McCain and his campaign manager go way back—not just with each other, but with shady lobbying relationships. Davis managed McCain’s 2000 campaign, then lobbied McCain’s Senate committee, then solicited donations for McCain’s non-profit from his lobbying clients, then returned to manage McCain’s 2008 campaign.

Davis: McCain Campaign Manager, Turned Lobbyist, Now Returns to Campaign Manager

Lobbyist Rick Davis Reprising Role as McCain Campaign Manager on 2008 Campaign

Long-time McCain adviser Rick Davis reprised his 2000 role as campaign manager in McCain’s latest run for the White House. Both prior to and in the years between McCain’s presidential campaigns, Davis served as managing partner of Davis, Manafort, & Freedman, the lobbying firm he founded. Since 1998, Davis Manafort has taken in “at least $2.8 million lobbying Congress.” [Knight Ridder, 2/13/00; Associated Press, 2/10/00; The Hill, 3/25/98; The Politico, 7/11/08]

While McCain Campaign Manager for 2000 Race, Davis’s Firm Represented Companies Seeking Merger Approval From McCain’s Commerce Committee.

According to the Politico, “Over the past eight years, Davis’ two roles often overlapped. In 1999, while he was McCain's campaign manager, his firm represented SBC Communications Inc. and Comsat Corp. At that time, both communications companies had controversial mergers pending at the Federal Communications Commission. The Senate Commerce Committee has legislative authority over the FCC, and McCain was chairman of that committee. Both mergers were eventually approved.” [The Politico, 7/11/08]

Between McCain Campaigns, Davis — Ranked Third Most Powerful Telecom Lobbyist — Continued Representing Companies With Issues Before McCain Committee.

As a lobbyist with Davis Manafort, Rick Davis represented numerous telecommunications companies, many of whose business came before McCain’s Senate Commerce Committee. Davis’s clients included: BellSouth (2001-02), SBC Communications (2001-05) and Verizon (2001-05). In 2003, the Telecom Policy Report ranked Davis as the third most powerful lobbyist in the telecom lobbying arena, writing “he is one of SBC Communications’ most effective voices, pressing for legislation aimed at removing the regulatory yoke that constrains the behemoth Baby Bell.” [USA Today, 3/24/08; Telecom Policy Report, 5/5/03]

Davis Only Lobbied the SENATE on Behalf of Clients.

While most lobbyists tend to lobby both houses of Congress and/or federal agencies, according to lobbying disclosure forms, Davis only lobbied the U.S. Senate for his clients. [Davis Manafort Lobbying Disclosure Records, Senate Office of Public Records]

Davis Lobbied Senate to Clear Foreign Acquisition of Airborne Express, and McCain Helped Push the Deal Through...

While Serving as President of McCain’s Reform Institute, Rick Davis Was Hired to Lobby for Senate Approval of Deutsche Post’s Acquisition of Airborne Express

According to the Washington Post, while Rick Davis was running McCain’s controversial non-profit, the Reform Institute, he “added several lobbying clients who needed McCain's help” such as DHL Holdings (parent company: Deutsche Post) and Airborne who “hired Davis to lobby the Senate to facilitate a merger.” According to Davis’s lobbying disclosures, his firm was paid “$125,000 from Airborne in 2003 and $465,000 from DHL parent company Deutsche Post World Net (USA) from 2003 to 2005.” The 2003 work was exclusively to lobby the Senate on Deutsche Post/DHL’s proposed acquisition of Airborne, while after the merger the portfolio expanded to defense & transportation appropriations, trade issues, postal regulation, industry competition, and FAA authorization. [Washington Post, 6/26/08; Davis Manafort/Deutsche Post Lobbying Disclosure, Senate Office of Public Records]

