Let’s do lunch: twenty-one new power players you wish you’d been nicer to
Last November’s Democratic victory catapulted party leaders like Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Rahm Emanuel into prominence. But it’s not just those with a capital D after their names whose fortunes are on the rise these days. The changeover on Capitol Hill has reordered virtually every aspect of Washington’s political culture. In so doing, it has strengthened hands of a slew of unelected Democratic power players–Hill staffers, lobbyists, political consultants, activists, fund-raisers, even socialites–whose sway is often all the greater for being wielded largely behind the scenes.
Of course, almost every Democrat in town is feeling pretty good about himself lately, and coming up with a comprehensive list of those who’ve seen their power enhanced in the new Washington would keep us here through 2008. But some of the capital’s new influence brokers haven’t received a level of attention commensurate with their clout. As we gear up for the major political battles of the next two years–from Iraq to congressional oversight to the presidential race–here are a few of this city’s under-covered inside players who’ll now be getting their calls returned more quickly than ever.
THE RESISTANCE
Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps
FCC commissioners
The Democratic takeover of Congress won’t change the composition of the executive-branch commissions that write and enforce key regulations, and that remain largely majority Republican. But that doesn’t mean the shift on Capitol Hill won’t dramatically affect those commissions’ balances of power.
Perhaps the best example is the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which is gearing up to address a host of thorny issues, from media consolidation to net neutrality. The FCC’s two Democratic commissioners, Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps, will still be going up against three Republicans, including Chairman Kevin Martin, but they’ll have a lot more weapons in their arsenal. That’s because they’re close with newly powerful Democratic committee chairs like John Dingell, Ed Markey, and Daniel Inouye, who’ll use high-profile hearings to advance the Democratic commissioners’ priorities. With the help of their allies in Congress, Adelstein and Copps will “put [the Republican commissioners] in a vise in the hearings,” according to one Washington Democrat who follows communications issues. “It’s like the cavalry coming over the hill.”
What will that mean in practice? On media consolidation, it should allow Adelstein and Copps to begin laying the groundwork for reversing former chair Michael Powell’s 2003 round of deregulation, which made it easier for big media companies to own multiple outlets in a single market. And it will almost certainly ensure that additional GOP deregulatory efforts are dead on arrival.
On net neutrality, the effects could be even more far-reaching. Already, the commission’s Democrats have been working on an ad hoc basis to get telecommunications companies to agree to adhere to the neutrality principle–that is, not giving discounts to big Web content providers while charging little guys more. But their task will be much easier with Markey, a strong neutrality supporter, chairing the telecommunications subcommittee. Whether or not Markey succeeds in passing legislation ensuring neutrality, as he’s said he intends to, his mere presence gives Adelstein and Copps vastly increased leverage. Says one expert: “It’s certainly going to put a lot of telecom companies on notice that they shouldn’t engage in discriminatory practices unless they want the wrath of the Hill.”
THE MODERATOR
Perry Apelbaum
Staff director, House Judiciary Committee
Oversight figures to be perhaps the most important task of the next Congress, and many of the key areas that demand investigation–from torture to warrantless wiretapping to manipulation of Iraq intelligence–fall at least in part under the authority of the judiciary committees. The trick for Democrats will be to delve deeply into the failures and cover-ups of the Bush administration in these areas, without allowing the GOP or the press to portray their probes as needlessly partisan, vindictive, and backward-looking.
On that score, House Judiciary chair John Conyers (D-Mich.) has already made some Democrats nervous. Last year, he raised the possibility of impeachment–which Republicans quickly seized on to argue that a Democratic Congress would plunge the nation into turmoil. The impeachment talk was quickly slapped down by Nancy Pelosi, but fears remain in Democratic circles that Conyers’s desire for justice could undercut the party’s effort to present an image of constructive bipartisanship.
That’s where Perry Apelbaum, the committee’s staff director, could come in. Apelbaum has worked for Conyers since the congressman became the top Democrat on the committee in 1995, and by all accounts he enjoys his boss’s absolute trust. But he also has good relations with the committee’s Republican staff–in November, he had colleagues on both sides over to his house to watch the Ohio State-Michigan game. Just as important, as the top committee lawyer for the Democratic minority in the late 1990s, Apelbaum played a role in the impeachment defense of President Clinton, so he’s seen firsthand how politically motivated congressional investigations can backfire. “Perry would be a moderating influence,” says one Democratic insider who has worked closely with him.