Andrew Blunt's lobbying work faces scrutiny as he manages father's re-election bid

WASHINGTON — As Andy Blunt ramps up his father’s Senate re-election campaign, he’s also snapping up new lobbying clients who are paying his firm big money to push their legislative priorities in Jefferson City.

In the past nine months, Andy Blunt has added seven new clients to his already packed roster, including the University of Missouri, which is paying him $10,000 a month, and the Missouri Cable Telecommunications Association, which hired him last week to serve as its executive director. In all, the younger Blunt now has 36 clients, according to a review of Missouri Ethics Commission filings. Lobbyists do not have to report their fees, so it's impossible to tell how much Blunt earns from his Jefferson City advocacy.

Andy Blunt’s allies say his long client list is a product of his hard work and political savvy. The 39-year-old Springfield native says he never lobbies his father, Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., or any other federal official — establishing a “bright line” between his clients' priorities in Jefferson City and his father’s political pull in Washington.

“I am proud to be part of a large firm made up of a number of talented individuals whose work speaks for itself and whose clients rely on them year after year to represent them in Jefferson City and to help make Missouri a better place to create jobs and raise our families,” Andy Blunt said in a statement to the News-Leader.

But critics, including Missouri Democrats gunning to oust his father from the Senate, say Andy Blunt has used his last name and family connections to build a lobbying empire. And they argue his dual roles as a Missouri lobbyist and the senator’s campaign manager are rife with possible conflicts of interest.

“It just keeps adding up,” said Missouri Democratic Party spokesman Chris Hayden. He said Andy Blunt is expanding his lobbying business even as “he has this tremendous influence on a U.S. senator.”

Roy Blunt is likely to face Secretary of State Jason Kander, a Democrat, in next year’s general election. The senator announced in March that Andy Blunt would run his 2016 campaign, calling him “Missouri's most successful Republican operative in recent history.” So far this election, Blunt’s Senate campaign has paid his son’s lobbying firm about $20,000 for “operational and strategic consulting,” according to campaign finance reports.

No one disputes Andy Blunt’s political skills. He ran his father’s successful 2010 Senate bid against former Secretary of State Robin Carnahan. And he helped put his brother, Matt Blunt, in the governor’s office in 2004 in a campaign against now-Sen. Claire McCaskill.

“He has a track record of success for his candidates and his clients,” said Mike Kelley, a Democratic consultant and former head of the Missouri Democratic Party. “He grew up around Missouri politics and when you do that, you learn a lot. ... You gain the instincts that make you effective.”

But Blunt’s decision to hire his son highlights his family’s multiple ties to the influence industry. The senator is married to a Washington lobbyist, Abigail Blunt, head of government affairs at Kraft Foods Group. And his other son, the former governor, is now a federal lobbyist for the American auto industry.

“The Blunt family’s arrogance knows no bounds on this stuff, when it comes to lining their pockets and inserting their influence any way they can,” said Hayden.

Kelley said Andy Blunt’s family connections — both his senator-father and his ex-governor-brother — have been “extremely helpful” in helping him build up his lobbying business.

“But at the end of the day Andy, to his credit, has put together his own name for himself,” he said. “In this business you have to put up or shut up, and he’s obviously been able to put up” or his business roster of clients wouldn’t be growing.

Andy Blunt’s clients echo that, saying he is a smart legislative tactician with a knack for networking.

“He spends a lot of time at the Capitol cultivating relationships,” said Paul Berra, a lobbyist for Charter Communications and board president of the Missouri Cable Telecommunications Association. “He does his homework and is very good at strategy.”

The cable association tapped Blunt to serve as its executive director earlier this month, after what Berra described as an extensive search conducted by an outside firm. The board interviewed nine finalists for the job and determined that Blunt was the best suited. The previous MCTA chief held the post as a full-time job, earning $129,000 a year, according to the association’s 2013 tax forms.

