Heather Podesta a Storm in the Summer of the Lobbyist Page 1 of 6 Heather Podesta The Insider s Insider Social Connections Political Savvy and Boundless Energy Have Made Heather Podesta The It Girl of a New Generation Of Lobbyists By Manuel Roig Franzia Washington Post Staff Writer Monday August 24 2009 NEW YORK The chairman beams So many people just dying to see him the business guys the pols the lobbyists lots and lots of lobbyists They circle Charlie Rangel birthday boy Democrat and of course House Ways and Means chairman circles like rings on a tree planted in the party room here at Tavern on the Green Simple math the more powerful the pol the more rings on the tree This is a very thick tree Not a problem though for Heather Podesta It s like doing the tango she says all smiles yet all business The lobbyist tango She glides right in her red D G heels and her periwinkle stockings cutting through the outer rings with a smile here a kiss kiss there a Great to see you or two Some guy yells out The most beautiful woman in the world She doesn t blush and she doesn t linger She wriggles left gets blocked reverses direction gets blocked again reverses direction again She s in Great party Podesta tells the chairman Isn t it wonderful Rangel gushes back The chairman pecks the lobbyist s cheek and they re done Thirty seconds of face time Mission accomplished Doesn t get any better than that Podesta says amused by the surreal nature of the ritual she has mastered A kiss from the chairman And so it goes in Heather s World On this particular muggy night in Central Park she s electrically caffeinated after taking the red eye from Las Vegas the night before Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid s energy summit and she ll be turning around and flying west again in a couple of days Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi s donor shindig in Napa wine country It may be summer recess but this is not a time to rest This is a time to go full bore This is a time like nothing we ve seen for a long long time We ve had the Summer of Love We ve had the Summer of the Shark http www washingtonpost com wp dyn content article 2009 08 23 AR2009082302381 p 8 25 2009 Heather Podesta a Storm in the Summer of the Lobbyist Page 2 of 6 Now get ready for the Summer of the Lobbyist In a glum economy the lobbying business feels kind of bubbly Every new Obama proposal comes with acres of fine print for corporate powers interests groups and lobbyists to haggle over profitably Three gargantuan legislative challenges health care the environment the economy crisscrossing at once on Capitol Hill Major health care interests alone are spending 1 4 million this year lobbying Congress per day according to Common Cause a government watchdog group A lobbyist s delight created ironically by the let s solve all our problems RIGHT NOW approach of a president who poohpoohed the excesses of lobbyists This is a very good time to be a Democratic lobbyist it s incredibly exciting to be able to engage with Democrats and really see things happen Podesta says one afternoon at her office in one of those cool restored red brick buildings on E Street It s always a good time to be Heather Podesta There are more than 12 500 registered lobbyists about 23 for every member of Congress according to the Center for Responsive Politics and some are getting richer while others stagnate or even dip a bit because of all of this pesky recession talk But those who operate at the confluence of this summer s big three legislative streams are happiest of all Podesta is right there in the eddy an It Girl in a new generation of young highly connected built forthe Obama era lobbyists She gets an undeniable boost from a famous name she is the sister in law of John Podesta the insider s insider who was Bill Clinton s White House chief of staff and Obama s transition director and the wife of ber lobbyist Tony Podesta Heather and Tony run his and hers lobbying shops His grew a staggering 57 percent in the first six months of this year compared with the same period the year before taking in 11 8 million fourth highest among major lobbying firms Full disclosure Tony Podesta has long represented The Washington Post which paid him 10 000 in 2009 and 80 000 the year before according to the Center for Responsive Politics Her six person shop grew even faster rocketing 65 percent to 3 4 million The Scarlet L Few Washington lobbyists do The Ask with more whimsy than Heather Podesta a leggy 39 year old with striking streaks of silver in her black hair a flirty style and a lawyer s eye for detail In a sea of Washington gray Podesta has a penchant for flamboyantly patterned dresses a Brazilian number featuring the image of a cassette tape one recent afternoon She once read one of those networking manuals and she took its advice to heart Wear interesting clothing or jewelry to spark conversations no matter where you are pretend you re the hostess This took some doing for the daughter of two academics who grew up in a Rochester N Y home far removed from A list soirees There is this 12 year old geeky girl in me who just wants to read books and have nothing to do with anyone Podesta says Big glasses jeans too short wearing running sneakers Total geek Now it s all about hosting a luncheon for kick ass women at the Pakistani Embassy and cheekily urging guests to slip on your Birkenstocks for a fundraiser in honor of that Senatorial Deadhead himself Patrick Leahy of Vermont Sometimes she might be too cheeky though Sen Dianne Feinstein of California canceled a Podesta fundraiser in June amid the tut tutting over an invitation sent out by Podesta that said the prix fixe includes the Select Committee on Intelligence for the first course followed by your choice of Appropriations Judiciary or Rules committees http www washingtonpost com wp dyn content article 2009 08 23 AR2009082302381 p 8 25 2009 Heather Podesta a Storm in the Summer of the Lobbyist Page 3 of 6 At last year s Democratic convention Podesta wore a scarlet L to razz Obama for talking so much about curbing lobbyist enthusiasm She rejected about a dozen mock ups before settling on a Gothic style letter which became such a popular giveaway that she blew through 100 of them Everybody was talking about it at the convention says Podesta pal Leahy the Senate Judiciary chairman who says Heather is invariably the most knowledgeable person in the room because she s done her homework In this Summer of the Lobbyist Heather Podesta hits each of