When interests overlap for Durbin, lobbyist wife

Oct. 05--Sen. Dick Durbin has long said that he and his wife, Loretta, an Illinois lobbyist, take pains to separate their work and avoid conflicts of interest.

But a Tribune investigation has found instances in which Loretta Durbin's clients have received federal funding promoted by her husband, raising questions about whether the power couple have done enough to avoid inherent conflicts of interest as they go about their jobs.

The Durbins sat down for an hourlong interview with the Tribune last week, and the U.S. senator acknowledged occasional "overlap" in which his wife's clients received his help, but both insisted that she limited her lobbying to the state and never sought federal funds.

"We were never asked to do any federal lobbying, and we never did," Loretta Durbin said.

Even so, her lobbying contracts with the city of Naperville, obtained by the Tribune through a public records request, stated that her firm would work with "state or federal government officials."

Among the areas of overlap in the Durbins' careers: her firm getting a one-year contract with a housing nonprofit group around the time the senator went to bat for the organization and others like it; a state university receiving funds earmarked by Durbin when his wife was its lobbyist; and Durbin arranging federal money for a public health nonprofit when his wife was seeking state support for the same group.

Loretta Durbin, 68, who said she plans to retire soon, has earned a total of at least $1.04 million in salary from lobbying since 1998, according to the senator's annual financial disclosures. Sen. Durbin also makes his federal and state tax returns public.

The senator, 69, who is seeking his fourth term in the Nov. 4 election, said he has never helped his wife get business.

"People know the name because I've been around for a while," the senator said. "But whether that helps or hurts her in attracting clients, you know, there are some people who are not wild about me and they may just decide they wouldn't want to have my wife work for them. But I have never, ever, ever referred a client to her. And she has not asked me ever to contact anybody on her behalf. We really tried our best to make this something where there's a clear line between what we do."

The couple said that once the decision had been made not to lobby the federal government, Sen. Durbin was not consulted when she considered new clients.

"Her decision and her partner's decision, not mine," the senator said. "And I trusted her judgment. I still do."

Clients of Loretta Durbin'sSpringfield-based firm have included nonprofit social service agencies as well as heavy hitters such as Chicago Title Insurance Co., pharmaceutical giant Wyeth and wholesale beverage distributor Wirtz Corp. Her firm has lobbied the governor's office, the General Assembly and state agencies such as the Department of Public Health, Department of Human Services and Department of Transportation, records show.

Two public clients -- Naperville and Eastern Illinois University -- have paid Loretta Durbin's lobbying firm a total of more than $1 million, according to records.

Meredith McGehee, policy director at the Campaign Legal Center and an expert on ethics in lobbying, said the Durbins' arrangement deserved a thorough airing.

"If you're going to become a lobbyist, part of the deal is, everything you do is going to be gone over with a very bright light, and it should be," she said. "So I don't think there's anything inherently wrong, but it is inherently worth very close scrutiny, and the burden really should be on them to show that there aren't conflicts."

Craig Holman, a lobbyist and expert on government ethics at Public Citizen, a watchdog group, said that even though the Durbins have complied with Senate ethics rules, he found the circumstances "troubling."

Holman perceived an "indirect" conflict of interest in Durbin securing or announcing federal money for his spouse's clients. "It doesn't run afoul of any of the congressional ethics rules or federal conflict-of-interest laws, but it does raise red flags in the sense that Durbin is getting credit for awarding grants or earmarks to some of the clients of his wife," he said.

Started firm in 1997

Married for 47 years to a man who has become one of Illinois' most influential politicians, Loretta Durbin has built a reputation of her own as a power player.

She was an assistant for two Democratic lawmakers in the Illinois Senate from 1985 to 1994, and before she started lobbying, she worked for the Illinois Commission on Intergovernmental Cooperation, whose work included tracking federal funds and legislation.

In the early 2000s, she helped start the Illinois Women's Institute for Leadership, which trains Democratic women to run for elective office.

