Rick Davis (politics)

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Rick Davis
In office
April 25, 2007 – November 4, 2008
In office
April 6, 1999 – March 9, 2000
Signature Rick Davis (politics)'s signature

Richard H. "Rick" Davis (born 1959) is an American lobbyist, best known for being the chief executive officer of the 2008 John McCain Presidential campaign. He is a founding partner of the political consulting firm Davis, Manafort & Freedman, located in Alexandria, Virginia.[1]

Contents

[edit] Career

Born to a Navy family, Davis studied at the University of Alabama, where he was a member of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity. After learning the campaign business in Alabama and Mississippi, he became national field director for the College Republican National Committee during Ronald Reagan's 1980 presidential bid.[1]

He left the Reagan White House to work with longtime lobbyist Paul Manafort, founding the lobbying firm Davis, Manafort. Between 1998 and 2008, the firm was paid at least $2.8 million for lobbying Congress.[2]

[edit] 2000 Presidential campaign

Davis served as Manafort's deputy in orchestrating the 1996 Republican National Convention; both would later join Bob Dole's presidential team. While working for Dole, Davis told a reporter that he was "blown away" by McCain's unconventional politics. He joined McCain's first election bid in 1999, as campaign manager.[1][3]

[edit] Homeownership Alliance

In 2000, Davis became the head of a group called the Homeownership Alliance, a Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac advocacy group. Its website said that the organization was dedicated to "exposing and defeating trends that would harm consumer access to the lowest-cost mortgage option."[4] He was head of the group for five years, being paid more than $30,000 per month. At the end of 2005, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac decided that Homeownership Alliance had outlived its usefulness, and it was closed.[5]

[edit] Reform Institute

When McCain started the Reform Institute in 2001 to promote campaign finance reform, he involved Davis.[6] In 2002, Davis was paid $120,000 as an institute consultant; in 2003, he was paid $110,000 in fees. In 2004 and 2005, when he was president of the non-profit institute, his salary totaled $165,000. Tax forms said he worked five hours a week or "as needed."[1]

[edit] 2008 Presidential campaign

[edit] Role

In 2006, Davis helped plan McCain's next White House run, envisioning a corporate-style campaign modeled after President Bush's 2004 bid.[1] He began McCain's 2008 presidential election campaign as the chief executive. In July 2007, with the ouster of campaign manager Terry Nelson and chief strategist John Weaver, he took the position of campaign manager.[7] In July 2008, a reorganization placed Steve Schmidt in charge of the campaign, although Davis retained the title of campaign manager.[8][9]

[edit] Payments

In 2006,[7] Davis and Manafort formed the company 3eDC, an Internet firm,[10] which the McCain campaign selected to oversee the campaign's Web site and online fund raising. The company was paid $340,000 before the contract's cancellation in April 2007; in mid-June, the campaign reported that it still owed the company $721,000.[7] [11] In all, the McCain campaign paid $971,860 to the company.[12] In June 2008, Campaign Money Watch, a 527 independent political group, filed a federal complaint that the company had improperly reduced the amount the campaign owed it by $107,000. [13]

In April 2008, after McCain became the presumptive Republican nominee, 3eDC was paid $20,000 by the Republican National Committee (RNC). In June 2008, the RNC and 3eDC were negotiating a larger contract that could be worth $2 million or $3 million.[11]

[edit] Controversies

[edit] Payments from Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae

On September 21, 2008, the New York Times reported that during the period from 2000 to 2002 (while Franklin Raines was the CEO of Fannie Mae), Davis received nearly $2 million dollars from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for consulting services. According to Robert McCarson, a former spokesman for Fannie Mae, "the value that he [Rick Davis] brought to the relationship was the closeness to Senator McCain and the possibility that Senator McCain was going to run for president again." McCarson also claims that "while he worked [at Fannie Mae] from 2000 to 2002, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac together paid Mr. Davis's firm $35,000 a month.".[14]

Three days later, the New York Times reported that Rick Davis' firm, Davis Manafort, had been paid $15,000 per month by Freddie Mac, for "consulting", from the end of 2005, when Davis stopped being head of the Homeownership Alliance, until August 2008. Payments stopped when Freddie Mac was taken over by the federal government. The Times said that "Davis took a leave from Davis Manafort for the presidential campaign, but as an equity holder continues to benefit from its income."[15]

The McCain campaign responded on September 24 with a statement that Davis had separated from Davis Manafort in 2006, and that "As has been previously reported, Mr. Davis has seen no income from Davis Manafort since 2006. Zero. Mr. Davis has received no salary or compensation since 2006. Mr. Davis has received no profit or partner distributions from that firm on any basis -- weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, semi-annual or annual -- since 2006. Again, zero. Neither has Mr. Davis received any equity in the firm based on profits derived since his financial separation from Davis Manafort in 2006."[16] On September 28, Newsweek reported that Davis had joined the campaign in January 2007, not in 2006, and that he specified that his $20,000-a-month salary be paid directly to Davis Manafort.[12]

The Times reported that "No one at Davis Manafort other than Mr. Davis was involved in efforts on Freddie Mac’s behalf, the people familiar with the arrangement said."[15] Newsweek reported that during the period of the payments, Freddie Mac had no contact with Davis Manafort other than receiving monthly invoices from the firm and paying them.[17] The only thing that Freddie Mac officials could recall Davis doing for the company, the Times said, was speaking at an October 2006 forum attended by midlevel and senior executives who contributed to Freddie PAC, the company’s political action committee.[15]

