CEO Eric Schmidt's connections have given the company access to the inner circles of D.C. | Reuters Photo Google search: Political power

Google’s aggressive tactics have put it on top of the business world, and now the Internet giant is looking to leverage the high profile and sterling connections of its CEO to achieve similar power in the political sphere.

Google boss Eric Schmidt is one of the nation’s most politically active business leaders — a man who uses the cachet of the company he leads, as well as his own charisma, to build strategic alliances in the Obama administration and on Capitol Hill.


Schmidt, 55, grew up in Washington and returns frequently to visit his mother, who still lives in Northern Virginia. Those trips often double as chances to meet with President Barack Obama, chat with staffers at the Federal Communications Commission and meet with top lawmakers.

Schmidt’s newly formed friendships in town have helped transform Google from a D.C. outsider into an Obama administration darling with growing clout in policy circles.

But the company’s increasing influence is at risk of a Washington backlash from politicians and competitors, some of whom said Google’s vast reach is raising privacy, antitrust and other concerns.

“I’ve been concerned about Google’s role in the political system because they’ve learned how to lobby very effectively” using both traditional and nontraditional means, said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. “When the attention turns to them, it’s really remarkable the influence that they have.”

Schmidt has worked to forge relationships with a number of key members of Congress, giving generously to their campaigns and attending their fundraisers.

He recently hosted fundraisers for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). In June, Google hosted a National Republican Senatorial Committee fundraiser for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.).

This year, he’s written $4,800 checks to both Senate Democrats from New York, Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand. New York, of course, is the center of the advertising industry, which is now inexorably tied to Google’s dominant online ad platform.

In 2009, Schmidt gave $1,000 each to Reps. John Garamendi (D-Calif.) and Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and $2,400 to Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), whose district includes Google’s Mountain View headquarters.

And Schmidt wrote $10,000 checks to both the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Altogether, Schmidt has made $34,000 in personal donations for the 2010 elections, compared with $60,200 during the 2008 election cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

It is not uncommon for the CEOs of high-profile companies to develop ties in Washington to benefit their business, and Schmidt is certainly not the only one in the tech and telecom industries to do so.

Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg leads the influential Business Roundtable and frequently gets an audience with the president, for instance. Just last month, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, who is trying to get approval for his $30 billion acquisition of NBC Universal, had lunch with Obama at the White House. Cisco CEO John Chambers and Oracle CEO Larry Ellison have already surpassed Schmidt in political giving this cycle.

Google critics and supporters agreed that Schmidt has been especially savvy at gaining a seat at the table for some of the most important policy discussions not only for his industry but for the entire U.S. economy.

In fact, Google has become such a powerful player in the political and business worlds that most people contacted for this story refused to speak on the record about their concerns.

Unlike Microsoft and some other technology companies, Google did not go through a long period in which it treated Washington with disdain. The company quickly saw opportunities in Washington and has steadily beefed up its presence in the city, more than doubling its lobbying spending over the past three years.

But even lawmakers who have been beneficiaries of Schmidt’s political generosity have started to cast a skeptical eye in Google’s direction.

Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Internet industry, recently sent a letter to Schmidt, reprimanding Google for accidentally harvesting data from private Wi-Fi networks. The committee’s chairman and ranking member — Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Joe Barton (R-Texas), respectively — asked the Federal Trade Commission to look into the matter.

Google’s privacy blunder also became a campaign issue for Richard Blumenthal, the Connecticut attorney general who is running for Sen. Chris Dodd’s seat. He’s now leading a 30-state probe into the matter.

Competitors worry that the strategic roles Schmidt and a coterie of ex-Googlers play within the administration and Congress could heavily influence policies to benefit the company’s ambitions — even though the company insists that Schmidt’s political giving is purely personal.

“There’s a bit of schizophrenia going on here,” said a Silicon Valley insider who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he does business with Google. “On one hand, he’s professing personal political commitment, and on the other, he has a responsibility and mandate to push forward his own company’s ambitious agenda. It’s impossible to separate the two. For many firms out here who will be competitors to Google, these are concerns.”

Competitors noted that Schumer, a recipient of Schmidt’s campaign contributions, led a group of senators in sharply criticizing Facebook for mishandling users’ personal information — but didn’t comment when Google’s Wi-Fi snafu surfaced.

Executives at carriers like Verizon and AT&T are nervous about Schmidt’s relationship with FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski — who, like Schmidt, has been a close adviser and friend to the president.

One of Schmidt’s last official meetings with Genachowski was in October, according to agency records. Schmidt “expressed his appreciation to the chairman for his leadership in promoting open and robust access to the Internet.” Three weeks later, Genachowski formally announced his plan to codify Net neutrality regulations.

Google declined to comment for this story, but some observers said it isn’t surprising that the company and the administration have common values.

Democrats have traditionally been more interested in technology start-ups, while Republicans have typically been more friendly to telecom carriers, “so the tight relationship is partly based on shared policy views and is enhanced by Schmidt’s own proactive work with the administration,” said Paul Gallant, a telecom analyst at Concept Capital’s Washington Research Group.

“If you look at Google’s donations and the flow of personnel from his company to the administration, as well as his personal involvement, Schmidt is certainly one of the bigger players,” Gallant said.

Google’s political action committee spending jumped significantly with the 2008 campaign, going from $37,000 in 2006, its first year in existence, to $289,000 at the end of 2008. As of March 31, the PAC had spent about $183,000, consistently giving around 60 percent of its funds to Democrats.

Schmidt’s political interests date back to his days as an executive of Sun Microsystems and Novell in the 1990s. But it was Schmidt’s vigorous support of Obama’s presidential run that started to get attention.

During the 2008 campaign, Schmidt served as an informal economic adviser to Obama and actively stumped for the candidate, who was the first to visit Google’s headquarters, in 2007. After the election, Schmidt and other Google executives paid $25,000 each to help pay for a lavish, star-studded inaugural celebration.

Schmidt was then appointed to Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, as was Microsoft Chief Strategy Officer Craig Mundie, and became an advocate of the $787 billion stimulus package.

Four Google employees went to work in the administration. Andrew McLaughlin, former head of Google’s global public policy, is now White House deputy chief technology officer for Internet policy — an issue in which Google has a significant stake. McLaughlin came under fire for continuing to converse with former colleagues about policy issues such as Net neutrality.

When Obama released a memorandum directing agencies and companies to free up a wide swath of airwaves for wireless broadband services last month, Larry Summers, head of the White House economic team, gave a high-profile speech at the New America Foundation.

Schmidt is the chairman of the New America Foundation — a detail not lost on critics, who point out that Google, which makes a fast-growing mobile operating system and provides 70 percent of the mobile advertising in the U.S., stands to gain from bigger, faster wireless networks.

“He’s a technologist, but he also understands the head-of-state role of a CEO,” a D.C. tech industry lobbyist said of Schmidt. “He’s rare among CEOs in that he really understands how Washington works.”