Toyota's connections run deep in Washington
With money and a mission to be American, automaker has friends and employees in high political places.
By Sharon Theimer
Associated Press
Posted: Monday, Feb. 08, 2010
WASHINGTON Toyota has friends in high places in Washington, including some of the very people now investigating the Japanese automaker.
The company has sought to sow goodwill and win allies with lobbying, charitable giving, racing in NASCAR and, perhaps most important, creating jobs.
Lawmakers on the committees investigating Toyota's massive recall represent states where Toyota has factories - and the well-paying manufacturing jobs they bring. The company's executives include a former employee of the federal agency that is supposed to oversee the automaker.
Will Toyota's connections pay off as it tries to minimize fallout from its problems?
The Senate's lead Toyota investigator, West Virginia Democrat Jay Rockefeller, credits himself with lobbying Toyota to build a factory in his state. A member of a House investigating panel, California Rep. Jane Harman, a Democrat, represents the district that includes Toyota's U.S. headquarters and has financial ties to the company.
The House committee has set a first hearing for Wednesday; the Senate committee has not set a hearing date.
Rockefeller, chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, has known Toyota's founding family since the 1960s. He was so closely involved with Toyota's selection of Buffalo, W.Va., for a factory that he slogged through cornfields with Toyota executives scouting locations. He still mentions his role in the 1990s deal to this day.
Toyota and Rockefeller
Rockefeller's committee is expected to review whether the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration acted aggressively enough toward Toyota. The agency's new chief, David Strickland, worked for eight years on Rockefeller's committee as a lawyer and senior staffer.
Strickland has such close relationships with Rockefeller and other senators that Republican Sen. George LeMieux of Florida asked Strickland at his confirmation hearing two months ago whether he could disagree with Rockefeller, his former boss: "The oversight for you in your role will be from the committee that you once served on," LeMieux told him.
"I will be honest with you, sir," Strickland answered. "I've had disagreements with the chairman personally. But he signs the paycheck, and he wins. But I will have no problem with that all, sir."
Rockefeller sees no reason to step aside from his committee's investigation. Consumer protection is a cornerstone of his work as chairman and that is reflected in the steps he and the committee are taking, Rockefeller spokeswoman Jamie Smith said, including NHTSA briefings and plans to hold hearings and seek recall-related documents.
"While this important work proceeds, Senator Rockefeller is encouraged that Toyota is making every effort to minimize the impact on its U.S. work force, especially during these difficult economic times," Smith said. "He hopes and expects that Toyota will remain a strong company and is capable of getting back on the right track with safety and consumer confidence."
Toyota's U.S. operations are based in Torrance, Calif., in Harman's district. She serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which is investigating Toyota's recall.
Harman and her husband, Sidney, held at least $115,000 in Toyota stock as of her most recent financial disclosure report. The company to which the couple owes much of their multi-million-dollar fortune - Harman International Industries, founded by Sidney Harman - sells vehicle audio and entertainment systems to Toyota.
Harman didn't respond to The Associated Press' request for comment.
Ties in House and Senate
Several other lawmakers on investigating committees also represent states with Toyota factories, including Missouri, Texas, Mississippi, Michigan, Indiana and Kentucky.
Toyota says it employs nearly 36,000 people in the U.S. and indirectly employs about 166,000 people at dealerships and suppliers.
Republicans also have spoken of Toyota's importance to their states.
"Kentucky is still reaping the rewards of its 20-year partnership with Toyota, and we hope to continue to do so for years to come," Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said in marking the 2006 anniversary of a Toyota plant there.
Still, Toyota has a long way to go to win the wholesale affection of Congress. Democrats criticize it for nonunion shops. Some lawmakers suggest it benefits from unfair Japanese trade policies at the expense of automakers they consider American, such as Ford and General Motors.
Trying to appear American
Toyota has tried hard to be thought of as an American brand. Its efforts include trying to become part of the nation's car culture.
In recent years it broke into the highest ranks of the beloved American sport of stock-car racing, fielding cars in NASCAR races in front of millions of die-hard fans.
Its U.S. charity doles out millions each year, sometimes in photo opportunities with politicians. It gave $5.6 million to charitable causes from mid-2007 to mid-2008, much of it focused on education and the environment, according to its most recent report.
Toyota's spending on lobbying in Washington has risen as steadily as its U.S. sales. Toyota spent $5 million last year lobbying on such issues as industry regulation, energy, labor laws, patents, trade, taxes and government contracting.
That amount is more than five times what it spent a decade earlier.
Its Washington team is well connected.
Its main liaison to the federal government on vehicle safety issues is Christopher Tinto, who worked for several years in NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation as a vehicle defect investigator and in its Office of Vehicle Safety Standards, where he mostly worked on heavy-truck braking standards.
Among its lobbyists is Josephine Cooper, who was chief executive of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, an industry coalition to which Toyota belongs, and who also worked at the Environmental Protection Agency and as an aide to former Vice President Dick Cheney when he was in Congress.
Toyota recently retained Quinn Gillespie & Associates, a well-connected, bipartisan lobbying and public affairs firm to help Toyota try to contain the damage in Washington.
Toyota has not been a big player in U.S. campaigns. Unlike rivals Ford and GM, Toyota doesn't have a political action committee to dole out campaign contributions. Toyota's PAC would have difficulty distinguishing itself from Toyota's Japanese management to the degree needed to be legal under U.S. campaign finance laws.
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