"Hired guns join fight over Wright"

Sunday, February 27, 2005

Hired guns join fight over Wright
The Fort Worth (TX) Star-Telegram 


When it comes to lobbying on the Wright Amendment, American Airlines and
Dallas/Fort Worth Airport have Southwest Airlines outnumbered in Washington
-- not unlike how D/FW dwarfs Love Field. 

The airport and American have unleashed an army of lobbyists to fight to
keep the Wright Amendment intact, with limits on flights from Dallas Love
Field to mostly adjacent states. Both have hired new firms to help in the
battle, while airport and airline officials have made personal visits to
Capitol Hill. 

North Texas congressional representatives, including Kay Granger, R-Fort
Worth, and Joe Barton, R-Ennis, have pitched in. D/FW's top leaders have
written appeals to other airports, and an AMR Corp. director has written to
members of Congress in Tennessee, asking that they back off. 

Southwest Airlines, in contrast, is relying mostly on its in-house lobbyists
-- Senior Vice President Ron Ricks and Chairman Herb Kelleher -- plus a
couple of consultants. 

No local or national politicians are publicly carrying Southwest's banner,
but the airline has pledged to stay with the battle even if it takes years
to get results. 

"There's one of me and a whole lot of them," Ricks said in a recent
interview. "The Texas delegation told me that every third person they saw
last week was from D/FW or American." 

It's still early in the battle. Tennessee business leaders have lobbied
Congress to change the law, seeking lower fares between North Texas and
Nashville. American, which dominates passenger traffic at D/FW and benefits
from the restrictions on Southwest at Love Field, recently lowered its fares
from D/FW and urged Tennessee lawmakers not to file legislation to change
the Wright Amendment. 

It's unclear when or whether a bill will be filed. Tennessee's lawmakers
aren't talking. The Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority will support an
exemption to allow flights from Love to Nashville, but not a repeal, said
Lynne Lowrance, manager of corporate communications. The airport said that
American's move to lower fares was "commendable" but that "the timing and
duration are somewhat suspect." 

D/FW and American Airlines will keep arguing that the Wright Amendment must
stay in place. 

"As long as Southwest is rattling this saber," said D/FW Chief Operating
Officer Kevin Cox, who is leading the airport's lobbying, "we're going to
find ourselves fighting in the halls of Congress." 

American is no stranger in Washington. 

Last year, the Fort Worth-based company spent $2 million on its in-house
lobbying operation, according to disclosure forms filed with Congress. While
that expense covered many issues, from taxes to pensions to homeland
security, American has recently turned its Washington operations to focus on
the Wright Amendment. 

In January, American hired Wally Burnett, a former aide to Sen. Richard
Shelby, R-Ala., who helped in 1997 to change the Wright Amendment and allow
long-haul flights to three more states -- Alabama, Mississippi and Kansas. 

Burnett, who now works at Denny Miller Associates in Washington, was the
staff director of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on transportation,
treasury and general government when the Alabama senator prevailed in the
Shelby Amendment. 

According to Senate disclosure forms, American lobbyists include Ben Barnes,
a former Democratic Texas lieutenant governor, and Linda Daschle, the wife
of former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D. Linda Daschle is a
lobbyist with Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz. 

American has also called on Joe Rodgers, a Nashville investor and
influential GOP elder statesman, who sits on its board. 

Rodgers, a director since 1989, was U.S. ambassador to France in the 1980s
and has been a mentor and fund-raiser for GOP leaders, including Senate
Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn. 

This year, Rodgers wrote every member of the Tennessee congressional
delegation after they co-sponsored a bill last fall to include Tennessee in
the states exempt from the Wright Amendment. 

"I think I opened their eyes a little bit," said Rodgers, who helped
jump-start the career of Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., a second-term
lawmaker who was the lead sponsor of last year's bill. 

Blackburn has not yet announced whether she will refile a bill to change the
Wright Amendment. 

"Marsha's a great lady," Rodgers said. "Somebody didn't tell her all the
facts." 

D/FW retooled its lobbying team specifically for this effort, hiring firms
with political pull in the Republican Party. 

Lead lobbyist Jeffrey Munk is a former aide to Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison,
R-Texas. Lobbyist G. Stewart Hall is a former aide to Shelby, the Alabama
Republican who fought the Wright Amendment eight years ago. 

Cox said Hall's change of sides was nothing more than a firm responding to a
"casting call" for Washington lobbyists. 

Gone is the firm of Patton Boggs, including lobbyist Rodney Slater, who was
transportation secretary during the Clinton administration. The move is
strictly political, Cox said, and has nothing to do with the quality of
Slater's work. 

Slater was instrumental in D/FW's successful lobbying efforts in 2002 to
push back a key airport security deadline, Cox said. 

"There's no doubt the Republicans are in Congress," Cox said. 

D/FW's lobbying strategies vary: 

--Businesses, industry leaders and delegates outside of the Metroplex are
being asked to keep out. 

"As I would never seek to alter how your airport is operated or managed, I
respectfully ask that you resist any efforts to involve your airport in the
repeal of the Wright Amendment," D/FW Chief Executive Jeff Fegan wrote in a
Dec. 9 letter to fellow airport directors nationwide. 

--Lobbyists are trying to explain airport economics to members of Congress.
Most center on how a mix of short-haul and long-haul flights is necessary to
keep an international airport healthy. 

--A third-party study is being commissioned by the airport to assess the
impact should the Wright Amendment be repealed. Previous studies found that
Love Field would take business away from D/FW, Cox said. 

The new study follows a December report by economist Bernard Weinstein of
the University of North Texas, which shows dramatic economic impacts of
Delta Air Lines' decision to close its D/FW hub. 

On the other side, Southwest's team is more modest. 

Lawyer Tom Loeffler and his San Antonio firm are assisting. Loeffler is
Ricks' former law partner. Lobbyist Joe O'Neill of Public Strategies
Washington is also on the team. Southwest was O'Neill's first client when he
opened shop years ago. 

Still, veteran aviation lobbyists said not to count Southwest out. The
discount carrier, which went public with its intention to seek repeal of the
Wright Amendment late last year, is talking with any member of Congress
showing interest, seeking out states that might become allies. 

"Southwest is up on the Hill on this and nothing else," said one airline
lobbyist, who did want to be identified because of the sensitivity of the
issue. "Herb Kelleher practically lives here." 

Ricks says lobbyists saved Southwest Airlines from doom in 1979. The result
was the Wright Amendment, which the carrier has been unhappily living with
for 25 years. 

Even at maximum build-out at Love Field, Southwest could fly only
one-quarter of the flights that American does at D/FW. 

"How in the world does little old Love Field ever become a significant
threat to D/FW?" Ricks said. "It can't, and they know it."


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