She created the Government Affairs Specialists Inc. lobbying firm with partner Alice Phillips in 1997, the year Dick Durbin entered the Senate after seven terms in the House. Phillips, a Republican, was the firm's president, and Loretta Durbin, a Democrat, its vice president. She said they owned the firm 50-50.

Phillips, in an interview, said that when the women were opening the firm, they had concerns about working with clients whose needs might intersect with Sen. Durbin's activities in Washington.

"We met with Dick and asked him, we said, 'Are there any areas that you don't want us involved in?'" Phillips said.

Sen. Durbin took the matter to the Senate Ethics Committee. He gave the Tribune a copy of its advisory letter, which said lobbying the Senate would be "left to the ultimate discretion of the Senator and his or her spouse," but that representing clients before "state and local entities only" seemed permissible.

Phillips and the Durbins said the firm decided to focus its efforts in Illinois. "We stayed out of Washington," Phillips said. "From day one, we didn't want to get involved in that."

The two women ran the firm for more than a decade, and Government Affairs Specialists closed in 2011 when Phillips retired and moved to Florida. Loretta Durbin then began her own firm: Government Affairs Consulting LLC. She now works on contract with J & J Legislative, a Springfield lobbying firm that picked up a number of her clients.

'Call Durbin'

Sen. Durbin ranks second among Senate Democrats and, for many of his nearly 32 years in Congress, has been influential in making key decisions on how federal dollars are spent.

But determining the forces behind federal funding can be difficult.

Until recently, members of Congress could earmark pet projects for their states, but the lawmakers were required to attach their names to earmarks for only three years ending Sept. 30, 2010, said Steve Ellis, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group in Washington, Durbin ranked ninth among 100 senators in sponsoring or co-sponsoring earmarks in fiscal 2008. His ranking fell to 24th in 2009 and 43rd in 2010.

The Tribune identified four Durbin earmarks in which federal money benefited his wife's clients in some way.

One was a previously reported $150,000 in funding for the American Lung Association of Illinois in the early 2000s, while Loretta Durbin was the group's state lobbyist.

In three other cases, Durbin said his wife's clients were among many entities that benefited from an earmark.

One was for teacher-training grants that helped a number of Illinois schools, including a Loretta Durbin client, Eastern Illinois.

"I mean, it wasn't as if they received special treatment," Sen. Durbin said. "If anything, you know, they had to wait in line. And that was the way it should be. And I didn't say Eastern first, that's my wife's client. I wouldn't do that."

Two other earmarks involved Metra's now-shelved STAR Line project, which would have linked the Joliet area and O'Hare International Airport and served Naperville, giving the city a vital transit link. Durbin said Naperville was one of about 100 communities that would have benefited and most sought his help. The earmarks also were backed by other federal lawmakers from Illinois. STAR Line was a legislative priority for Naperville while Loretta Durbin represented the suburb.

While there's a de facto moratorium on earmarks in Congress, lawmakers still try to persuade federal agencies to direct funds in specific ways.

In addition to earmarks, the Tribune asked Durbin and his staff about 10 grants that were announced by the senator's office and awarded to Loretta Durbin's clients. The senator said he had not weighed in on any of the grants, and he noted that some of them are set and awarded by a formula that does not take into account lawmakers' preferences.

According to Durbin, when he and other lawmakers announce federal awards, that doesn't necessarily mean they had anything to do with the funding decisions.

In September alone, Sen. Durbin's office put out at least 18 news releases touting more than $91 million in funding for Illinois entities. Earlier awards announced by Durbin and given to Loretta Durbin's clients included nearly $11 million in federal stimulus dollars for electrical smart grid technology in Naperville in 2009. The same year, Durbin trumpeted more than $800,000 in stimulus money to Aunt Martha's Youth Service Center, a longtime client of his wife's lobbying firm.

