Harry Reid and Debbie Stabenow Democrats want to remind the business advocates that they should stop playing by the old rules. Dem leaders pressure CEOs to buck GOP

The Senate Democratic leadership summoned the chiefs of 17 major trade associations to the Capitol on Wednesday to send a subtle but unmistakable message: If you want our help on your issues, stop helping the Republicans block our bills.

Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), who managed the meeting for the leadership, called in the CEOs of the city’s most powerful trade associations to circumvent what Democrats consider their more partisan lobbyists — many of whom are Republicans with long-standing ties to the power structure that got toppled in 2006.


Democrats wanted “to get beyond the folks who see through a partisan lens every day,” Stabenow said.

On the surface, the meeting had a cordial, even cheerful, tone, according to participants. There were professions of appreciation for the times when the business groups have supported Democratic ideas and promises to work together cooperatively whenever possible.

But the concerns driving the meeting were obvious: Democrats wanted to remind the business advocates that there is a new sheriff in town and that they should stop playing by the old rules.

In e-mail to Politico last week, Jim Manley, whose boss, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, attended the meeting, explained Democrats’ concerns this way: “When a business organization is using its muscle to help efforts by congressional Republicans to obstruct passage of a bill that helps the organization’s members, that needs to change.”

Stabenow said: “If we are going to be leading the charge on behalf of the people they represent, then I think we have a right to reasonably expect that they’re going to help us achieve what they want to achieve, even if it means in opposition to the president or in opposition to the Republican leadership.”

Muscle-flexing is not unusual on Capitol, nor is the occasional brushback pitch. Still, participants described this session as unusual. This was partly due to the air of speculation that preceded the meeting, with association heads asking themselves just what was behind the invitation. It was also due to what some perceived as a deliberate, self-conscious tone to the remarks by Democratic senators.

If it was a step-in-line message Democrats were hoping to send, they were treading on sensitive terrain. After taking control of Congress in the 1990s, Republicans hauled corporate leaders into meetings, first to tell them to help with legislation and later to pressure them to fire Democrats and hire Republicans for top jobs. The effort, known as the K Street Project, led to PR troubles, ethics flaps and a string of criminal cases involving Jack Abramoff.

Democrats dismiss the comparison — they say they aren’t strong-arming anyone into hiring Democrats — and, in truth, both parties have been aggressive on this front for years.

In recent months, Democratic staffers have met with trade association lobbyists to press the same message the senators delivered to the CEOs on Wednesday. Democratic senators have also been firing shots at K Street in the press. But, as Stabenow said, Wednesday’s gathering was the first face-to-face meeting between senators and so many CEOs together in one place.

Because of the high-power personalities involved, it took six to eight weeks to put together the meeting.

A Democratic lobbyist who attended the meeting said that some of the trade association leaders feared they were going to be taken to the woodshed, particularly after seeing a June story in Roll Call that said Reid had lost patience with the business community.

A Democratic aide who helped organize the meeting said the groups worried that Reid would “yell” at them about hiring more Democrats. “‘No, we don’t have a reverse K Street Project,’” he said he replied repeatedly.

On the way into the meeting, T. Timothy Ryan Jr., the president and CEO of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, asked a Democratic aide, “What are we doing here?”

Also attending the hour-long meeting in the Capitol’s Mansfield Room were leaders from the National Federation of Independent Businesses, the Biotechnology Industry Organization, the American Bankers Association, the National Association of Manufacturers, America’s Health Insurance Plans, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, the Real Estate Roundtable, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Private Equity Council, the Business Roundtable, the National Beer Wholesalers Association, the Independent Community Bankers of America, the Mortgage Bankers Association, the Associated General Contractors of America, the Financial Services Roundtable and TechNet.

One of the business leaders said that Reid and Stabenow were explicit in expressing the importance of dialogue with the business community. He said the Democrats then let their guests do most of the talking.

“People left the meeting with a very positive sense that the Democrats are interested in engaging with the business community in a more broad-minded way than has been in the past,” he said.

The Democrats delivered their message through compliments rather than direct threats. A Democratic aide who attended the meeting said the senators “were thanking people for having broken [from Republicans] on certain things.”

The biotech lobby was thanked for its help with tax extenders and stem cells. PhRMA, which didn’t make the meeting because its leader was ill, was called out for its help with the Medicare push.

“We talked a lot about the tax extenders, and we asked for their help. We were only one vote short of being able to stop the filibuster, and some people in the room can help with that,” Stabenow said.

The Democratic aide said that Reid’s “general tone was, and his general comments were, ‘We want to take every opportunity we can to work together, and that’s the purpose of calling the meeting.’”

“I thought it was extraordinarily positive,” said an association executive with Republican ties. “I think there was not one bit of tension in that room. If there was, I didn’t detect it.”

NFIB President Todd Stottlemyer echoed those sentiments.

“I thought it was a very constructive conversation,” he said. “They did a lot of listening, and I think that’s terrific, to really sit back and actively listen. This was a real nice opportunity to ... talk about the things that are on the mind of small business.”

Ryan Loskarn, a spokesman for the Senate Republican Conference, said he isn’t worried that the GOP’s business base might be going wobbly. “They’ll certainly still meet with us,” he said. “The business groups and associations, they will meet with whomever is in the majority, and they clearly understand who’s in the majority.”

Lisa Lerer and Chris Frates contributed to this story.