For most Americans, finding a good work-life balance is difficult. For members of the Senate, where days in the world’s greatest deliberative body stretch from early morning late into the night, it’s almost impossible.
But despite juggling half-a-dozen committee assignments, including a slot on the influential Banking Committee, Sen. Evan Bayh found a way. What’s the Indiana Democrat’s secret? Multi-tasking.
A copy of the senator’s 2008 schedule shows that the Democrat regularly scheduled meetings over lunch and dinner with financial industry lobbyists. He even managed to squeeze in some golf at the exclusive Chevy Chase Country Club by bringing along top Wall Street executives.
Some of those meals came right before important votes, Politico reports. Bayh had an October 2008 lunch with banking lobbyists the very day the Senate voted to bail out the banks with the controversial $700 billion Emergency Economic Stabilization Act.
“The economy was on the brink of collapse,” a Bayh spokesman explained to Politico. “More than 100,000 Hoosier auto jobs were at risk. It was entirely appropriate to be with representatives of companies like GM, which employs thousands of Hoosiers.”
Bayh also managed to leverage several of those lobbying contacts into big campaign donors. During his time in the Senate, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, Goldman Sachs and its employees gave $166,950 in campaign contributions. And after he left Capitol Hill, Bayh used those connections as a springboard to his own lucrative consulting career as an associate at the D.C. lobbying firm McGuire Woods.
It’s not clear Indiana voters will appreciate Bayh’s business practices now that he’s locked in a tight race with Rep. Todd Young, R, for his old Senate seat. The former senator’s new opponent has made his connection to the banking industry, and his lack of any apparent attachment to the Hoosier State, a prominent issue in the campaign. So far, that strategy has helped him whittle Bayh’s large lead down to the margin of error.
One of the Midwest’s most prominent political dynasties, the Bayh family remains popular in Indiana. Evan Bayh’s father Birch Bayh, served in the Senate for many years, and Evan himself served as governor before going to the Senate.
But even with that name recognition, Young has knocked Bay’s lead down from 20 points to just two, according to a recent poll. As the campaign entered its final stretch, Bayh Tweeted Monday night that he planned to “shed light on Rep. Young’s record of promoting policies that favor outsourcing corporations over Indiana workers.”
Unafraid to multitask, Bayh is also apparently looking for an injection of capital. He returned to Washington, D.C., Tuesday, the Washington Free Beacon reported, where the Democrat will again have dinner with top Democrat lobbyists. The minimum cost for a plate at either of his fundraising events is $1,000.
Philip Wegmann is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
