GOP Pressures Tech Firms To Help Michigan Senator
By Mike Allen
The Washington Post, May 16, 2000

Senate Republicans have pressured high-technology companies to raise money
for advertisements supporting Michigan Sen. Spencer Abraham, one of the
most vulnerable Republican incumbents this fall and the chief sponsor of a
measure that is a top priority for the companies.

An exchange of e-mails obtained by The Washington Post details how the
companies scrambled to come up with money for television and radio
advertising campaigns after encouragement from Abraham and Senate Majority
Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.)--at least in part because the companies feared
that failing to do so would stall their legislation.

"I have heard that regardless of our 'limitations,' we need to do something
for Abraham if we want to see something moved in the Senate," Jenifer
Verdery, a lobbyist for computer chip manufacturer Intel Corp., wrote on
March 21. "It must be visible and soon. (from Senate leadership)."

Lott has urged other high-technology companies to come up with money not
for Abraham's own reelection campaign, but for Americans for Job Security,
a business-backed group that has run $450,000 in ads supporting Abraham and
criticizing his Democratic rival, Rep. Deborah Ann Stabenow.

Outside groups that do not disclose their donors--and unlike candidates,
can accept donations of any size from any source--have become a fixture of
modern campaigning, sometimes as influential as the candidates themselves.
The episode from Michigan offers a particularly vivid example of how these
supposedly independent groups work in concert with lawmakers. It also shows
the connections, implicit or explicit, between elected officials' efforts
to raise money for such outside groups and the legislative concerns of
those they are soliciting.

In Michigan, where the close Senate race has already attracted a swarm of
advertising by outside groups, Abraham has been under attack by an
anti-immigration group, the Federation for American Immigration Reform
(FAIR), which has run about $700,000 in television ads that accuses Abraham
of a "giveaway of American jobs."

Both Lott and Abraham acknowledged seeking help from the high-technology
companies to combat the televised assault by FAIR, but said Senate action
on the visa legislation was not contingent on the companies' coming up with
money for the counter-campaign.

Abraham is critical to the companies' interests as chairman of the Senate
Judiciary subcommittee on immigration. Lott, as majority leader, exercises
control over what legislation is brought to a Senate vote. Abraham's
legislation would increase the annual number of visas that allow skilled
foreign workers to immigrate, a crucial source of workers for the U.S.
computer industry, where hundreds of vacancies have forced some companies
to cut back on research and other projects.

The high-technology industry's first effort to help Abraham fight the
attack ads was a radio advertising campaign underwritten by American
Business for Legal Immigration, the companies' lobbying consortium.

In an interview yesterday, Verdery, the Intel lobbyist, said the
advertising campaign was launched because of a belief that the bill would
have a better chance of being brought to a vote if the issue were playing
better on Abraham's home turf.

Responding to Verdery's e-mail plea for funding, a lobbyist for Motorola
said the company could kick in $3,000, adding, "According to my
calculations that has us at about $7,000 so far. Any chance other companies
can kick in quickly so we can show our support for Abraham? I think the
sooner the better! We really can't afford to lose this opportunity."

A few weeks later, on April 7, Lott summoned the lobbyists to a meeting at
Senate Republican campaign headquarters--this time to suggest they donate
money for the Americans for Job Security advertising campaign.

"I'm just back from the meeting that Trent Lott called to discuss the
treatment Abraham's been getting at the hands of FAIR," wrote one lobbyist
who attended the meeting. "Lott's message was that there is a nonprofit
called 'Americans for Job Security' that is going to run hard-hitting ads
to fight fire with fire against FAIR. We were asked for our support (no
surprise)."

The e-mail continued, "I told Lott that ABLI had already made an effort in
response to these ads, that the ads were despicable, etc. Still, of course,
they want contributions to this nonprofit. My sense is that the companies
in the room will take care of it . . . ."

Lott's spokesman, John Czwartacki, said there was "no explicit indication
there was a need to involve themselves in that campaign.

"Lott's point was this needs to be responded to," Czwartacki said. "He
voiced his concern and called the attention of these folks to this ad
campaign and the need for an effective response to it." Czwartacki said the
meeting was held at the National Republican Senatorial Committee "to avoid
any appearance of anything untoward going on."

Asked about the possible benefit to Abraham of the business-backed ads,
Czwartacki said, "He is by proxy the embodiment of the issue. Someone can
look at a calendar and look at the state and see what's involved."

David M. Carney, chief executive of Americans for Job Security, said he
does not believe the Lott meeting has yet resulted in any money but added,
"I'm hopeful."

Several of the recipients of the e-mails said they felt Lott and his staff
had used "heavy-handed tactics" in setting up the meeting.

"There were a number of people who took offense," one lobbyist said. Some
companies also were concerned that the overture could look like they were
coordinating spending with a campaign, which would be illegal, the lobbyist
said.

Abraham also has talked up Americans for Job Security, although he says his
references to it have been oblique. In an interview, he said that while he
has "purposely been trying to avoid making any specific direction of people
to that group," he has suggested to business people that donations to such
groups would "help get the word out" about what he considers the
distortions in the FAIR ads.

Stabenow, Abraham's opponent, said such cooperation between parties and a
private group represent "the next wave of what I believe to be campaign
finance abuse.

"I'm afraid we're going to see a lot of it this cycle," she said. "These
third-party groups are becoming an extension of the partisan campaign
committee. They make up a name and then funnel money into them."

Abraham himself expressed concern about the role outside groups are playing
in his race and others. "I fear we're heading in a direction where the
actual candidates are drowned out by people who aren't even running,"
Abraham said.

The Americans for Job Security ad shows a smiling Abraham with a U.S. flag
and says "an extremist group charged with bigotry and racism" is "smearing
Senator Abraham with negative attack ads.

"Yet Debbie Stabenow is so desperate, she won't denounce this campaign of
fear," the announcer says. "Call Stabenow. Ask her to stop the smear
campaign."

The FAIR ads, which are scheduled to return in about a week, encourage
viewers to "call Senator Abraham now. . . . Ask him how he'd feel if you
gave his job away."