Bice: Tammy Baldwin decries 'revolving door' even as 2 dozen staffers take or leave lobbying jobs

For years, U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin has been a leading voice against the "revolving door" between Washington, D.C., and powerful special interests.

The two-term Wisconsin Democrat even once penned a piece with former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton decrying the practice of former government officials cashing in on their access and experience by taking lobbying jobs for oil companies, drug companies or Wall Street.

"Increasingly, Americans' trust in government is eroding," Baldwin and Clinton wrote for Huffpost. "And a big reason for that is the so-called revolving door between government and the private sector."

It was a strong message.

But, as it turns out, some of those closest to Baldwin have not heeded her message.

Records show that 24 staff employees for the state's junior senator have either come from or gone into the lobbying business, some in the industries Baldwin has specifically warned against, including the pharmaceutical industry and the financial sector.

Here are some examples:

∙ Baldwin's general counsel in 2022, Rebecca Branum, was plucked from her lobbying job for Cavarocchi Ruscio Dennis Associates, a government relations firm specializing in health care. The firm has touted its efforts "to protect and expand" policies supported by clients and "block disruptive regulatory proposals."

Earlier in 2022, Branum lobbied the Senate on the Labor, HHS, Education and Related Agencies Subcommittee Appropriations bill. Baldwin was a member of the Appropriations Committee's subcommittee on these topics. She is currently chair of that subcommittee.

∙ Just after serving as a legislative director for Baldwin, Elizabeth Pika Sharp went to work in government affairs for Advanced Medical Technology Association as a lobbyist. While there, her group lobbied in 2013 against a sales tax on medical device supplies to fund Obamacare, a measure Baldwin opposed. Senator Baldwin voted alongside a bipartisan group of 79 senators to repeal the tax.

∙ After rising from an intern to a legislative aide for Baldwin, Katherine LaTour was named the director of government relations for the National Cooperative Business Association CLUSA International. LaTour registered as a Senate lobbyist in the first quarter of 2019, just after leaving Baldwin's office.

Of course, Baldwin cannot control where her staffers go when they leave her office. It is noteworthy, however, that a couple of dozen have entered and exited the revolving door even as Baldwin has denounced this practice.

Republicans are likely to make this issue in Baldwin's re-election campaign next year. No Republican has entered the race, but it appears that Madison banking mogul Eric Hovde will do so early next year. Also considering a bid are Franklin businessman Scott Mayer and former Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr.

"Career politician Tammy Baldwin loves to bash lobbyists, but her office is a revolving door for the influence peddling industry," said Tate Mitchell, spokesman for the National Republican Senate Committee. "After 30 years in politics, it's clear Baldwin has become part of the problem."

But Baldwin officials pushed back on the criticism.

Over the years, she has introduced four bills that would have set new rules for public-sector workers going to or coming from certain industries. None of the bills have passed.

For instance, one bill would have banned federal workers from accepting bonuses from their former private sector firms, made executive branch employees wait at least two years before taking jobs with companies they helped oversee and required senior financial service regulators from overseeing their previous employers.

"Tammy Baldwin has a proven record of fighting corruption in Washington and putting Wisconsin families ahead of the well-connected and special interests," said Eli Rosen, spokesman for Baldwin's D.C. office.

Baldwin's campaign officials said there is no proof that a lobbyist changed Baldwin's position on an issue or that she did anything but what she believed was best for the people of Wisconsin.

In addition, she has never supported a bill that would bar former staffers from becoming lobbyists or prevent Senate offices from hiring former lobbyists. Baldwin has never called for her staff not to go into lobbying. It is their right to do whatever they want to do when they leave their job, her campaign officials said.

Her campaign officials also emphasized that only 15 former Baldwin employees went immediately into lobbying posts after exiting her office. That represents only 7% of the staffers she has hired over the years, her campaign said.

Another six Baldwin workers went into lobbying after initially taking another private-sector job.

For example, William Hansen left Baldwin's congressional office in 2013 as her legislative director, advising her on tax, pension, banking, postal, labor and trade issues, to work in the cruise line industry for several years. Then in 2016, less than three years later, he registered to lobby the Senate on financial and pension issues.

It's hard to believe that Baldwin's staff didn't know Vicki Hicks' background.

Both before and after working as a special projects aide for Baldwin early in 2021, Hicks was registered to lobby the Senate. Over the years, she has represented three financial services companies and one pharmaceutical firm, Merck & Co.

No ex-Baldwin staffer appears to have done better in corporate America than Danielle Gilliam-Moore.

Immediately after leaving Baldwin’s office in 2015, Gilliam-Moore began lobbying the Senate for the Business Software Alliance, which represents technology companies.

Gilliam-Moore lobbied the Senate on the Electronic Communications Privacy Amendment Act of 2015, which Baldwin later co-sponsored. Gilliam-Moore also lobbied the Senate on the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act of 2019, another measure that Baldwin co-sponsored. She supported both bills before Gilliam-Moore became a lobbyist.

Gilliam-Moore is now the director of global public policy for Salesforce, a technology company worth more than $250 billion.

As Baldwin's team repeatedly pointed out, she had no control over where all these ex-employees went after they left her office. The majority did not become lobbyists.

But there is one person for whom Baldwin calls all the shots.

Herself.

So can Baldwin promise that at the end of her Senate career that she won't take a job with corporate America or a special interest or work as D.C. lobbyist? Her campaign stated on the record, "Yes," meaning she would take that pledge.

As you might expect the Republicans aren't so sure.

"It's nice to hear Tammy Baldwin is already thinking about retirement," said Mitchell, the Senate Republican spokesman. "But it's hard to take her at her word given her close ties to the Washington, D.C., lobbying community."

Contact Daniel Bice at (414) 313-6684 or dbice@jrn.com. Follow him on X at @DanielBice or on Facebook at fb.me/daniel.bice

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Baldwin decries 'revolving door' as staffers land lobbying jobs