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By Virginia Buckingham
Boston Herald Columnist
To all the influence peddlers traversing through the revolving door, thank you on behalf of all the taxpayers, ratepayers, consumers, employees and entrepreneurs whose butts you’ve saved in the act of saving the butt of your paying clients.
Consider Hanscom Air Force Base. Massachusetts ducked the worst hit during the base closing process when Hanscom was spared. Massachusetts High Technology Council President Chris Anderson notes that Sen. Ted Kennedy and Gov. Mitt Romney were the key lobbyists of the Defense Department, the Base Realignment and Closure Commission and Congress. But their strategy was informed, Anderson said, by the “insight” of Washington lobbyists Spike Karalekas and former Wyoming Sen. Alan Simpson. If a call from one of these guys to a decision maker resulted in BRAC keeping an open mind when Kennedy and Romney made their pitch, what is wrong with that?
Raytheon, Fidelity and all of Massachusetts’ biggest employers retain lobbyists to guard their interests in Washington. The engineer down the street, the lady cleaning the floors at corporate headquarters, and state and local tax treasuries are the beneficiaries of effective lobbying that keeps contracts flowing and over-regulation at bay.
Massachusetts is at the top of the heap when it comes to landing grants from the National Institutes of Health. Now, Boston will be the site of one of a handful of new Level 4 bio-research labs in the country. Sure, pols carried the ball on that siting decision but lobbyists called the play.
Former Lt. Gov. Tom O’Neill could go on and on with examples of state and federal spending decisions where lobbyists have played a positive role for Massachusetts. “Construction of libraries, food stamps for the needy, health care issues,” he said, to name just a few.
O’Neill is hanging his shingle again in Washington, D.C., re-establishing a physical presence he’s had on and off there for 20 years. Why now, with lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s blood in the water?
“There’s a difference,” O’Neill said, “between facilitating, knocking on a door, getting an entree and bringing the resource base of a client to bear on the policy goals of decision makers.
“Anyone can get you in to see a governor,” he said, but “lobbying is more professional than that. I really believe lobbyists help the states a great deal. They complement what a delegation can do.”
O’Neill was in the thick of things when the battle to maintain federal funding of the Big Dig was joined. His go-to-guys worked side by side with the state’s congressional delegation and with GOP transportation lobbyist Scott Bosworth of Fort Hill Advisors, whose contacts with House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Republicans were a key factor in keeping the state in the game.
“I remember during one conference committee meeting, the only people hanging out in the hallway were the hired lobbyists and Rep. Jim McGovern,” Bosworth said.
They weren’t greasing palms, either. McGovern points out the group had to create ways to ensure Massachusetts got its share.
“It’s more than saying ‘we want more.’ It’s figuring out how to adjust the formulas so we get more,” McGovern said. Lobbyists and the expertise of the clients they represent play a key role in such strategizing.
“Lobbying can be very helpful,” McGovern said, noting universities and other Massachusetts-based interests have a lot at stake in Washington but don’t always understand the legislative process. In fact, the Worcester Democrat is “shocked that people are so shocked” by the Abramoff lobbying
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