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Verizon Lobbyist Runs For New York Attorney General As the State Sues FCC Over Net Neutrality Repeal (arstechnica.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the conflict-of-interest dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: A Verizon lobbyist is trying to become the attorney general of New York in the upcoming November election. Verizon executive Leecia Eve is one of four candidates in the Democratic primary for the seat vacated when Eric Schneiderman resigned after assault allegations from four women. If elected, Eve says she would recuse herself from Verizon matters and New York State's appeal of the federal net neutrality repeal. As a Verizon executive, Eve defended the company from the city's allegations. Still, Eve has argued that her Verizon experience will help her prosecute "bad corporate actors" -- but without being so harsh that businesses would stop coming to the state. "Her Verizon experience, Eve contends, is 'extremely helpful: I know how corporations work,' leaving her 'best prepared to go after bad corporate actors,' but 'not to radiate to business not to come to New York,'" news organization City Limits wrote Tuesday after interviewing Eve.

Eve would not be involved in investigating Verizon if she won the election. "Under ethics rules, Eve confirms, she'd recuse herself from cases involving Verizon or other telecom issues, leaving policy decisions to senior staff," City Limits reported. Eve also confirmed that she would recuse herself from the New York attorney general office's ongoing lawsuit against the Federal Communications Commission. Along with more than 20 other states, New York has asked a federal court to reverse the FCC's repeal of net neutrality rules, a repeal that was supported by Verizon. Here's an excerpt from Eve's bio on her campaign site: "As Vice President for Government Affairs for Verizon for New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, Leecia oversees policy and ensures governmental compliance for a company that innovates and invests billions in New York State and puts nearly 20,000 New Yorkers to work every day. She also serves as a Commissioner of the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey."

According to Ars, recent polls show that Eve is in last place behind three other Democrats running for the office.

17 of 69 comments (clear)

  1. Separation of business and state needed. by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 5, Interesting

    We need more laws that will help keep businesses separated from government. A lobbyist shouldn't be allowed to run for office within 10 years of lobbying for a company and vice-versa. Seriously, there are many basic anti-corruption laws that can be passed to prevent corruption and the fact that it continues to not happen is distressing.

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    1. Re:Separation of business and state needed. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Obama hired plenty of Goldman Sachs employees and other Wall Street types, and nobody seemed to care then.

      While not a Goldman Sachs or other Wall Street type, people here absolutely cared when Tom Wheeler was initially appointed. Yes they later warmed up to him, but not until his actions made him seem like not a bad person.

      Maybe this person's actions will do the same should she get elected. But claiming that people only oppose her because R and would have no problem if she were D is a verifiable crock of shit.

    2. Re:Separation of business and state needed. by crunchygranola · · Score: 4, Informative

      There were two people from Goldman Sachs hired by the Obama Administration: Gary Gensler, who chaired the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and Phil Murphy, who was made U.S. ambassador to Germany, and in fact progressives did object to them, as well as the few others hired from other Wall Street firms.

      But the "plenty of Goldman Sachs employees", if "plenty" is more than two is false.

      The accusation of the Obama Administration being loaded with Wall Street types was a popular, and false, line of attack by right-wing propaganda groups! Talk about hypocrisy!

      --
      Second class citizen of the New Gilded Age
    3. Re:Separation of business and state needed. by sdinfoserv · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Separation of Business and State would be instant with campaign finance reform.

    4. Re:Separation of business and state needed. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Well, those two, and also:
      Thomas Donilon
      William Dudley
      Dianna Farrell
      Robert Hormats
      Neel Kashkari
      Emil Michael
      Eric Mindich
      Mark Patterson
      Mark Peterson
      Gene Sperling
      Adam Storch
      Larry Summers
      John Thain

      Plus the members of a G-S owned and funded 'Think-Tank' that were hired:
      Douglas Elmendorf
      Jason Furman
      Mark Gallogly
      Michael Greenstone
      Robert Reischauer

      That's just Goldman-Sachs, too. To be fair, that's only about 50% more G-S employees than the W Bush Admin hired. But trying to pretend there were only two (especially with excuses like "He didn't work at the White House, he worked at the OEB") is just false.

    5. Re: Separation of business and state needed. by pollarda · · Score: 2
      Ok, I've got a question.....

      In the early days, in addition to the "Internet" you had a whole host of private networks. AOL, Compuserve, Prodigy, among others including a whole host of BBSs. These were not part of the Internet. They eventually provided Internet gateways but doing that doesn't mean that they automatically gave up their autonomy and were now part of the Internet itself. So, I what's to stop Comcast, VeriZon, AT&T from simply saying that they are not providing an internet service but they are allowing connection to their private network as well as an Internet gateway and as part of that, they'll prioritize traffic on their network as they see fit (and process "Internet" traffic on a neutral basis.) ?

    6. Re:Separation of business and state needed. by Darinbob · · Score: 2

      Desiring an expert on corporations to be attorney general is like wanting a mafia don to be attorney general since they'd know all about crime.

    7. Re:Separation of business and state needed. by AnthonywC · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Good luck with that in USA where paid political lobbying is legal and corporations own the government.

  2. Not voting for her but... by KingAlanI · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I wouldn't vote for her, however, that is a common irony with lobbyists - people knowledgeable about an industry often got that experience by working the business side of it.

    --
    I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
    1. Re:Not voting for her but... by Darinbob · · Score: 3, Informative

      Yes, hire a former criminal to head up a crime task force, only how do you know they really are reformed or not? Being a lobbyist automatically makes me think the person is badly biased, and also wasn't very good at finding a real job.

  3. Re:Power Abusers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    you know nothing how the world works.

    The content depth, thoughtfulness, and elegant presentation of your post, by contrast, shows that you are truly a supremely educated scholar and specialist in such complex issues as global economics and political science.

  4. Re:Power Abusers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    thats why he's president.

  5. "Eve confirms, she'd recuse herself... by magusxxx · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...from cases involving Verizon or other telecom issues, leaving policy decisions to senior staff..."

    And are the hiring/firing of these senior staff under her direct control?

    --
    Care killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.
  6. Re:Power Abusers by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 3, Interesting

    They should never be allowed to gain enough power to start pushing their own political agendas

    For a good laugh (or cry, if corruption makes you sad) read about American mohair subsidies.

    This is proof that you don't have to be a Big Company to corrupt the political process. Mohair production is mostly on small independent farms. Their pointless and wasteful subsidies have persisted because they are so small, and barely noticeable in a trillion dollar spending bill.

    I rent a spare bedroom on Airbnb. I joined a Facebook group for local people that do the same. We got organized when the county started considering new taxes and restrictions. We paid a part time lobbyist to get the proposed law watered down, and eventually it died without ever coming to a vote. People renting spare rooms are not big companies, but we were still successful at pushing our agenda.

  7. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 2

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  8. Re:Democrats candidate by thomst · · Score: 2

    manu0601 harrumphed:

    And the democrats are really ready to vote for a corporate lobbyist? This is more a problem than the candidature itself.

    From TFS:

    According to Ars, recent polls show that Eve is in last place behind three other Democrats running for the office.

    So, apparently not ...

    --
    Check out my novel.
  9. No later than this it should be obvious by Opportunist · · Score: 2

    Let's be honest here, if they have to be THAT blatant in their attempts to force this into law, it should be obvious to anyone that it's something that they'd expect to be worth a LOT of money.

    Now the question to ask is where do you think that money is coming from and who gets to foot the bill. No later than now it should be blatantly obvious just who is going to get fucked by this.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.