Ethics Audit Gives Glimpse Inside Top Lobbyist

Rarely does one get to peek into the books of the largest, most lucrative lobbying firm in the state.

It is the uncommon chance to learn about a $10,000 American Express bill, an $8,000 retirement party, and dinners on the town with legislators, which neither lobbyists nor politicians usually like to discuss.

But the Office of State Ethics can audit up to 20 registered lobbying clients per year, choosing the unfortunate victims by lottery.

In October, it plucked a client of Gaffney, Bennett & Assoc. of New Britain, in all likelihood the biggest moneymaker in the state. (We can’t be sure because the ethics office has been unable to provide compensation numbers since 2004, when Gaffney Bennett brought in $3.8 million in total compensation.)

But the 13-page audit shows how very serious the OSE is about audits.

Combing through a three-year period from Oct. 1, 2003 to the same time in 2006, it found 17 transgressions of state rules made by the firm. That may sound like a lot, but there is nothing more sinister than handing in paperwork late or divvying up a dinner bill wrong, and the office plans to take no action.

So there are no scandals in the Gaffney Bennett audit, but it offers an excellent opportunity to see the changing place of entertainment, parties and dinners in the firm’s business atop the government relations market.

A Good Time

The audit makes clear that Gaffney Bennett has not been shy about entertaining, even if legislators and state employees pay their own way to avoid having to report gifts.

Witness the December 2003 retirement party for J. Brian Gaffney, a founder of the firm and former chairman of George H.W. Bush’s Connecticut campaigns for president. Held at the Shuttle Meadow Country Club, in Berlin, the event cost $8,075.88 for 142 people.

On the same day as his party (paid for by check), the firm paid off Gaffney’s $10,136.37 American Express bill.

Another party came after the Republican National Convention, in the summer of 2004, when the firm paid nearly $6,000 to host an “after-hours party” at a bar in New York City with a live band, sponsored along with ING and Northeast Utilities.

Dinners and lunches of $50 to $60 per person were commonplace. Gaffney took Patrick Downes, a deputy at the Department of Public Works at the time, and another guest to a $152 lunch on an island in Florida. Lisa M. Fecke, still lobbying for the firm, took Rep. Michael Caron (R-Killingly) and two other guests to Trumbull Kitchen for $155.

From a business perspective, is there any doubt that all the spending on food and drinks paid off?

Gaffney Bennett’s lobbying unit has been at the top of the heap since 1991, when its four lobbyists displaced Sullivan & LeShane as the state’s top moneymaker. Jay F. Malcynsky, managing partner of the firm, estimates that it has grown revenue 5-15 percent annually every year since its inception. It now has eight lobbyists, who handle business for at least 72 registered clients, and probably more that the state has yet to post.

The Last Sip

But the view that political lobbying is about throwing parties and taking people out to dinner couldn’t be more erroneous, particularly under the new rules, according to Malcynsky.

“The perception that this is an entertainment-based business couldn’t be more off the mark. I can’t remember the last time I had dinner with a legislator,” he said. He pointed out that there were no state officials at events like Gaffney’s retirement party, just clients, colleagues and friends.

This is particularly true under the new campaign finance rules, not because the rules forbid the entertaining, but the paperwork needed to be in compliance has made some activities too much of a hassle.

The audit offers such an example from a 2005 appropriations committee party to which Gaffney Bennett gave $100. For years, lobbying firms have helped pay for legislative committees to hold “JF” parties, to celebrate having met the deadline for acting on most of their bills, by joint favorable report. Routine stuff: I help buy food for your party, you listen to me when I need to talk to you.

But the new rules require documentation of the per-person cost of the party, to ensure the money wasn’t actually a gift to a legislator or staffer.

That requires finding a guest list, determining each attendee’s position with the state (if any) and figuring out whether the firm’s donation amounted to more than $10 in spending per official.
Talk about a pain in the backside. So Gaffney Bennett has decided to stop contributing to JF parties altogether. That was music to the ear of Andy Sauer, executive director of Connecticut Common Cause, a good government group. “It shows a change of culture,” Sauer said.
Same thing with taking legislators out to dinner, Malcynsky said.

“Typically we don’t do that with legislators. I don’t think anybody does much of that any more,” he said.

He added that this isn’t the first time the firm has had to react to changing state ethics rules; constantly responding to them has become part of the business.

“It’s something that you have to place close attention to.”

Jonathan O'Connell is a staff writer for the Hartford Business Journal.