Lobbyist Steven Farber leads fund drive for Democratic convention

Muckety is shocked, shocked, to learn that a lobbyist is leading the effort to raise money to pay for the Democratic National Convention.

Hasn’t the presumptive candidate, Sen. Barack Obama, refused to have anything to do with lobbyists and their money?

And aren’t politicians from both parties treating lobbyists as if they were toxic?

Maybe so, but Steven W. Farber, a registered lobbyist, is co-chair of the convention’s host committee. And he’s the leader of the effort to raise $40.6 million to help fund the convention, which will be held in Denver from Aug. 25-28.

Farber has been a key Democratic contributor in Denver for years. He also headed Roy Romer’s three successful gubernatorial campaigns in Colorado, and he’s raised money for the Clinton Presidential Library.

A University of Colorado Law School graduate, Farber is a founding partner and president of the Denver law firm of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck.

With additional offices in Washington, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and several other cities, the firm earned a reported $13 million in lobbying fees last year.

Its clients include At&T, Google, Comcast, Western Union and UnitedHealth Group, Inc. Each of these companies is a corporate sponsor of the convention.

Brownstein Hyatt tilts Democratic in its giving, but there are prominent Republicans among its lobbyists.

They include Hank Brown, the former senator from Colorado and former president of the University of Colorado, and Judy Black, who is married to Charlie Black, McCain’s chief adviser and a long-time, though now former, lobbyist.

The Obama campaign has not objected to Farber’s involvement in the fund-raising.

A spokesman told Politico.com in June that the convention fund-raising is independent of the Obama campaign and of the Democratic Party.

The spokesman, Bill Burton, did say that Obama would make convention-financing reform a priority if he were elected.

Similarly, a spokesman for the McCain campaign said it was too late to fix convention financing this year but that McCain would address the issue if elected. (The Republican National Convention takes place Sept. 1-4 in Minneapolis/St. Paul.)

Farber told The New York Times that Obama’s opposition to “special interest” giving hasn’t inhibited the convention fund-raising.

And he suggested that he raises money for the convention by invoking Obama’s image.

“What I am now selling is Sen. Obama and the excitement he has created in his candidacy,” Farber said.

The fund-raising hasn’t been easy. With a little more than a month to go, the committee still needs to raise $11 million.

Organizers of the Republican convention said Tuesday that they have raised their goal of $39 million, though they’re hoping to raise another $19 million to cover additional costs.

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