PR Watch, Fourth Quarter 2004, Volume 11, No. 4

With the end of the 2004 election cycle, political strategists, pollsters and campaigners will have earned themselves some vacation time. Then they'll go right back to work, offering their services and connections to private sector clients. In this issue of PR Watch, we look at two firms that exemplify this kind of influence. Diane Farsetta profiles Michael Whouley and his Dewey Square Group, a Democratic lobby/PR shop. Laura Miller examines Tom Synhorst and his Republican-affiliated firms, including the DCI Group and Feather Larson Synhorst-DCI.

Whouley and Synhorst may have battled against each other during the election cycle, but when it comes to lobbying, they are comrades in arms. As the Washington Post's Jeffery H. Birnbaum observes, Dewey Square and FLS-DCI "have worked in tandem for such diverse clients as General Motors Corp., the American Insurance Association, AT&T Corp., Blue Cross-Blue Shield Association and Microsoft Corp." Birnbaum explains that the two firms' "forays into electoral politics clearly help them lure corporate clients."

by Laura Miller

A handful of sibling companies with close ties to the Republican Party and roots in the tobacco industry are at the top of heavy-hitting corporate and political campaign strategists. Four limited liability corporations are at the nexus of millions of dollars of influence-buying money:

• The DCI Group, a Washington, D.C.-based lobbying and PR shop that specializes in creating quasi-grassroots organizations and publishes "Tech Central Station," a website "where free markets meet technology";
• Feather Larson Synhorst-DCI, a telemarketing and political consulting firm with offices in Washington, St. Paul and Phoenix;
• FYI Messaging, a political direct mail company based in Phoenix; and
• TSE Enterprises, a Phoenix-based internet PR company that creates and host websites and does electronic direct mail.

The companies have overlapping clients and are most visibly linked to each other by Thomas Synhorst, a founding member of each. They took in $20 million for their work to help elect George W. Bush in 2004, and they count AT&T, Microsoft, and the giant trade association Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) as clients.

by Laura Miller

As the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform bill began working its way toward its eventual passage in Congress in 2002, long-time Republican strategists were already scheming how to get around the law's ban on soft-money contributions. They found an answer in Progress for America (PFA).

PFA was registered as a 501(c)4 group in February 2001 by Tony Feather, a political director of the Bush-Cheney 2000 campaign and partner at DCI Group as well as at the affiliated telemarketing and fundraising firm of Feather Larson Synhorst-DCI (FLS-DCI).

Feather set up PFA as a "grassroots organization that mobilizes the public to contact their members of Congress about pending legislation and to write local newspapers to publicize the White House's agenda," the Center for Public Integrity wrote in 2002. During the first part of the George W. Bush administration, it led campaigns to support tax cuts, conservative judicial appointments and energy legislation.

by Diane Farsetta

U.S. presidential races bring Michael J. Whouley new contacts - and new nicknames.

During the 2000 presidential primary, the National Journal reported that Whouley won the nickname "Brain" for his key role in "righting a foundering Gore ship before the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary." Four years later, he was the senior political strategist behind Senator John F. Kerry's Iowa caucus victory, prompting Kerry to dub him "the magical Michael Whouley." The Boston Herald described Whouley as "one of Kerry's closest aides." His relationship with Kerry dates back to 1982, when Whouley worked on Kerry's campaign for Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor. He also helped with Kerry's first U.S. Senate run, two years later.

an interview by Sheldon Rampton

Eric Dezenhall heads Dezenhall Resources (formerly known as Nichols/Dezenhall, until the recent retirement of his partner, Nick Nichols). The firm has a reputation for using aggressive tactics to counter activist groups. Dezenhall has described the people who say negative things about his clients - including environmentalists, animal rights groups and other activists - as "cyberterrorists," and he has advised clients to respond with lawsuits, threats of lawsuits and public counterattacks.

Eric Dezenhall also has another side. He gives frequent media interviews, and one of the things he likes to talk about is organized crime. He grew up in a New Jersey neighorhood frequented by Mafia types, has written articles about the late mobster Meyer Lansky, and was involved in 2001 in producing a documentary about the mob for the Discovery Channel. In some of his interviews he has suggested that the business world might learn a few lessons from the straighforward way that gangsters deals with their problems.

by Bob Burton

While the common image of newsrooms is of offices inhabited by harried reporters, internal tobacco industry documents shed light on the largely invisible phenomena of corporate lobbyists courting favor with editorial boards.

During his January 1999 State of the Union address, President Bill Clinton announced that he had instructed the Department of Justice to develop a litigation plan against major tobacco companies. This became a lawsuit seeking $280 billion in damages, currently being heard before U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler. The core of the government's case, brought under the Racketeer-Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act designed to fight organized crime, is that major tobacco companies defrauded smokers by concealing health risks.

PR Watch is happy to announce a new partner in the campaign against the manipulations of the PR industry. SpinWatch, a new public interest group, was launched at an international conference, "Spin and Corporate Power," which took place at Strathclyde University in Glasgow, Scotland, November 18-19.

SpinWatch's founders represent some of the most skilled investigators of corporate and government propaganda and influence in Europe. They are:

• David Miller, professor of sociology at Strathclyde University and editor of Tell Me Lies: How the Media Mis-reported and Distorted the Attack on Iraq;
• Andy Rowell, a British journalist and author of Green Backlash: Global Subversion of the Environment Movement and Don't Worry, It's Safe to Eat;
• Eveline Lubbers, an independent researcher and writer based in Amsterdam and editor of Battling Big Business: Countering Greenwash, Infiltration, and other Forms of Corporate Bullying;
• William Dinan, a research fellow at the Centre for Risk and Governance at Glasgow Caledonian University and co-author with Philip Schlesinger and David Miller of Open Scotland? Journalists, Spin Doctors and Lobbyists; and
• Jonathan Matthews, founder of the UK-based Lobbywatch and GM Watch.

The "Spin and Corporate Power" conference featured speakers from SpinWatch, Platform, Corporate Europe Observatory, Corporate Watch, and PR Watch, as well as leading public-interest activists and academic researchers, discussing the problem of corporate spin and strategies for countering it.