Mitt Romney, who once hit John McCain for lobbyists, gets advice from one of them
DES MOINES – Almost precisely four years ago, Mitt Romney complained that John McCain had lobbyists running his presidential campaign. Now Romney is getting advice on his own campaign from one of those very same lobbyists.
Charlie Black confirmed today to The New York Times that he is not only supporting Romney, but providing advice to a campaign that is at or near the top of most polls in advance of tomorrow’s Iowa caucuses and the Jan. 10 New Hampshire primary.
“No formal role in the campaign. Just offer advice occasionally,’’ Black wrote in an e-mail to the newspaper. “The right man to be president.’’
Yet Black isn’t the only Washington figure with a lobbying background to think so.
Romney has also getting campaign advice anew from two Washington lobbying figures who also counseled his 2008 campaign.
Ron Kaufman, former chairman of the Dutko Group Worldwide and now senior adviser to Dutko Grayling, has been traveling across the country with Romney, providing advice and conducting strategic meetings.
Meanwhile, Vin Weber, a former Minnesota congressman who now works as managing director of Clark & Weinstock, is reprising his role as a campaign policy adviser.
It was the roles of Kaufman, as well as Weber, that sparked a January 2008 confrontation between Romney and a reporter.
Amid the supply aisles of a Staples store in South Carolina, Romney hit then-GOP frontrunner John McCain for having a campaign led former lobbyists, including campaign manager Rick Davis and, presumably, Black, a longtime Washington politico and top McCain backer and travel companion.
“I don’t have lobbyists running my campaign,’’ Romney said at the time.
The Times noted today that Black had resigned from the lobbying firm he founded, BKSH, while traveling with McCain. He returned to the firm after McCain lost the presidency to Democrat Barack Obama.
BKSH has since merged and is now called the Prime Policy Group.
When the reporter pointed out in 2008 at that Romney himself had lobbyists – specifically Kaufman – working on his campaign, Romney insisted they were merely informal advisers and were not part of the paid staff running his campaign.
“My campaign is not based on Washington lobbyists,’’ he said. “I haven’t been in Washington. I don’t have lobbyists at my elbows that are arguing for one industry or another industry. And I do not have favors that I have to repay to people who have been in Washington for years nor scores I have to settle.’’
Romney added: “I’m going to Washington to make things happen. And somebody doesn’t put the kind of financial resources that I have put into this campaign, and the personal resources I have put into this campaign, in order to do favors for lobbyists.’’
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