Proposed cable changes prompt lobbying frenzy

By THEO EMERY Staff Writer - THE TENNESSEAN

A small group of lobbyists gathers outside the office of House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh each week, checking BlackBerries and chatting as they wait to be invited through the doors of the speaker's office and into a conference room in the back.

The subject of those meetings is an issue that could touch every corner of the state: whether telephone giant AT&T will receive statewide permission to offer television service in competition with cable companies like Comcast and Charter, and how widely available AT&T's service will be.

The meeting participants come from a wider cast of characters: dozens of lobbyists, lawmakers and others on Tennessee's Capitol Hill whose relationships and loyalties make a potent stew of politics. They include numerous former members of Gov. Phil Bredesen's administration and two married couples.

"I think every lobbyist in Nashville's been hired on one side or the other," said House Commerce Committee Chairman Charles Curtiss, the Sparta Democrat who sponsored the AT&T legislation last year.

The quiet negotiations in Naifeh's office, which participants are reluctant to discuss, stand in stark contrast to last year's knock-down public fight over the legislation, which would allow AT&T to franchise its new service statewide instead of negotiating with each individual city, town or county.

Many parties say they're close to sealing a deal.

Lobbyists well connected

AT&T has a small army of registered lobbyists ? 28 in all, according to Tennessee Ethics Commission records. Among them is Naifeh's wife, Betty Anderson. Though registered with the state, Anderson cannot lobby for the franchising legislation, according to AT&T.

The company has also enlisted Randy Camp, a former state court administrator and personnel commissioner to Bredesen; Beth Winstead, Naifeh's former assistant chief clerk and Bredesen's former chief lobbyist when he was Nashville mayor; and Anna Windrow, Bredesen's former senior adviser.

AT&T also employs Bob Corney, Bredesen's former communications chief, as a spokesman, and Dave Cooley, Bredesen's former deputy governor, as a consultant.

The Tennessee Cable Telecommunications Association, which is made up of about a dozen cable companies opposing AT&T's efforts, has nine registered lobbyists.

They include Steve Adams, a former state treasurer and lottery executive who was fired over allegations of sexual harassment in 2006; he denies the allegations. His wife is Reta Adams, who is Naifeh's administrative assistant.

The pro-cable side has also hired two former members of the Bredesen administration, Meredith Sullivan and Robert Gowan. Sullivan is a registered lobbyist for the telecommunications association, while Gowan, who is barred from lobbying for at least a year after leaving government, is a consultant for Comcast.

Industries 'greased'

Ed Mierzwinski, consumer program director for U.S. PIRG, a Washington-based public advocacy organization, said telecommunications companies "are about as greased in the state legislatures as any lobby.

"People hire people who make a difference, and the telephone companies and the cable companies have about as much inside power as any lobby that I've seen in state legislatures," he said.

Stacey Briggs, executive director of the Tennessee Cable Telecommunications Association, said she doesn't believe personal and political ties have any bearing on the process.

Corney, AT&T's spokes man, declined to comment on the links among the lobbyists but said the company's large business presence in the state requires being actively engaged with government.

"We take our business very seriously and monitor the impact of all the various things that are going on in both the General Assembly and local governments," he said.

Original bill pulled back

The fight over cable franchising played out publicly last year, until Curtiss, who became disenchanted with AT&T, decided to drop his sponsorship of the legislation.

He then filed a new bill that would create a new Tennessee Cable and Video Service Authority and rules for statewide franchising; Curtiss said that bill is a fallback should the talks not produce a viable proposal.

After AT&T announced it was going to halt its efforts last year, Naifeh ordered the parties to work out their differences behind closed doors.

The speaker, a West Tennessee Democrat, gives periodic updates, saying that the legislation is progressing, but providing few details. He recently said the parties have gotten "very far along on the legislation."

"There's no way in the world that bill should have even been where it was last year, when you consider the work that they've done on it this year," he said. "It should have been worked on before it was ever presented."

While talks have progressed privately, the battle continues on Tennessee's airwaves. Cable industry ads accuse AT&T of trying to bypass rural areas and short-cut the existing system, and AT&T accuses opponents of squelching competition and reducing consumer choices.

Curtiss said he hasn't seen such levels of activity around a piece of legislation in years. Given the vitriolic climate last year, he said, there was no way the proposal would have progressed without the private sessions.

"I don't think we could ever have gotten these parties to talk to one another out in a public forum," he said.

Bob Williams, the director of HearUsNow.org, a Web site of the Consumers Union, said the closed-door approach is not uncommon.

He said Wisconsin's legislation, which is considered to be one of the most consumer-friendly laws in the country, emerged "fully formed" from back-room talks.

Williams said some of early state legislation was "really terrible" for consumers, and hopes that "folks are getting smarter in state capitols."

"We hope that folks are learning to be a bit more vigilant on this, but we're also aware that companies have a heck of a lot of money and lobbying expertise," he said. "We certainly can't match 'em. All we can do is say, 'Do the right thing.' "