Packwood’s Lobbying Paying Off Disgraced Oregon Senator Mostly Pushes Tax Reform

Former Sen. Bob Packwood received at least $60,000 in lobbying fees the first half of this year and picked up two new clients, including the Portland, Ore.-based truck manufacturer Freightliner Inc.

At least some of his work now appears to be connected to one of Washington’s leading lobbying firms, Black, Kelly, Scruggs and Healey.

The firm’s more than 80 clients include Philip Morris, American Airlines, AT&T, Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson, the National Broadcasting Co., the National Football League and Rolls-Royce of North America.

Packwood, former chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, has earned most of his money lobbying in support of the repeal of the estate tax, according to records on file Friday at the Secretary of Senate’s Office.

The lobbying firm he founded in Georgetown last fall, Sunrise Research Corp., earned $60,000 the first six months of the year from a coalition advocating tax reform, American Business is Local Enterprise or ABLE.

Packwood also earned $20,000 last year from ABLE. Semiannual reports on his other clients were due Friday but not yet available for review.

Packwood could not be reached immediately for comment. A message on his office telephone said he was on vacation.

He told The Associated Press earlier this year that his firm would focus on the same matters he addressed in the Senate: taxes, trade, telecommunications and health care. But he would not identify his clients or discuss his earnings.

ABLE lists the same Georgetown address as Sunrise Research. The lobbying registration form lists Black, Kelly, Scruggs and Healey as the registrant and Packwood as an employee.

That firm also shows up as the registrant for Packwood’s other new client, a New Haven, Conn.-based law firm, Bergman, Horowitz and Reynolds.

Their relationship is not clear. It is possible Packwood is working as a subcontractor for the larger firm.

John Scruggs, listed as a contact for the lobbying firm, did not immediately return telephone messages Friday. A spokeswoman for his office said Scruggs was gone and no one with information about the lobbying forms was immediately available to comment.

Packwood’s Sunrise Research Corp. is listed as the registrant for Freightliner, a division of the German automotive giant Daimler-Benz AG that has 2,000 employees in the Portland area.

Freightliner announced in June it had received federal regulatory approval to take over Ford Motor Co.’s heavy truck division. The two companies signed agreements in May allowing Freightliner to buy Ford’s technology, tooling and assembly equipment for heavy trucks.

Freightliner officials did not return telephone calls Friday.

Packwood quit the Senate in 1995 after the ethics committee voted unanimously to recommend his expulsion on charges of sexual misconduct, soliciting jobs from lobbyists for his estranged wife and obstructing a congressional investigation into the allegations.