Lobbyist

WASHINGTON -- Michael Scanlon, a former partner to lobbyist Jack Abramoff, pleaded guilty yesterday to conspiring to bribe public officials and agreed to cooperate in a widening criminal investigation of members of Congress. Scanlon, a former aide to US Representative Tom DeLay, has been cooperating in the Justice Department probe since June, one of his attorneys, Plato Cacheris, said after the plea. Scanlon entered the plea before US District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle and was ordered to pay restitution totaling about $19 million to Indian tribes that he admitted had been defrauded.

Frank Fahrenkopf, the nation's most prominent casino lobbyist, had some advice for Massachusetts regulators on Thursday. Keep taxes reasonable. Don't overregulate. "We're an unusual industry," he said. "We want regulation. " But be smart about it. The president of the American Gaming Association, which represents commercial casinos, was the keynote speaker for the state gambling commission's first-ever information forum, despite criticism from anticasino groups. His presence in such a high-profile position underscored the evolution of the gambling climate in Massachusetts following...

WASHINGTON -- Senator Arlen Specter yesterday denied any connection between special projects he gained for his state and a Washington lobbyist whose wife works in Specter's office. "That would be a blatant conflict of interest, inappropriate, and I don't think that happened," the Pennsylvania Republican said in a phone interview with reporters. But Specter also said he would speak further to the aide, Vicki Siegel, to ascertain whether she was aware that some applicants for projects might have been represented by her husband.

Casino opponents have sharply criticized the state gambling commission's choice of a prominent casino lobbyist to be the keynote speaker at the commission's first public educational forum on the industry, planned for next week. The panel's choice of Frank Fahrenkopf, president and chief executive of the American Gaming Association, was a mistake, according to the national nonprofit organization, Stop Predatory Gambling. "Mr. Fahrenkopf and other representatives of the commercial gambling business have plenty of financial resources to continue misleading the...

WASHINGTON -- The office of Tom DeLay, House majority leader, says a US territorial government was supposed to pay for travel by two of his staff aides to a Pacific islands commonwealth. Two Democratic representatives filed disclosure forms saying a nonprofit group paid their expenses to the same place. They all were at least partly wrong, according to lobbying firm records obtained by the Associated Press. The expenses were paid initially by lobbyist Jack Abramoff or his former firm, despite House rules prohibiting lobbyists from paying for the travel of lawmakers or their aides.

I FOUND it ironic to read the May 31 editorial on Beacon Hill’s culture of insider deal-making (“Patrick, Kerwin offer glimpse into Beacon Hill’s compliancy’’) juxtaposed against the May 31 op-ed by Robert Coughlin, CEO of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council and former state representative (“Health care law puts seniors at risk’’), in which Coughlin extols the virtues of elected officials deciding what services and drugs Medicare should cover and how much the federal government should pay. Of course Coughlin supports the current “system’’ of...

WASHINGTON - Mitt Romney has spent time on the campaign trail railing against high foreclosure rates, traveling earlier this year to one of the country's foreclosure capitals, North Las Vegas, to bring the point home. But as he has built his fund-raising machine, he has relied heavily on a man who has lobbied Congress on mortgage reform and antipredatory lending legislation that contained strict rules aimed at preventing another subprime mortgage collapse. T. Martin Fiorentino Jr., who raised $102,900 for Romney, lobbied on the legislation on behalf of Lender Processing Services, a...

Newt Gingrich says he never lobbied for Freddie Mac even though he was a consultant to the government-backed mortgage company's chief lobbyist. Instead, the presidential hopeful says he provided "strategic advice" under the $25,000 per month contract. Gingrich told NBC on Wednesday that the contract spelled out "no lobbying, period. " The former House speaker's work for Freddie Mac has become an issue in the Republican primary, especially in Florida, one of the states hit hardest by the housing crisis.

A federal judge has sentenced an ex-lobbyist who worked for disgraced influence peddler Jack Abramoff to 30 days in a halfway house and two years' probation. Todd Boulanger (BOWL-n-jur) was accused of lavishing congressional aides with gifts in exchange for help with legislation favorable to Abramoff's clients. Boulanger had pleaded guilty to providing tens of thousands of dollars in meals and tickets to sporting events, concerts and the circus. The gifts included an expenses-paid trip to the World Series.

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich says he was never a lobbyist. But three US representatives, including former New Hampshire Representative Jeb Bradley, have said Gingrich did in fact lobby them – whether he met the technical definition of a lobbyist or not. Bradley told the Globe that he remembers Gingrich, in 2003, advocating in favor of the legislation that created the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit before a...

Last May, as a battle was heating up between Internet companies and Hollywood over how to stop online piracy, a top entertainment industry lobbyist landed a meeting at the White House with one of President Obama's technology advisers. The lobbyist did not get there by himself. He was accompanied by Antoinette C. Bush, a well-connected Washington lawyer who has represented companies like Viacom, Sony, and News Corp. for 30 years. A friend of the president and a cousin of his close aide Valerie B. Jarrett, Bush has been to the White House at least nine times during Obama's...

WASHINGTON - Washington lobbyists are making a strange request: more regulation of lobbying. The main professional association for paid influencers, the American League of Lobbyists, is expected to call for tough new rules that would require more people to register as lobbyists with the House and Senate. Under current law, lobbyists can avoid registering if less than 20 percent of their time is spent contacting lawmakers' offices or preparing for such activity. They also don't need to register if they make fewer than two contacts for a...

NEW YORK - For the second time, federal prosecutors in Alabama failed to convince a jury that politicians, lobbyists, and gambling interests had committed any crimes in their failed attempt to get the state Legislature to legalize some forms of gambling. Six defendants, including a casino owner and three current and former state legislators, were found not guilty Wednesday of a raft of corruption and bribery charges stemming from a federal investigation that exposed the often sordid backroom dealing of Alabama politics.

A Stamford woman who was severely injured by an out-of-control chimpanzee has hired two lobbyists as she waits for a state official to decide if she can sue Connecticut for damages. According to reports, Kevin Reynolds and Anthony Householder will represent Charla Nash, who wants to sue the state over allegations it failed in its duty to restrict the ownership of dangerous animals as pets.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who has been attacking former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum for being Washington insiders, hosted a $10,000-a-head event with lobbyists and industry executives today at the JW Marriott in Washington, D.C. The Democratic National Committee immediately jumped on the event, using it to paint Romney as a Washington insider himself. The event comes as questions of influence and lobbying are taking a large role in the campaign.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who has been attacking former House speaker Newt Gingrich and former senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania for being Washington insiders, hosted a $10,000-a-head event with lobbyists and industry executives yesterday at the JW Marriott in Washington. The event comes as questions of influence and lobbying are taking a larger role in the campaign. Gingrich has been criticized for his work consulting for groups with Washington interests, such as drug companies.

ATLANTA - Georgia’s powerful House speaker resigned yesterday after a suicide attempt and allegations by his former wife of an affair with a lobbyist. Glenn Richardson, the state’s first GOP speaker since Reconstruction, had won sympathy from even his political enemies when he revealed last month that he attempted suicide by swallowing sleeping pills. But then his former wife went on television and accused him of having “a full-out affair’’ with a lobbyist while they were married.

WASHINGTON - A former Raytheon Co. lobbyist nominated to be deputy defense secretary has agreed to sell his stock in the military contractor and similar holdings, but won't be forced to step back from decisions related to his former employer, the Pentagon said yesterday. Instead, William J. Lynn III's dealings at the Defense Department would be subject to ethics reviews for one year, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said. Lynn was a registered lobbyist until last July and is now the Waltham-based defense contractor's vice president for government operations and...