Keeping It In the Family; Thompson Passes Lobbying Down to His Sons
Fred Thompson claims to be an "outsider" who can clean up the politics of Washington. But the truth is that Fred is a career lobbyist - both before and after his brief stint in the Senate, he worked in a Washington lobbying firm, using his family connections to advance the agenda of the special interests who employed him. And today the New York Times reported that Fred has lobbying in his blood - influence peddling is the Thompson family business.
Now the elder Mr. Thompson, who also worked as a lobbyist before and after his eight years in the Senate, is aiming for an even higher post, preparing a run for the Republican presidential nomination. In the folksy drawl that built him a lucrative sideline as a screen actor, Mr. Thompson is presenting himself as a reform-minded outsider taking on Washington, just as he did when he campaigned for the Senate as “Ol’ Fred” the “real live country lawyer,” and cruised Tennessee in a rented red pickup truck.But the lobbying work that Tony Thompson and another son, Daniel, did after their father won his Senate seat suggests how far the family has traveled from Fred Thompson’s early career. Not only has he parlayed his own political background into a lobbying business — a fact his opponents have seized on to challenge his outsider image — but his sons have also made lobbying a family affair.
Tony Thompson said he lobbied mainly in Nashville and registered for only one Washington client, Lockheed Martin. He said he never lobbied the Senate or discussed clients with his father.
Daniel Thompson was registered as a lobbyist only at the state level, where he worked as executive director of a statewide business group, the Tennessee Business Roundtable. He was later also a paid consultant to his father’s political action committee. Daniel, too, declined to comment.
Paul C. Light, a professor of government at New York University who worked closely with Senator Thompson on campaign finance and ethics proposals, said that lobbying by a family member was “an ugly practice no matter who the senator is, because it creates the appearance that his family is exploiting his stature and position.”
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