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Cable fight means major gravy for state’s lobbyists
Posted By katie allison granju
It can’t hurt your bill’s chanceswhen your chief lobbyist is married to the House Speaker, who very graciously allows lobbyists to hang out in his office to discuss the issue.
A small group of lobbyists gathers outside the office of House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh each week, checking BlackBerries and chatting as they wait to be invited through the doors of the speaker’s office and into a conference room in the back.
The subject of those meetings is an issue that could touch every corner of the state: whether telephone giant AT&T will receive statewide permission to offer television service in competition with cable companies like Comcast and Charter, and how widely available AT&T’s service will be.
The meeting participants come from a wider cast of characters: dozens of lobbyists, lawmakers and others on Tennessee’s Capitol Hill whose relationships and loyalties make a potent stew of politics. They include numerous former members of Gov. Phil Bredesen’s administration and two married couples.
“I think every lobbyist in Nashville’s been hired on one side or the other,” said House Commerce Committee Chairman Charles Curtiss, the Sparta Democrat who sponsored the AT&T legislation last year.
The quiet negotiations in Naifeh’s office, which participants are reluctant to discuss, stand in stark contrast to last year’s knock-down public fight over the legislation, which would allow AT&T to franchise its new service statewide instead of negotiating with each individual city, town or county.
Many parties say they’re close to sealing a deal.
AT&T has a small army of registered lobbyists — 28 in all, according to Tennessee Ethics Commission records. Among them is Naifeh’s wife, Betty Anderson. Though registered with the state, Anderson cannot lobby for the franchising legislation, according to AT&T.
The company has also enlisted Randy Camp, a former state court administrator and personnel commissioner to Bredesen; Beth Winstead, Naifeh’s former assistant chief clerk and Bredesen’s former chief lobbyist when he was Nashville mayor; and Anna Windrow, Bredesen’s former senior adviser.
AT&T also employs Bob Corney, Bredesen’s former communications chief, as a spokesman, and Dave Cooley, Bredesen’s former deputy governor, as a consultant.
The Tennessee Cable Telecommunications Association, which is made up of about a dozen cable companies opposing AT&T’s efforts, has nine registered lobbyists.
They include Steve Adams, a former state treasurer and lottery executive who was fired over allegations of sexual harassment in 2006; he denies the allegations. His wife is Reta Adams, who is Naifeh’s administrative assistant.
The pro-cable side has also hired two former members of the Bredesen administration, Meredith Sullivan and Robert Gowan. Sullivan is a registered lobbyist for the telecommunications association, while Gowan, who is barred from lobbying for at least a year after leaving government, is a consultant for Comcast.
Mar 24th, 2008
