Past as lobbyist may play into future as candidate
Over the past three years, though, the former Republican senator and the Democratic powerbroker were on the same side of a big legislative battle. Both were part of a team of lobbyists for Equitas Ltd., a British reinsurance company set up to handle billions of dollars in claims by asbestos victims, lobbying records show.
That unlikely pairing offers an insight into Thompson, 64, who declared his interest last week in running for president. Although the folksy-sounding Tennessean recently told USA TODAY that he would run an outsider, just as he did while campaigning as a "country lawyer" in a red pickup during his 1994 U.S. Senate race, his résumé is that of a longtime Washington operative who has crossed ideological lines to represent corporate and foreign clients.
Before he was elected to the Senate, Thompson spent nearly two decades in Washington as a lawyer-lobbyist, representing such entities as Westinghouse, the deposed government of Haiti, the Teamsters Union pension fund and the Tennessee Savings and Loan Association, according to Senate records and published accounts.
After he left the Senate in 2003, Thompson resumed his acting career with a role as the district attorney on TV's Law & Order. Less visibly, he registered in 2004 as a lobbyist for Equitas, a company created to manage the asbestos liability for Lloyd's of London.
Equitas hired a bevy of lobbyists to protect its interests in the proposal to set up a federal trust fund, paid for by insurers, asbestos-makers and others, to compensate asbestos victims. The bill failed to pass, but before that happened, Equitas got what it wanted: a change in a provision the company said singled out foreign insurers for unfavorable treatment. Jon Nash, a firm spokesman, on Wednesday credited Thompson as having "contributed to the successful outcome."
The company paid Thompson $760,000 from 2004 to 2006, according to Senate records.
After a review of lobbying records and Thompson's tax returns, The (Memphis) Commercial Appeal reported in 1994 that he earned $507,000 from lobbying in 1975-93. That figure, a fraction of his total legal income, reflects a narrower definition of lobbying than the one in the current law. Thompson reported $3.7 million in income from lawyering and acting from 1983 to 1993, according to The Commercial Appeal and other Tennessee newspapers that cited his tax returns.
Thompson declined to be interviewed for this article. His spokesman, Mark Corallo, said, "Many of the candidates from both parties have been lobbyists or have been lobbied at one point or another in their careers. It is an honorable endeavor that goes back to the beginnings of this republic." Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, a Republican, reported that he earned $1.2 million last year from Bracewell & Giuliani, a Houston law and lobbying firm.
Thompson's opponent in his 1994 Senate race, Democrat Jim Cooper, sought to make an issue of the advocacy. He labeled Thompson a "Gucci-wearing, Lincoln-driving, Perrier-drinking, Grey Poupon-spreading millionaire Washington special-interest lobbyist." It didn't work. Speaking of Congress, Thompson told one crowd he could not wait "to go up there and grab that place by the scruff of the neck and give it a good shake." He beat Cooper by 20 percentage points.
Some analysts say Thompson may find his lobbying role more of a burden under the microscope of a presidential campaign, in an era when the Jack Abramoff scandal has cast lobbying in a harsh light.
"I suspect that when you run for president those sorts of activities receive a greater level of scrutiny," said Bruce Oppenheimer, political science professor at Vanderbuilt University in Nashville. "It's not just, 'who are you?' but 'who are your friends?' "
Political analyst Stuart Rothenberg said it could be a plus that Thompson "can wear the plaid shirt and drive the pickup and sound like a good ol' boy, and 20 minutes later, in a beautiful suit with polished shoes, sound like a guy who is an insider who knows about policy. But there is always the potential that voters will see that contradiction and wonder which one is the real one."
On occasion, Thompson lobbied for causes he would later criticize as a senator. For example, Thompson led a Senate effort against "corporate welfare." As a lobbyist in 1980s, he represented Westinghouse in its failed bid to win billions in subsidies for a nuclear reactor project in Tennessee, which the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, called "a multibillion-dollar folly." Corallo said the project was "aimed at helping to alleviate the energy crunch the country was suffering through."
In addition to lobbying, Thompson also has served on corporate boards. From May 2004 to November 2005, he sat on the board of the NASDAQ stock market, according to Securities and Exchange Commission records.
In the 1990s, Thompson served on the board of directors of — and did legal work for — engineering firm Stone & Webster. Shareholder activists unsuccessfully sued the firm in 1994, though, saying it was mismanaged. The lawsuit was filed after Thompson left the board, but it covered activities during the time he served. One plaintiff, investor Nell Minow — who made a business of buying shares in underperforming companies and pushing for changes — accused Thompson of a conflict of interest because he did legal work while on the board.
The company lost money throughout the 1990s, including the time Thompson served on the board, and went bankrupt in 2000, six years after Thompson left. Corallo declined to comment.
Martin Baach, a lawyer who coordinated Equitas' Capitol Hill advocacy, offered a different opinion of Thompson's business skills. "He's a great problem solver," Baach said.
