Eshoo, Pallone Committee Leadership Battle in Final Stretch
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., dismissed the idea of seniority in endorsing Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., to be top Democrat on the Commerce Committee in a Dear Colleague letter issued Tuesday, the third such letter sent this year. Pelosi first endorsed Eshoo, now ranking member for the Communications Subcommittee, for that position months ago. The committee leadership race is heating up as Congress returned for the lame-duck session Wednesday.
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“Anna has been the driving force in the Congress behind our Innovation Agenda, our initiative to strengthen our global competitiveness, to create good paying jobs here at home, and to build an economy that works for everyone,” Pelosi said in the letter. “I am encouraged by the broad support that Anna has across our Caucus.”
Eshoo is competing against the more senior Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., for the position. The fight is expected to come to a head in the leadership battles during the lame-duck session in the days ahead. Pallone is a member of the Communications Subcommittee. Neither the offices for Pallone nor Eshoo commented on the record about the final stage of the race.
Both Pallone and Eshoo announced their intentions to run for the job early this year when House Commerce Committee ranking member Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said he'd retire after his current term. Pelosi said she has been asked about the issue of seniority and pointed to several instances where the Democratic caucus selected members who were not most senior: “In each of these elections there was enormous respect for the senior Member, but our colleagues viewed seniority as a consideration not a determination.”
Pelosi sent letters endorsing Eshoo in February, September and now November. “Since my February letter, Anna has listened to Members, reflected their values and gained their strong support – more than 105 commitments, a majority of the Caucus,” Pelosi said in the September letter.
Backers of Pallone’s bid said seniority should be the key consideration. “First and foremost, seniority is critically important to this institution and Frank is the next most senior member of the Committee,” said a September letter signed by 50 backers of Pallone, including Reps. John Conyers, D-Mich.; G.K. Butterfield, D-N.C.; Gene Green, D-Texas; Jose Serrano, D-N.Y.; and Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y. House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., also backs Pallone’s bid, as a spokeswoman confirmed to us Wednesday.
Hill staffers and industry lobbyists have pointed to fundraising as a key component to such caucus battles, as well as the courting of freshman Democrats. Eshoo created a leadership political action committee called Peninsula in April that raised $617,025 and spent $515,386, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Records show that PAC money went to several dozen Democratic candidates, from Reps. Tim Bishop, D-N.Y., to Suzan DelBene, D-Wash, to challenger Mark Takai, a Hawaii Democrat who won his House race this month.
Donors to Peninsula include many individuals connected to the telecom and tech industries. Eshoo represents part of Silicon Valley in her district and oversees many of the industries as ranking member of the Communications Subcommittee. Granite Telecom Senior Vice President-Corporate Strategy Sam Kline and Vice President-Sales Kevin Nichols each donated $5,000, and several officials at Oracle also donated thousands. Cisco CEO John Chambers donated $5,000. Bruce Gottlieb, an executive vice president of SoftBank and formerly with the FCC, donated $1,500. Sprint’s Laura McPherson donated $1,000, as did former Sprint CEO Dan Hesse. Cathy Sloan, vice president-government relations for the Computer & Communications Industry Association, donated $1,000, too. Twitter Vice President-Global Public Policy Colin Crowell gave $1,000, and Google lobbyist Johanna Shelton, a former Democratic House staffer, gave $500. Aereo lobbyist and spokeswoman Virginia Lam has given $250 and Facebook lobbyist Caitlin O’Neill, a former Pelosi chief of staff, gave $500.
Eshoo has fought for competition in the telecom space since the 1990s, CCIA's Sloan told us, noting she’s personally a backer for that reason. Eshoo has “just been way more active” on telecom, “more up to speed, more sophisticated,” Sloan said, chalking up her tech and telecom support to that understanding.
Pallone has managed his own leadership PAC, known as Shore, for multiple election cycles, but raised and spent far more in the 2014 election cycle than any of the previous ones. In 2014, Pallone raised $488,267 and spent $379,425. His PAC spending also went to established incumbents such as Serrano and Conyers as well as to Democratic challengers in this cycle, such as Takai, the Hawaii Democrat Eshoo also donated PAC money to. Pallone’s Shore PAC donors include Gregg Rothschild, a lobbyist with the Glover Park Group representing Apple, Verizon and Viacom, and USTelecom Senior Executive Vice President Alan Roth.
Both Pallone and Eshoo have doled out money other ways. The Pallone for Congress PAC has also contributed $354,000 to candidates this cycle, giving to candidates such as Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and challenger Kathleen Rice, a Democrat who won a seat in New York this month. The Anna Eshoo for Congress PAC has received $131,590 in contributions this cycle and donated $124,400 to candidates.