you when this crappy, one-joke, overhyped...
While serious people debate health care, CNN does interview with morons from West Virgina who ignored...