McCain's New Rules for Lobbyists and His Education Team
From contributing blogger Alyson Klein:
Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the presumptive Republican nominee, has new rules for lobbyists who work with the campaign. McCain's campaign won't employ registered lobbyists, and volunteer advisers can't work on the subjects on which they lobby.
I'm wondering how that will affect his education policy team, which includes some registered lobbyists. For instance, David Crane, who, according to the Fordham Foundation's Mike Petrilli, heads up McCain's education policy team. He's a registered lobbyist and the president of Quadripoint Strategies. His clients have included the U.S.Chamber of Commerce, according to the liberal-leaning media watchdog group Media Matters.
At least one member of McCain's education policy team, Eugene Hickok, a former deputy U.S. secretary of education under the current President Bush and now a senior policy director at Dutko Worldwide, a government affairs advocacy firm, said he's not sure yet how and whether the new rules will affect him. He's a registered lobbyist who has worked on No Child Left Behind reauthorization issues, but described his work as closer to "policy advocacy" than to traditional lobbying. He said he had to fill out some forms for the McCain campaign this week and is waiting to hear back.
