Wall Street’s Straight Man in Washington
http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/features/2016-01-14/wall-street-s-straight-man-in-washington
Much of the money Garrett collects from Wall Street is supposed to be passed along in the form of party dues to the GOP’s campaign arm, where it’s used to help other candidates get elected. So the committee is also important to Republicans because it binds the party with the business community in a mutually profitable arrangement. But back in July, Garrett threw a wrench into this smoothly humming machine.
At a private caucus meeting, he got into a heated dispute with his colleagues by declaring that he’d withhold hundreds of thousands of dollars in National Republican Congressional Committee dues to protest the party’s support for gay candidates. His outburst immediately caused a rift in the caucus. “I was shocked,” says Richard Tisei, a Massachusetts businessman who was one of the candidates Garrett objected to. “The first time I ran, I was nervous my sexuality would be a problem. But everyone was just great. John Boehner, Paul Ryan—they went out of their way to let me know it wasn’t. Eric Cantor pulled me aside and said, ‘You know, I’m the only Jew in the caucus, so I understand better than anyone how important it is to have you down here to broaden and diversify our ranks.’?”...
The political fallout from Garrett’s remarks pales compared with the anguish it’s created in some corners of Wall Street. The financial industry ranks among the biggest donors to the Republican Party. But it has also been a pioneer in advancing gay rights. Garrett’s reelection race presents banks and investors with a fascinating—and excruciating—moral dilemma: Do they follow their financial interests and continue supporting a chairman whose antiregulatory views largely jibe with their own? Or do they honor their professed commitment to LGBT equality by cutting off that support and potentially angering a powerful industry overseer?
For all the criticism heaped on Wall Street, the Human Rights Campaign’s “Corporate Equality Index” ranks banking and financial services firms behind only law firms as the industry most committed to providing LGBT-friendly workplaces. Prominent figures such as Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein have made a point of publicly championing this ideal. And support has been bipartisan, encompassing major Republican donors, such as hedge fund magnates Daniel Loeb of Third Point and Paul Singer of Elliott Management. “Wall Street understands this isn’t just a civil rights issue—it’s about being able to attract and retain the best talent,” says Todd Sears, a former investment banker who started Out on the Street, a group promoting LGBT awareness at financial firms around the world.