Obama's Perception As 'Dictator' Cost GOP Lobby Shop Cash, Says Founder [View all]
Source: huffingtonpost
WASHINGTON -- A top Republican lobbying shop lost major business over the past few years because clients thought "Obama was going to be dictator," and only firms closely aligned with the administration would have access, Ed Rogers, the head of BGR Group, said in a deposition taken in January.
BGR Group, founded by top Republican players Haley Barbour, Lanny Griffith and Rogers, peaked in 2007 with more than $20 million in revenue. In three years of the Obama administration, revenue has been down roughly 25 percent, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Barbour returned to the firm in 2012 after two terms as Mississippi governor.
"There was a spike in people thinking that Obama was going to be dictator and to get a fair hearing, which is all you're ever really going to get or all you literally want, you had to be close to the Obama administration. We were not," Rogers testified.
"Well, was that just a perception or is that reality?" he was asked.
"It's a perception more than anything. Washington is becoming a town of what you know, not who you know," Rogers said.
Jeffrey Birnbaum, a spokesman for BGR Group, declined to comment.
Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/03/obama-lobbying-dictator-gop-lobbyist_n_1474492.html?ref=politics
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