Berra said they are confident Blunt’s firm — Schreimann, Rackers, Francka & Blunt — will be able to handle the group’s work in conjunction with its 35 other clients. He said Blunt’s last name and his father’s job in the U.S. Senate played no role in their decision. The board discussed Blunt’s work as his father’s campaign manager, Berra said, but determined it would not cut into his ability to represent their interests in Jefferson City.

“We felt very comfortable, and we’re very excited about having Andy with us,” he said, adding that Blunt was already helping the association craft its legislative agenda for the coming year.

Hayden notes that Sen. Roy Blunt sits on a Senate committee that oversees telecom issues at the federal level. And he suggested that Andy Blunt would almost certainly talk to federal telecom industry lobbyists as part of his job shaping the group’s state agenda, although Berra said the association was focused solely on Missouri issues.

Hayden also pointed to Andy Blunt’s lobbying work for Exelon Corp., the Chicago energy company, as an area where his work could intersect with this father’s. Exelon retains potential liability for the West Lake Landfill in St. Louis County, where radioactive waste was dumped in the 1970s. The federal Environmental Protection Agency is in charge of cleaning up the site, although Sen. Blunt and other lawmakers have criticized the agency for its sluggish pace.

Last month, Sens. Blunt and McCaskill, along with two St. Louis-area House members, introduced legislation that would transfer the cleanup authority from the EPA to the Corps of Engineers, a move generally supported by residents living near the site. “Transferring clean-up efforts to (the Corps’) control will help move the process forward and finally give these families the peace of mind they deserve,” Blunt said in a Nov. 19 statement.

Craig Nesbit, a spokesman for Exelon, said the company does not oppose that legislation, although Exelon has supported EPA’s cleanup plan. Nesbit said Exelon is concerned that transferring authority to the Corps would cause further delays in the remediation.

He said the company’s federal lobbyists have met with the Missouri delegation’s congressional staff — including aides to Sens. Blunt and McCaskill — to press its interests, which he said were primarily that any remedy at the site be “science-based.” Nesbit said Exelon is not seeking legislation to shield its liability.

As for Andy Blunt’s role, Nesbit said the company hired him “to keep Exelon informed of state-level activity regarding West Lake Landfill.”

Experts in government ethics and elections say it’s common for lawmakers to hire family members to work on their campaigns. But it’s more unusual for those family members to also be lobbyists, whether at the state or federal level.

“The whole situation is troublesome,” said Meredith McGehee, policy director at the Campaign Legal Center. “Anytime that you have an immediate family member who is a lobbyist involved in issues and with clients that have (agendas) at both the state and federal level, unless there is some Chinese wall that’s been built … it all meshes together.”

She also said that even if the two Blunts never discuss state policy issues, they may not have to for Andy Blunt to benefit from his father’s position.

“Everyone who deals with Blunt the son knows exactly who his father is, knows exactly if push comes to shove that is going to be helpful just in terms of the name,” she said. “They are going to assume, whether it’s true or not, that he has special access to the senator and that he would be able to have extra influence with the senator.”

But other experts say they see no problems with the arrangement.

“It’s permissible, it’s ethical, it’s legal,” said Jan Baran, a well-known election and ethics lawyer in Washington. He said it would not be difficult for Andy Blunt to avoid discussing his state lobbying work with his father as he manages the senator’s re-election bid.

“Campaign managers are usually involved in the mechanics of the campaigns,” such as fundraising and field work, Baran said, not in developing the candidate’s policy agenda.

And state legislators who know Andy Blunt say he is a straight shooter who doesn't throw around his family name to win legislative favors.

“Whenever I have dealt with him, I’ve never found him to be pushy or anything like that," state Rep. Kevin Austin, the assistant floor majority leader. "I’ve always found he has presented the facts and has been straightforward."

Blunt, in his statement to the News-Leader, said the attacks on his lobbying business are the work of Democrats trying to distract voters from their own unpopular agenda.

“It is no surprise that Jason Kander and his team are trying to make this race about everything except the really serious issues facing our country,” Blunt said. “He is simply unable to find substantive reasons for his candidacy to offer to the people because he represents the failed policies of President Obama and Hillary Clinton.”

News-Leader reporter Jon Swedien contributed to this story.