But except in the case of earmarks, Durbin disputed the notion that such announcements demonstrated his influence over the funding. And he conceded that such announcements are a way for lawmakers to get credit they don't deserve.

"I think there's a misunderstanding there," the senator said. "And politicians do not try to disabuse you of that misunderstanding. We like to announce things when they're good news for our states and districts. ... The decision on the announcement is made by the executive branch. And you wouldn't be surprised to know that if it's a Republican president, they're probably going to call a Republican senator to make the announcement, or a Republican congressman. And the opposite is true."

In the case of each of the announced grants that were identified by the Tribune, Durbin said, "I did nothing in terms of securing the money." Those decisions were made by the executive branch, he said.

"So the announcement is basically, like, a two- or three-day advance notice of an official executive branch announcement. ... And they say, 'OK, we're going to make that announcement [next] Wednesday. Call Durbin. He can announce it Friday night,'" Durbin said.

Working for Naperville

Loretta Durbin and Alice Phillips lobbied for Naperville from 2006 to 2011, and their firm was paid a total of $425,000, plus expenses, records show. Their contracts said the women "will represent the city's interests and act as a liaison with state or federal government officials."

Loretta Durbin, asked about the wording, said Phillips usually handled the negotiations, though both of them signed the contracts. Both women said they had never been registered as federal lobbyists, and records confirm that.

Phillips said she didn't recall agreeing to do any federal work for Naperville, but that the possibility of doing some federal lobbying for the suburb was not out of the question.

"We always felt, if they needed me to go to Washington, I could go, but not Loretta," she said.

During the time the firm handled Naperville's state lobbying, the suburb had no federal lobbyist.

Naperville is Illinois' fifth-largest city, and it would have been a priority to Durbin whether his wife was associated with the suburb or not. Indeed, Naperville got plenty of federal funding during the time Loretta Durbin was its state lobbyist, including about $916,000 in HUD Community Development Block Grants, about $94,000 in justice assistance grants and $40,000 to replace trees hit by the emerald ash borer.

Current and former Naperville officials gave Loretta Durbin's firm high marks, but had differing views on whether she helped win federal dollars for the city.

"We did not use Government Affairs Specialists for any federal lobbying, to my recollection," said Dan Di Santo, former assistant to the city manager.

Now an official in Bensenville, Di Santo worked closely with the two lobbyists. They even attended his wedding in St. Charles in 2008, with Loretta Durbin bringing her husband, he said.

He said the lobbying firm's victories for Naperville included securing millions in state dollars to widen Illinois Route 59 and approval of a downtown food and beverage tax to pay for parking facilities.

Naperville police Chief Robert Marshall was on the panel that selected Government Affairs Specialists out of 10 or more applicants. He said the firm stood out because of its references and track record.

Marshall later was acting city manager for a year while the two women championed Naperville in the Illinois capital.

As for Loretta Durbin's marriage to a senator, Marshall said, "I looked at it as an advantage. We could discuss some of the key issues with not only the people (state officials) that Loretta hooked us up with, but we could also talk to her husband, who was very influential in Washington."

Marshall said he sat next to Sen. Durbin at a client dinner put on by the lobbying firm and they talked about federal legislation and sports.

Did Loretta Durbin help win federal grants for the city?

"I'm sure she did," Marshall replied, later saying that he thinks she did, but doesn't know how.

Naperville Mayor George Pradel, a longtime friend of the senator's, serves part time, since the city manager handles day-to-day municipal operations.

Talking about Loretta Durbin, he said: "It's not that we felt that she could get to (Sen.) Durbin if we wanted something from Congress. ... We looked at it that she was working for us, and we were considered her account, her baby."

Did Sen. Durbin help Naperville with the smart grid millions?

"I would have to say I really don't know. I hope he did," Pradel said.

Ethics expert McGehee said spouses of lawmakers have a clear advantage as lobbyists because of their close ties to power. "I would assume that everybody and their brother in Illinois knows who her husband is," McGehee said of Durbin. "And that gives her, certainly, in some situations, that obviously gives her a leg up."