McCain Convinced Opponents To “Scale Back” Their Efforts

McCain, along with Trent Lott, convinced Ted Stevens to “scale back” his effort “aimed at blocking the expansion of cargo carrier DHL Worldwide Express, owned by the German company Deutche Post AG. A previous draft Stevens amendment, which McCain and [Trent] Lott convinced him to scale back, would have added several conditions that could make it difficult for DHL to obtain Pentagon contracts, as well as potentially block a pending merger with Seattle-based Airborne Express Inc.” [Congressional Quarterly Today, 4/8/03]

Washington Post: McCain “Thwarted” Opposition To Deutsche-Post Acquisition Deal

According to the Washington Post, “McCain took steps that helped Davis's clients,” including DHL and Airborne Express. McCain “thwarted [Sen. Ted] Stevens's effort to insert language into legislation that would prohibit foreign-controlled companies such as DHL from holding certain military contracts,” a change that would potentially kill the acquisition. [Washington Post, 6/26/08]

...Now the Foreign Company is Pulling Out of Southwestern Ohio, Putting up to 10,000 Jobs at Risk

Losing Largest Employer in Six Counties With Almost 10,000 Workers.

“Any way one looks at it, in the short term, Wilmington is between a rock and a hard place if DHL leaves. The air shipper and its predecessor companies, such as Airborne Express, have for years had their largest U.S. hub in the town of 12,000 people 60 miles southwest of Columbus. Wilmington processes billions of pounds of cargo each year and employs close to 10,000 people…It draws workers from more than two dozen counties; in six of those, it's the largest employer.” [Columbus Dispatch, 6/29/08]

DHL “Stunned the Community” By Announcing Its Decision to Pull Air Hub Out of Wilmington, Contract to UPS.

“DHL's German parent company, Deutsche Post World Net, stunned the community in late May when it announced a deal that would shift its U.S. air shipments to UPS, which has a major hub in Louisville, Ky. ‘The potential job loss is enormous,’ said Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher, who's also the state's economic-development chief.” [Columbus Dispatch, 6/29/08]

Conflict of Interest: Davis & the Reform Institute

While Lobbying, Davis Also Earned $110,000 a Year to Serve as President of McCain Nonprofit.

While “lobbying on behalf of clients who had interests before the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee when McCain chaired the panel,” Rick Davis also served as the president of McCain’s non-profit Reform Institute which “focused on overhauling campaign finance laws,” earning $110,000 from the Institute annually. To some McCain critics, the institute served as a means to keep “some of the senator’s advisers busy in the months before any formal presidential campaign operation would be established.” [The Politico, 7/11/07; New York Times, 3/8/05; Roll Call, 7/28/05]

As Reform Institute President, Davis Raised Tens of Thousands of Dollars From Companies With Business Before Commerce Committee.

“Davis solicited tens of thousands in contributions for the institute from communications companies such as Cablevision and Echosphere. Several of these same companies had business before the Commerce Committee while McCain was chairman.” [The Politico, 7/11/07]

Davis Solicited Two $100,000 Contributions From Cablevision While McCain Promoted Company Policy.

“In between two $100,000 donations to the Reform Institute, Cablevision's CEO testified before the committee in favor of a la carte pricing, and McCain wrote a letter of support to the FCC and asked other cable companies to support the pricing scheme, according to a 2005 story by the Associated Press.” [The Politico, 7/11/07]

Davis’ Foreign Work “Sore Point” for McCain

McCain Camp: Davis’s Work for Pro-Kremlin Party Was a “Sore Point” for McCain.

According to a July 2007 Wall Street Journal article, a “sore point” for McCain about Rick Davis and his lobbying firm Davis Manafort “was the work the firm did for a pro-Kremlin politician opposed by Mr. McCain and the U.S. government: [then] current Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych.” [Wall Street Journal, 7/23/07]

McCain So Outraged He Agreed to Remove Davis...Then Changed His Mind.

According to John Weaver, McCain’s former chief strategist, Davis’s work for Yanukovych and the revelation that he was steering campaign money toward firms he or friends owned prompted McCain to agree to discharge Davis from his role as campaign manager. However, after acceding to Davis’s removal, McCain subsequently “changed his mind.” [Wall Street Journal, 7/23/07]