Broadcasters Hire Republican Trio to Lobby Against XM-Sirius

WASHINGTON, May 24, 2007 – The National Association of Broadcasters has enlisted the recently re-minted lobbying firm of Bluewater Strategies in its quest to combat the proposed merger of XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio.

In a Wednesday filing at the Senate Office of Public Records, lobbyists Tim Kurth, Andrew Lundquist and George Nethercutt, former Republican representative from Washington, said they would represent the NAB on the merger and other issues.

NAB, which advocates on behalf of local radio broadcasters, has led the lobbying charge against the XM-Sirius combination. The NAB has repeatedly testified against the merger before congressional committee hearings, and at the Federal Communications Commission.

The Bluewater hiring builds upon other steps by NAB, and by an NAB-funded organization to recruit big-name Republicans – including former Virginia Attorney General Jerry Kilgore – to lobby against the merger

In addition to opposing the merger and other antitrust-related issues, Bluewater Strategies plans to tackle advertising restrictions on broadcasting and what the firm calls the “performance royalty tax.” The latter phrase, in its disclosure document, refers to a separate battle between NAB and musicians’ groups over copyright royalties.

“It should not be a surprise to anyone that NAB retains outside consultants for advocacy work,” said NAB Senior Vice President Dennis Wharton. “That is par for the course for most trade associations.”

Kurth, a former aide to House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., was a key lobbyist for the US Telecom Association in its unsuccessful quest for legislation expediting the Bell companies’ entry into the national video marketplace.

AT&T and Verizon Communications are US Telecom’s biggest members. Kurth was instrumental in securing House passage of the telecom industry-supported bill in June 2006. But the measure died in the Senate amid a controversy over “network neutrality,” or whether the bill should have required Internet carriers to offer the same high-speed services to all customers.

Broadcasters did not have a direct stake in the battle over Net neutrality. They supported some provisions in the omnibus telecommunications package, but opposed others.

US Telecom terminated its contract with Bluewater’s predecessor on December 31, 2006. In the communications field, Kurth has also represented Alaska Communications, DirecTV, Echostar and Sprint; the latter two have also terminated.

The relationship with NAB began on April 10, according to the filing.

Lundquist is an Alaskan who worked for both the state’s Republican senators: Ted Stevens and Frank Murkowski. Lundquist also served as executive director of the National Energy Policy Development Group, the task force headed by Vice President Richard Cheney. In addition to telecom companies, he has also represented energy companies like BP.

Nethercutt, who defeated former House Speaker Tom Foley, D-Wash., in 1994, left Congress at the end of 2004 after losing a bid for a Senate seat. He joined the Lundquist Group in January 2005, which was then renamed Lundquist, Nethercutt & Griles.

J. Steven Griles, another of the firm’s co-founders, resigned from the firm in January 2007 when told that the Justice Department planed to file charges against in connection with giving false testimony about the activities of lobbyists Jack Abramoff. In March, Griles pleaded guilty to charges of obstructing justice.

The Republican-oriented firm recently reconfigured itself with another new name – Bluewater Strategies – and the addition of a Democratic lobbyist, Eric Washburn, who worked as an aide to former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D.

Nethercutt’s clients in the telecommunications space have included US Telecom and DirecTV.

Also this week, on Tuesday, NAB released a report by a separate law firm, Crowell & Morning, which argued that the merger would violate antitrust law.

A third law firm working on behalf of the NAB, Wilkinson Barker Knauer, on Wednesday opposed a request, by XM and Sirius, to keep merger-related documents out of the public eye.

Both documents pertaining to the XM-Sirius merger were directed at the FCC, where the commission is currently considered whether the merger should be approved, denied, or conditioned on additional requirements. The Justice Department antitrust division must also agree to the merger before it can take effect.

At the FCC, Kilgore recently met with Commissioners Deborah Tate and Robert McDowell on behalf of the Consumer Coalition for Competition in Satellite Radio (C3SR), an NAB-funded organization bills itself as a “consumer advocacy group dedicated to ensuring continued competition in the digital satellite industry.”

All of the lobbying on behalf of C3SR takes place out of the offices of the law firm of Williams Mullen, and Kilgore is an attorney at the firm.

Kilgore has strong ties to McDowell, and donated $12,500 to McDowell’s campaign for an open seat in the Virginia House of Delegates in November 2003.

Tim Kurth, a Bluewater lobbyist, played a cameo role in a recent FCC nomination. Kurth is married to Christine Kurth, who was considered by the Bush administration for one of the recent Republican vacancies at the FCC.

Christine Kurth has worked for years as an aide to Stevens, who was Senate Commerce Committee Chairman in 2005 and 2006. A telecommunications aide at the time, Christine Kurth is now staff director for Stevens. Stevens is currently ranking member of the committee.

Kurth ultimately withdrew her nomination, and citing potential conflicts with the telecommunications-related lobbying by her husband.

Center for Public Integrity Assistant Database Editor Ben Welsh contributed to this report.

http://www.publicintegrity.org/telecom/telecomwatch.aspx?eid=2953

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