Possible successor to Kennedy is top pharma lobbyist

A possible candidate for Senator Kennedy’s seat has spent the last ten years building the biggest pharmaceutical lobbying practice in the country. Nick Littlefield is chair of the lobbying group at Boston law firm Foley Hoag, which has raced to the top of the pharma lobbying charts over the last several years. In the first …

Read More

Wellpoint lobbyist & ex-Enzi staffer wrote key parts of Baucus plan

Still more evidence that Wellpoint wrote the Baucus plan: the insurance company’s lobbying efforts in DC are headed up by Senator Mike Enzi’s former chief health adviser at Senate HELP, Stephen Northrup. Enzi is a member of Baucus’s so-called “Gang of Six” shaping the bipartisan compromise bill. In fact, key provisions in the Baucus plan …

Read More

Baucus’s last health chief? Also a Wellpoint lobbyist.

Last week, I noted that the key Baucus healthcare staffer is a former insurance executive. Now, Liz Fowler’s stint at Wellpoint is getting some more attention, as her electronic fingerprints have been found on the Senator’s new healthcare plan. Not surprising, as she’s the top health staffer in Baucus’s office, but the symbolism is rich: …

Read More

Baucus tax chief is former insurance and pharma lobbyist

Just when you thought the Baucus revolving door couldn’t spin faster: the Senate staffer responsible for devising the tax policies at the heart of the Baucus plan is a former lobbyist for health insurance and pharmaceutical interests, including an insurance industry front group. Cathy Koch, who heads the Senate Finance committee’s tax department, was director …

Read More

@ddwriter wins Lobbyist Editing Challenge

@ddwriter was the runaway winner of our Lobbyist Editing Challenge with 2,827 points. In addition to winning a LittleSis t-shirt and books, her other prize was to be featured on this blog. So here she is, the woman behind the glasses: Diana Dominguez is a self-described pitbull. As a debt collector for many many years, …

Read More

Analyst challenge ends, 450 staffers-turned-lobbyists identified

Friday ended our first ever analyst challenge, and we here at LittleSis couldn’t be happier with the results. In just a few weeks, our analysts identified 450 former congressional-staffers-turned-healthcare-lobbyists! And we certainly could not have hit that number without the work of our contest winners: @ddwriter, @Priscilla and @Reed.Young.  These three analysts went above and …

Read More

Chief health aide to Baucus is former Wellpoint executive

Senator Max Baucus’s chief health adviser, Elizabeth Fowler, has been called the “chief operating officer” of the healthcare reform process by Politico — the staffer who sets legislative deadlines, coordinates with the White House on policy, and is understood to speak for Baucus on health policy issues. Washington Post blogger Ezra Klein has called her …

Read More

Six at the table, how many in the room?

Six centrist Senators got some attention from the New York Times today for their role in shaping health care reform. Never mind that the room is small and the “debate” couldn’t be framed more narrowly; Senator Olympia Snowe tells us that Max Baucus, the ringleader, is “very inclusive.” The story includes an annotated photograph of …

Read More

Who works for AHIP?

The healthcare reform fight is heating up on Capitol Hill, pitting the health insurance industry, big pharma, the docs, the hospitals, the medical tech industry, and the biotech industry against…well, I’m not exactly sure. A very scary coalition of uninsured people, the middle class, unions, and liberal think tanks? Perhaps the lines are not so …

Read More