Di Santo and Pradel said Loretta Durbin never flaunted the family name. "I think that Loretta treated us with extreme dedication because we were her clients," Pradel said, "and it wasn't at all 'I'm Sen. Durbin's wife.'"

Lung association grant

In the early 2000s, while Loretta Durbin was a lobbyist for the American Lung Association of Illinois, Sen. Durbin pushed for a $150,000 federal grant for the group's Springfield-based tobacco quit line, which helped veterans give up smoking.

Kathy Drea, a spokeswoman for the group -- now the American Lung Association of the Upper Midwest -- told the Tribune in an email that Loretta Durbin was not involved when the group "directly asked Sen. Durbin for one-time funding to help veterans (30 percent smoking prevalence) with smoking cessation."

The group, which promotes healthy lungs and clean air, was a client of Loretta Durbin's from 2000 through 2011. Sen. Durbin lost his father to lung cancer and is a staunch opponent of tobacco.

The senator said that while he knew earmarking the money could raise questions about his wife's role as a lobbyist for the group, he deemed the quit line a worthy enough cause.

"I believe that I knew that Loretta was securing state funds for this," Durbin said. "She did not ask me for any funds. ...I said, some day, 10 years from now, two reporters from the Tribune may ask me, you know, 'How did you, how could you explain this where you are helping one of your wife's clients?' And I'm just going to go out and do it because I think it's the right thing to do for these veterans and because if anybody asked, I've got a hell of a long record when it comes to tobacco."

The quit line funding did draw some attention from the press. Nearly a decade later, in 2009, his office chose not to publicly announce a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to the lung association's Midwest chapter, even as he touted two other EPA grants awarded through the same program on the same day to Illinois entities.

On July 21, 2009, Sen. Durbin's office put out a release announcing a $1 millionEPA grant to the city of Chicago for projects to cut emissions and fuel usage, as well as $4.2 million to the Illinois EPA for clean diesel projects. Not mentioned was a $3.7 millionEPA grant to a Loretta Durbin client, the American Lung Association of the Upper Midwest. Records show the lung association funding was obligated on the same date that Durbin publicized the two similar grants.

"I don't know anything about that," Durbin said. "I can't tell you why they weren't -- I did not make a conscious effort to exclude announcing anything in that regard. And there's no reason I would."

The money was awarded to the Springfield-based lung association to retrofit engine fleets in Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana, but most of the funds were spent on fleets in Indiana, records show.

The lung association said it paid about $40,000 a year to Government Affairs Specialists. More recently, the fees have gone to J & J Legislative, the Illinois firm that contracts with Loretta Durbin.

'Good job' at EIU

Loretta Durbin's firm was paid about $627,000 to lobby for Eastern Illinois from 1998 to 2011, records show. Under the agreements, the lobbyists also were paid expenses for items including the "entertainment of legislators, staff, and other relevant political persons," with such costs usually capped at $1,000 per month.

President Bill Perry, who came on board in 2007 after their hiring, said they did a "particularly good job" setting up meetings in Springfield for university officials and keeping them apprised of legislation.

The work by Loretta Durbin and Phillips never strayed into federal turf, Perry said. Eastern does not have a federally registered lobbyist but, like other universities, depends on federal dollars. The "federal side" is handled by a university vice president, Perry said.

Over the years, Sen. Durbin announced big bucks for Eastern -- along with other Illinois schools -- in Library of Congress grants to train teachers to produce curriculum with the library's digitized resources. The program now is called Teaching with Primary Sources, or TPS.

The TPS grants to Illinois, begun with a Sen. Durbin earmark, have brought Eastern $1.925 million for the program since 2004, its president said.

Sen. Durbin said Eastern was not one of the original Illinois recipients and, moreover, that the Library of Congress decides which schools are qualified. Eastern says on its website that the program was brought to its campus "thanks to the efforts of Sen. Dick Durbin."

