SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) speaks to the media after the second night of the first Democratic presidential debate on June 27, 2019 in Miami. (Photo: Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images)
'Uncharted Waters': DC Lobbyists Panic Over Possibility of Sanders Win
"Senator Sanders is breaking the mold in presidential politics with every gain he makes in the primary process."
Feb 27, 2020
Federal government lobbyists told The Hill Friday that they are increasingly concerned that a Bernie Sanders presidency could be "uncharted waters" for their clients given the Vermont senator's history of antipathy toward big business and the role of corporate power in U.S. politics.
"In our lifetime we have not had a [presidential candidate] so openly hostile towards corporations," said lobbyist Kevin O'Neill, a partner with D.C. firm Arnold & Porter.
Sanders, the frontrunner for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, regularly rails against big business and American capitalism on the campaign trail. The candidate has suggested raising taxes on corporations and instituting a wealth tax to pay for large public service plans like Medicare for All and the Green New Deal.
"That's the whole crux of his message," Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck lobbyist Al Mottur told The Hill. "Washington is rigged and it's rigged in part from the wealthy and the powerful. You would expect businesses to have concerns with him."
The senator also plans to change how K Street, Washington shorthand for the city's massive federal lobbying infrastructure, does business.
According to The Hill:
Sanders has vowed to shake up how the influence world does business, with proposals to ban donations from federal lobbyists and corporations and to prohibit the corporate funding of party conventions.
Lobbyists panned those ideas, but they could gain new momentum with Sanders as the Democratic party's standard bearer in 2020.
In a memo (pdf) to clients on Sanders' rise in the polls, lobbying firm Monument Advocacy warns that the senator's fundraising model, volunteer army, and popular national surrogates were a potent weapon against corporate interests.
"Senator Sanders is breaking the mold in presidential politics with every gain he makes in the primary process," the memo explains. "And, like another unconventional candidate who today sits in the Oval Office, you can throw out the typical playbook for what American businesses should expect over the coming months or more."
At least one strategist, an unnamed Republican lobbyist, felt the Bern--if only because a Sanders presidency would be good for business.
"You also have to remember that a Sanders presidency could simultaneously be terrible for corporate America and great for K Street," said the lobbyist. "Nothing drives our business like being on defensive 24/7."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Federal government lobbyists told The Hill Friday that they are increasingly concerned that a Bernie Sanders presidency could be "uncharted waters" for their clients given the Vermont senator's history of antipathy toward big business and the role of corporate power in U.S. politics.
"In our lifetime we have not had a [presidential candidate] so openly hostile towards corporations," said lobbyist Kevin O'Neill, a partner with D.C. firm Arnold & Porter.
Sanders, the frontrunner for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, regularly rails against big business and American capitalism on the campaign trail. The candidate has suggested raising taxes on corporations and instituting a wealth tax to pay for large public service plans like Medicare for All and the Green New Deal.
"That's the whole crux of his message," Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck lobbyist Al Mottur told The Hill. "Washington is rigged and it's rigged in part from the wealthy and the powerful. You would expect businesses to have concerns with him."
The senator also plans to change how K Street, Washington shorthand for the city's massive federal lobbying infrastructure, does business.
According to The Hill:
Sanders has vowed to shake up how the influence world does business, with proposals to ban donations from federal lobbyists and corporations and to prohibit the corporate funding of party conventions.
Lobbyists panned those ideas, but they could gain new momentum with Sanders as the Democratic party's standard bearer in 2020.
In a memo (pdf) to clients on Sanders' rise in the polls, lobbying firm Monument Advocacy warns that the senator's fundraising model, volunteer army, and popular national surrogates were a potent weapon against corporate interests.
"Senator Sanders is breaking the mold in presidential politics with every gain he makes in the primary process," the memo explains. "And, like another unconventional candidate who today sits in the Oval Office, you can throw out the typical playbook for what American businesses should expect over the coming months or more."
At least one strategist, an unnamed Republican lobbyist, felt the Bern--if only because a Sanders presidency would be good for business.
"You also have to remember that a Sanders presidency could simultaneously be terrible for corporate America and great for K Street," said the lobbyist. "Nothing drives our business like being on defensive 24/7."
Federal government lobbyists told The Hill Friday that they are increasingly concerned that a Bernie Sanders presidency could be "uncharted waters" for their clients given the Vermont senator's history of antipathy toward big business and the role of corporate power in U.S. politics.
"In our lifetime we have not had a [presidential candidate] so openly hostile towards corporations," said lobbyist Kevin O'Neill, a partner with D.C. firm Arnold & Porter.
Sanders, the frontrunner for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, regularly rails against big business and American capitalism on the campaign trail. The candidate has suggested raising taxes on corporations and instituting a wealth tax to pay for large public service plans like Medicare for All and the Green New Deal.
"That's the whole crux of his message," Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck lobbyist Al Mottur told The Hill. "Washington is rigged and it's rigged in part from the wealthy and the powerful. You would expect businesses to have concerns with him."
The senator also plans to change how K Street, Washington shorthand for the city's massive federal lobbying infrastructure, does business.
According to The Hill:
Sanders has vowed to shake up how the influence world does business, with proposals to ban donations from federal lobbyists and corporations and to prohibit the corporate funding of party conventions.
Lobbyists panned those ideas, but they could gain new momentum with Sanders as the Democratic party's standard bearer in 2020.
In a memo (pdf) to clients on Sanders' rise in the polls, lobbying firm Monument Advocacy warns that the senator's fundraising model, volunteer army, and popular national surrogates were a potent weapon against corporate interests.
"Senator Sanders is breaking the mold in presidential politics with every gain he makes in the primary process," the memo explains. "And, like another unconventional candidate who today sits in the Oval Office, you can throw out the typical playbook for what American businesses should expect over the coming months or more."
At least one strategist, an unnamed Republican lobbyist, felt the Bern--if only because a Sanders presidency would be good for business.
"You also have to remember that a Sanders presidency could simultaneously be terrible for corporate America and great for K Street," said the lobbyist. "Nothing drives our business like being on defensive 24/7."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.