[edit] Involvement with Oleg Deripaska

In 2006, Davis helped set up the encounter between McCain and Russian aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska in Switzerland during an international economic conference. Deripaska's suspected links to anti-democratic and organized-crime figures are so controversial that the U.S. government revoked his entry visa in 2006.[18]

At the time, Davis was working for a lobbying firm and seeking to do business with the billionaire. Later that month, Deripaska wrote to Davis and his partner, political consultant Paul J. Manafort, to thank them for arranging the meeting. "Thank you so much for setting up everything in Klosters so spectacularly," he wrote. "It was very interesting to meet Senators McCain, Chambliss and Sununu in such an intimate setting."[18]

[edit] DHL

In 2003, Davis and his lobbying firm were hired by German logistic company DHL and Airborne Express, to lobby Congress to approve a merger between the two firms. DHL Holdings was eventually successful in acquiring Airborne Express. [1][19]

McCain and Davis have come under attack by the AFL-CIO for facilitating the deal, as DHL is now planning to quit using the Wilmington, Ohio freight airport as a hub. The airport and package-sorting facility in Wilmington was previously owned by Airborne Express. The move by DHL would cost an estimated 8,000 jobs at the Wilmington air park.[20][21] At the time of the merger, the deal created an estimated 1,000 jobs for the Wilmington area.[21]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Matthew Mosk (June 26, 2008). "Top McCain Adviser Has Found Success Mixing Money, Politics". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/25/AR2008062502858.html. Retrieved on 2008-08-11. 
  2. ^ Lisa Lerer (July 11, 2007). "Ex-reformer McCain depends on lobbyists". The Politico. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0707/4900.html. 
  3. ^ "The McCain Makeover" Glenn Frankel, The Washington Post, August 27, 2006
  4. ^ Wolgemuth, Liz (September 19, 2008). "McCain's Campaign Manager Was for It Before He Was Against It". US News and World Report. http://www.usnews.com/blogs/the-inside-job/2008/9/19/mccains-campaign-manager-was-for-it-before-he-was-against-it.html. 
  5. ^ David D. Kirkpatrick and Charles Duhigg (September 21, 2008). "Loan Titans Paid McCain Adviser Nearly $2 Million". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/22/us/politics/22mccain.html. 
  6. ^ Ken Silverstein (May, 2008). "My Lobby, Myself: How John McCain's hypocrisy is laundered as reform". Harper's Magazine. http://harpers.org/media/slideshow/annot/2008-05/. Retrieved on 2008-08-11. 
  7. ^ a b c Jackie Calmes (July 23, 2007). "McCain Manager Roils Campaign: Davis Returns After Ouster Amid Questions on Spending, Ties". Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118515181783374359.html. 
  8. ^ Dan Balz and Michael D. Shear (2008-07-02). ""McCain Puts New Strategist Atop Campaign"". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/02/AR2008070203038.html. Retrieved on 2008-07-02. 
  9. ^ Martin, Jonathan (2008-07-02). "Schmidt takes control of day-to-day operation". Politico.com. http://www.politico.com/blogs/jonathanmartin/0708/Schmidt_takes_control_of_daytoday_operation.html. Retrieved on 2008-09-07. 
  10. ^ Edward T. Pound (May 20, 2007). "Troublesome Résumés". U.S. News and World Report. http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/070520/28mccain.b.htm. 
  11. ^ a b Matthew Mosk (June 6, 2008). "A Well-Connected Campaign Firm Resurfaces". Washington Post. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/06/06/a_well-connected_campaign_firm.html. 
  12. ^ a b Michael Isikoff and Holly Bailey (October 6, 2008 (newstand date)). "A Freddie Mac Money Trail Catches Up With McCain". Newsweek. http://www.newsweek.com/id/161218/output/print. Retrieved on 2008-09-28. 
  13. ^ Mary Jacoby (June 10, 2008). "McCain Faces Challenge Over Campaign Links to Lobbyists". Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121305682775559307.html?mod=googlenews_wsj. 
  14. ^ Loan Titans Paid McCain Adviser Nearly $2 Million, New York Times, September 21, 2008
  15. ^ a b c Jackie Calmes and David D. Kirkpatrick (September 23, 2008). "McCain Aide’s Firm Was Paid by Freddie Mac". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/24/us/politics/24davis.html?scp=1&sq=rick%20davis&st=cse. 
  16. ^ Michael Goldfarb (September 24, 2008). "Statement by McCain Campaign: A Partisan Paper of Record". http://www.johnmccain.com/mccainreport/Read.aspx?guid=74063c9d-7cb5-47c9-acf6-53c0c2d88376. Retrieved on 2008-09-24. 
  17. ^ Michael Isikoff (September 23, 2008). "Freddie’s Friend: Freddie Mac continued checks to McCain campaign chief's firm". Newsweek. http://www.newsweek.com/id/160561. 
  18. ^ a b Jeffrey H. Birnbaum and John Solomon (January 25, 2008). "Aide Helped Controversial Russian Meet McCain". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/24/AR2008012403383_pf.html. Retrieved on 2008-08-11. 
  19. ^ Bob Drogin (August 8, 2008). "DHL deal gone sour haunts McCain in Ohio". Los Angeles Times. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-campaign8-2008aug08,0,2797540.story?track=ntothtml. Retrieved on 2008-08-11. 
  20. ^ 200 jam legislative DHL meeting, Associated Press August 20, 2008
  21. ^ a b Stephen Koff (August 6, 2008). "John McCain had role in original Wilmington DHL deal". The Plain Dealer. http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1218011630135640.xml&coll=2. Retrieved on 2008-08-11. 

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Davis_(politics)"
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