Small towns are benefiting from a 'different' lobbyist

WASHINGTON — Five towns in Colorado have become magnets for federal money. And besides their small size, they have one other thing in common: They've all hired the same, soft-spoken lobbyist, Kenneth Lee.

From 2000 to 2006, those towns, with a combined population of just over 17,000, won 20 separate budget earmarks totaling $13.3 million.

"He's a hero to me," said James Stearns, an Eldorado Springs, Colo., resident who recruited Lee to win $250,000 for a sewage treatment plant. "He just seems really friendly, down to earth."

Lee's winning streak surprises even some congressional insiders, and the way he's paid raises concerns among government watchdogs.

They question the up-to-7 percent "success fees" he gets each time he wins a special set-aside in the federal budget. Others say Lee's record illustrates the way Congress picks who gets special pots of federal funds and who does not.

"You're not completely shut out of the process if you don't have a lobbyist. But guess what: It's a lot easier when you have a lobbyist," said David Williams, vice president of Citizens Against Government Waste.

Nationally there has been an explosion in lobbying and a drastic increase in the number of annual budget earmarks by Congress.

Earmarks are special line items slipped into massive spending bills to fund lawmakers' pet projects. They are awarded to cities and counties, government agencies, nonprofit groups, universities, hospitals, tribes, museums and other groups.

"Everyone has the right to have a lobbyist. ... That should not be a prerequisite to getting federal dollars," said Keith Ashdown, formerly of Taxpayers for Common Sense. "We should be picking projects based on merit, not by the power of the lawmaker or the lobbyist backing the project."

Lee said that's just the way the system works these days. He's surprised that anyone would take notice of his work.

"I'm such a small fry in the lobbying business," he says with a laugh. "I've got a staff of me."

Lee skips some of the practices that have gotten other lobbyists in trouble. For one thing, while he might take a congressional staff member to lunch once in a while, he said he won't "wine and dine" them because his religion forbids alcohol.

"As a non-drinking Mormon, there is no 'wining,'" he says. "And the perception of exotic trips and huge expense account lunches, it just kind of makes me laugh."