Linda Daschle to lobby the Senate
By: Administrative Account | Source: The Hill
December 9, 2004 6:33AM EST

By Geoff Earle

Linda Daschle will start lobbying the Senate for corporate clients in January, when husband Sen. Tom Daschle’s term expires.

A lobbyist with Baker Donelson Bearman & Caldwell, she recused herself from lobbying at the chamber, where her husband has served for 18 years.

Senate insiders say Linda Daschle will remain a major lobbying force, owing to her long career dealing with aviation issues and her familiarity with most senators.

“She’s always been a powerhouse,” said Sen. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.).

Tension remains between Senate Republicans and Sen. Daschle since his defeat by former Rep. John Thune (R-S.D.).

Republicans consider Daschle the architect of Democratic efforts to block conservative judges and policy. Democrats fault Republicans for unprecedented efforts to dethrone their leader.

How might lingering animosity affect Daschle’s lobbying? Sen. Robert Bennett (R-Utah) said, “I think initially, a Republican might be more reluctant to respond to her rather than someone to whom they’ve built rapport and a relationship. If she wants to start attending Republican Senatorial Committee functions, we’d be happy to see her.”

The National Republican Senatorial Committee spent millions of dollars helping to unseat Sen. Daschle. The Thune campaign made Linda Daschle’s lobbying an issue, running ads that faulted Sen. Daschle for “personally profiting” from her
pharmaceutical-industry clients. Daschle campaign aides were outraged, as Thune had set up a lobbying shop and worked at Arent Fox.

Linda Daschle said, “The Republicans had been trying to make me an issue in Tom’s race. The campaign is behind us. I’m looking forward, as is Tom.”

Few doubt Daschle’s ability to gain entrée to Senate Democrats for her clients. But in an interview, Daschle stressed her career accomplishments rather than her Senate ties.

“Yes, I’m familiar with particularly the Democratic senators and their families,” she said. “It will be a new endeavor on my part.” She is considered close with Sens. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.).

Of her husband’s successor, Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Linda Daschle said, “I consider him a friend, and I look forward to working with him. Harry will make his own decisions.”

She is unlikely to deal with Thune, she said, as she has “not worked South Dakota issues in the past” and doesn’t know if she will in the future.

She denied a rumor that she and her husband considered opening a joint lobbying practice when he pondered retiring more than a year ago. “We will certainly work together,” she said, “but I don’t see us joining together on public-policy practices.”

They would work to assist the National Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, a group Sen. Daschle helped to found and for which Linda Daschle sits on the board, and on American Indian issues.

Linda Daschle’s biggest clients include Northwest Airlines and American Airlines, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, the American Association of Airport Executives and the City of Cleveland/Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.

Their issues will put her in contact with Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.), head of the Commerce Committee’s Aviation Subcommittee. Lott and Sen. Daschle fought when they were their parties’ Senate leaders but maintain personal ties.

Asked whether she could work with Lott — who spearheaded the “obstructionist” charge against her husband, Linda Daschle replied, “We’ll just take it one day at a time.”

Other Senate spouses also have careers that put them in the political-affairs arena.

Sen. Kent Conrad’s wife, Lucy Calautti, lobbies on behalf of Major League Baseball.

Kim Dorgan heads the congressional-affairs office of the American Council of Life Insurers.

After receiving press scrutiny for the lobbying of his son, Key, and his son-in-law, Reid forbade family members from contacting his Senate staffs and proposed changing the Senate ethics manual to restrict lobbying by Senate family members. That increased scrutiny of other family members who lobby for a living.

Linda Daschle declined to criticize Reid for that. “Harry … obviously made some decisions,” she said, “I had to decide how I wanted to handle mine. I had decided that from the very beginning … I would not lobby Tom, I would not lobby his committees — and when he became leader, I decided not to lobby the Senate.”

Several looming policy debates are likely to bring Linda Daschle to the Senate soon: war risk insurance, fuel taxes and airport security fees.

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