to Democrats.
When Ellender and his team met in 2009, they needed to figure out a way to learn more about the newly empowered Democrats. This might seem like an impossible task for Koch’s small cadre of lobbyists—the entire Koch team could fit around the conference table, with chairs to spare. But their lobbying power was bigger than their numbers might suggest. Each Koch lobbyist was like the regional manager of a franchise. They built expertise on certain policy issues, like climate change legislation or derivatives trading, and they had the ability to hire contractors from outside firms if they needed to beef up staff. This allowed Koch to build up or reduce its expertise on different topics as they arose in Congress. Sometimes, the outside contractors joined Koch’s team for its Monday meetings.
One of the lobbyists at Ellender’s meeting table was a woman named Kelly Bingel, a contractor with Mehlman Vogel Castagnetti, a bipartisan lobbying shop. Firms like Mehlman Vogel were a shock absorber that protected corporations from populist passion. When conservatives took over Congress, Mehlman Vogel hired out its Republican lobbyists to help negotiate the new environment. When liberals took over, Mehlman Vogel hired out its Democrats.
Koch Industries first retained Mehlman Vogel in 2007, when Democrats gained control of Congress, paying the firm $10,000 a month through 2008. By the end of 2009, Koch was paying the firm $20,000 a month and retaining thirteen of its lobbyists, including Bingel. She was a former staffer for Senator Blanche Lincoln, the Arkansas Democrat, and was on a first-name basis with many Democratic senators and staffers.
Bingel was part of a hidden political movement in 2009 that could be called “Democrats for Koch Industries.” She spent time hanging around the cheap congressional cafeterias, like the one in the basement near Jonathan Phillips’s office. When Bingel saw a staffer she knew, she sat down and traded gossip. She spent time on the phone, collecting tips. When her staffer friends wanted to get out of the office, Bingel took them out to lunch. Bingel became a liaison between Koch Industries and the liberal politicians whom the company had spurned for so many years. “My job was to introduce them to Democrats,” she said.
There were two ways for a lobbyist like Bingel to get the attention of a politician. The first was to work for that politician and remain close to their staffers after leaving, as Bingel had done. The second way was to raise money for the politician. This is why lobbyists frequently host fund-raising lunches, banquet dinners, and other events. The issue of fund-raising had to be treated delicately. Bribery is illegal in the United States. If a lobbyist offered money to a legislator in return for a vote, then both people could end up in prison.
To compensate for this fact, an elaborate system of etiquette had taken root in Washington. A lobbyist showed up, made an impassioned pitch to a legislator, and then left. Later, the lobbyist called the legislator’s office to say how thrilled the lobbyist would be to hold a fund-raising dinner for the legislator. If the lobbyists mentioned fund-raising in the middle of a pitch meeting, it would be akin to going shirtless to a formal dinner. Everyone in the room would be shocked.
When Bingel brought her colleagues from Koch Industries to meet Democratic politicians, they followed the well-honed lobbyist playbook. They focused on three factors that could sway the legislator’s thinking. The factors were:
1. The Preferences of a Legislator’s Voters. This was the most important factor to a lawmaker. A legislator cares, more than anything, about winning the next election. They seek to stay safely within the zone of voter approval.
2. The Broader Political Impact of the Vote. Because every legislator belongs to a political party, they also obsess about their standing within the party and their political future. A good lobbyist points out how any given vote fits into the party’s goals.
3. The Personal Convictions and Idiosyncrasies of the Legislator. This was the most frustrating and most ambiguous factor. Legislators are only people, at the end of the day. Most of them ran for office for deeply personal, and sometimes irrational, reasons. It could not be overestimated how profoundly these personal motivations play into a legislator’s votes. Good lobbyists were intimately familiar with a lawmaker’s personal quirks and convictions.
During a typical meeting with a lawmaker, a Koch Industries lobbyist pulled all these levers of influence. To pull the first lever, the lobbyist highlighted the deep ties that Koch Industries held with