GOP Chief Choice Renews Debate on Lobbying

President Bush’s announcement Wednesday that former Montana Gov. Marc Racicot will head the Republican National Committee renewed a fierce debate about the propriety of a party chairman also working as a lobbyist.

After meeting with Bush at the White House, Racicot announced that he will remain an active partner in a law firm here while serving the GOP as a volunteer, meaning he will not accept the post’s $150,000 annual salary.

He said Bush concurred with his desire to “continue on with my occupation,” but Racicot left somewhat ill-defined his ongoing role in the Washington office of the Houston-based firm of Bracewell & Patterson. Its clients include Enron Corp., the giant energy firm that filed for bankruptcy earlier this week, and the Recording Industry Assn. of America, which has been at odds with federal officials over regulating the advertising of music with explicit content.

Rising to Racicot’s defense, White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said, “There’s been ample history, on both the Democrat and Republican side, of chairmen being involved in either lobbying or having outside sources of income.”

Democratic National Committee spokeswoman Jennifer Palmieri conceded that point but argued that times and ethics have changed.

“The standards have thankfully risen,” she said. She noted that DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe sold his company, American Heritage Homes, several months before assuming his post earlier this year.

Racicot, unlike businessman McAuliffe, had spent his career in government and political jobs. He burst onto the national stage a year ago amid the disputed presidential election, emerging as an effective advocate for Bush, whom he has known since both were governors in the 1990s.

Bush, during brief remarks Wednesday in the Oval Office, hailed Racicot as a team player who will “take our positive, optimistic message to people . . . in all kinds of neighborhoods around the country.”

A Huge Role Planned in 2002 GOP Campaigns

With control of the House, Senate and 36 governorships at stake in the 2002 election, Bush said Racicot “has got a fine history of winning races, and he’ll translate that into practice come next fall.”

Fleischer indicated that with Racicot’s appointment, expected to be routinely ratified at an RNC meeting in mid-January, Bush is preparing to wade back into partisan political activities, something he has shunned since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He said that, “as the president sees fit, he will increasingly play a role as the election year rolls around.”

Racicot was on the short list to become Bush’s attorney general, but he withdrew from consideration amid doubts expressed by some conservatives over his commitment to such issues as school choice. Racicot, a father of five, cited family and financial considerations for deciding to enter the private sector.

On Wednesday, Republican leaders expressed delight over his selection as party chief.

“Gov. Racicot is a winner. . . . His coattails helped produce large Republican majorities in his state’s legislature,” said Rep. Thomas M. Davis (R-Va.), chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee.

Racicot will succeed Virginia Gov. James S. Gilmore, who announced his resignation Friday after months of strained relations with the White House.

Racicot was mindful Wednesday of the emerging controversy over his intention to continue working as a lobbyist. He said of his lobbying: “Obviously, it will have to be more limited than it was before.”

When potential conflicts arise, Racicot said, he would disclose them. And he vowed to stay “very, very keenly sensitive to making certain that the president’s goals and objectives are never compromised or placed in a light that would not meet with his very, very high standards of conduct.”

It is not unusual for party chairmen to maintain business ties. The late Ronald H. Brown, for instance, continued lobbying on behalf of his law firm Patton, Boggs & Blow while serving as DNC chairman in the early 1990s.

But Charles Lewis, executive director of the Center for Public Integrity, decried such dual roles.

“It’s a problem because parties are major public institutions in our society,” Lewis said. “And because of the quasi-public role, these officials have incredible clout, incredible access. . . . They are the first among equals as lobbyists.”

Former DNC Chief Says Dual Roles Are Tough

Veteran Washington operative Robert S. Strauss, DNC chairman from 1973 to 1976, said Racicot’s determination to continue his lobbying activities is likely to be severely tested.

A longtime partner in the Washington law firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, Strauss set out with the same intention.

“After a few months of being chair and remaining in my law firm, I concluded that it just wasn’t worth the grief people like you and the Republicans were giving me,” he said.

Strauss took a leave of absence from his firm.