Perry said that, to his knowledge, neither of the Durbins went to bat for the university at the federal level.

When asked why Sen. Durbin was singled out for thanks in university statements about TPS, Perry said: "Someone could thank somebody, but the influence, in my experience in ... all the federal grant areas, those things are insulated from the political process."

Durbin said he was aware that his wife represented the university when he pushed for the funding.

"I made a conscious decision on Eastern," the senator said. "And I made a conscious decision on the lung association. I just said, I cannot deny these entities access to this money for this good purpose, for veterans, for teacher training."

Supporting nonprofits

Among the nonprofits that Loretta Durbin and Phillips counted as clients, many are focused on helping the needy with housing and health care. One group got help from Sen. Durbin in the same year it hired his wife, records show.

Lakefront SRO was an organization that bought and built housing stock and converted it into affordable housing for Chicago's homeless, said Stanley Logan, who was chairman of the board.

Logan said he could not remember why he penned a letter to the editor of the Chicago Tribune published in February 2003 in which he praised Sen. Durbin for "leading an effort to find a permanent funding source" for people served by the nonprofit and others like it.

Less than three months later, Lakefront SRO hired Loretta Durbin's lobbying firm, records show. Their relationship lasted just a year.

Logan said Lakefront SRO constantly was seeking state and federal dollars, but that he could not recall why Loretta Durbin's firm was hired.

"I'm sure she was very helpful," he said. "I just don't remember specifically what she did."

Last week, Sen. Durbin told the Tribune that he had backed $150 million to help people who rely on groups like Lakefront SRO but was unsuccessful. The senator said it was another scenario in which he was focused on the cause, not the entities that stood to benefit.

"I didn't make a conscious decision on this because I never knew about this Lakefront SRO at that point," Durbin said.

But like the lung association and Eastern Illinois, Durbin acknowledged that his work on the issue also had the potential to touch on his wife's business.

" 'Overlap' would cover when we are helping a category of people which includes one of her clients," Durbin said. "And this is an example of that."

Senate rules

Senate rules don't address the issue of lawmaker spouses who lobby at the state level. But spouses who lobby at the federal level long have been prohibited from advocating for clients with the senator to whom they are married.

In a 2007 law, that ban was enlarged to prohibit such a spouse from lobbying any Senate office. But a grandfather clause said the wider prohibition would not apply if the spouse was a federal lobbyist for at least one year before the senator's most recent election or had lobbied for at least a year before their marriage.

The Durbins' son, Paul, a lawyer for Miller Canfield in Chicago, was a registered Illinois lobbyist only in 2007, records show. He told the Tribune that registering as a lobbyist was a formality.

Other members of Congress from Illinois also have had lobbyists in their family trees.

Former Rep. Bill Lipinski, D-Ill., the father of Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-Ill., is a lobbyist in Illinois, an aide to the congressman said. Soraida Gutierrez, the wife of Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., is a former state lobbyist, records show.

Bob Creamer, the husband of Rep. Jan Schakowsky, formerly lobbied on the federal level through a firm, Strategic Consulting Group, NA Inc., and on the state level for Citizen Action/Illinois, a Schakowsky aide said.

Gene Callahan, the late father of Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-Ill., was a federal lobbyist for Major League Baseball, an aide to the congresswoman said.

In the November election, Durbin is being challenged by state Sen. Jim Oberweis, a Republican from west suburban Sugar Grove, and Sharon Hansen, a Libertarian from Pontiac.

McGehee, the lobbying ethics expert, gave the Durbins credit for discussing potential conflicts:

"Often, they don't even think about it because they're so convinced of their own good motivations. I see this a lot with politicians. It doesn't even occur to them. ... It's just that somebody else looks at it and says, wait a minute, your wife's a lobbyist. But it's to his credit that he was willing to sit down and go through this as opposed to saying there's no story there and just close the door."

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