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Schumer ally is port company's new lobbyist

BY TOM BRUNE AND GLENN THRUSH | NEWSDAY WASHINGTON BUREAU

February 24, 2006

WASHINGTON - Days after Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) first attacked the Dubai Ports World U.S. seaport deal, the multibillion-dollar company hired a new lobbyist: former Long Island congressman Tom Downey, the senator's close friend and Democratic Senate campaign fundraising partner.

Now the Downey McGrath Group Inc. has joined powerful Washington law firm Alston & Bird and British public-relations firm Bell Pottinger in an attempt to calm the firestorm.

How DPW chose Downey is a classic example of how Washington works, experts say.

On Feb. 14, the day after a Schumer press release first criticized the deal, Downey and President Bill Clinton's former environmental chief, Carol Browner, paid a visit to the senator's office to talk with staff.

Browner is a principal in the Albright Group founded by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, which advises DPW on its business in China, the firm said. And Downey's firm lists the Albright Group as a client.

The visit was unofficial, not to lobby, said Kathleen Tynan McLaughlin, a Downey firm officer. And the Albright Group said it doesn't lobby.

But Schumer spokesman Israel Klein suggested they did lobby, saying, "After Sen. Schumer first criticized this deal, Browner and Downey came in to meet with our staff and they were unpersuasive."

Browner and Downey also tried unsuccessfully to lobby House Homeland Security chairman Peter King (R-Seaford), a Capitol Hill source said.

McLaughlin said the two left Schumer's office thinking the issue would get bigger and that DPW needed a lobbyist. And, she said, the Albright Group recommended Downey to DPW.

McLaughlin said that last week "the guy who runs DPW said, 'We're going to put you on our books as of Monday.'"