Lobbyists help Jones’ transition

Today would have been Ernest H. "Judge" Williams Jr.'s 94th birthday. The famed lobbyist, who died in 2003, had a keen appreciation for a bottom-line tenet of his craft: There's a difference between being friends and being friendly.

It's something to keep in mind as Richmond's incoming mayor, Dwight Jones, assembles his administration. The heavily perfumed pastor-politician, now a state delegate, is looking to lobbyists on how to do just that.

A lobbyist for student-loan giant Sallie Mae, Bill Leighty, heads the Jones transition. Leighty was chief of staff to two governors, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine. A systems guy, Leighty keeps trains running on time.

But his client also is a $25,000 donor to the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus, dispenser of cash and services to African-American candidates and of which Jones is chairman.

Of the 45 people advising Jones on issues ranging from schools to police, from transportation to employment, from finance to neighborhoods, at least 11 are lobbyists. Call it Jones' 25-Percent-Solution.

They mostly work the south side of Broad Street: at the state Capitol. They know something about government, but there's a catch: They want something from it. That's why they write fat checks.

The big businesses these lobbyists represent, and the sprawling law firms with which some are associated, are pistons of the local economic engine.

Some were targets of Jones' election-season populist ire, his play to the us-and-them mentality that drives politics here. Bosses of 26 powerful businesses circulated a letter in 2007 urging abolition of the popularly elected School Board.

Reviling the idea, Jones ran against the guys who peddled it. Now it's time to govern, and Jones, who has never been an executive, can't do so without them. He's got a couple on board: Gil Minor of Owens & Minor and SunTrust's C.T. Hill. They advise Jones on money.

But most of the Merry Inksters remain on the sidelines. Perhaps the first baby step toward peaceful co-existence with some is an overture to a confrere.

McGuireWoods, the law firm, is supplying Jones with Michael Schewel, Warner's commerce and trade secretary and Goldman Sachs' eyes and ears, and Felix Sarfo-Kantanka, who schmoozed lawmakers for Kaine and now does so for Verizon and other corporations.

Schewel imparts wisdom on the economy; Sarfo-Kantanka, on workplace issues.

But McGuireWoods is led by Richard Cullen, consigliere to Mayor Doug Wilder in those taxpayer-financed lawsuits with the public schools and City Council. Cullen, too, was a signatory to the anti-School Board screed.

Jones also is reaching to another legal giant. From Hunton & Williams come former Transportation Secretary Whitt Clement and Heidi Abbott, who worked closely with Rodney Monroe, Wilder's gone-but-not-forgotten police chief.

Clement and Abbott provide counsel on transportation and public safety, respectively.

Hunton & Williams is home to Robert Grey. Fond of hand-tailored clothing, Grey was the made-to-order mayoral candidate of many of the plutocrats who, like him, signed the'07 letter.

Jones may be learning what the best lobbyists --and Judge Williams was one of them -- know: Keep your friends close and enemies closer.
Contact Jeff E. Schapiro at (804) 6496814 or . Watch his video column Thursdays on inRich.com. Listen to his analysis Fridays at 8:33 a.m. on WCVE radio (88.9 FM).