Giuliani’s Tie to Texas Law Firm May Pose Risk
For a native New Yorker mounting a first bid for national office, Rudolph W. Giuliani has shown an impressive ability to raise money in Texas, where his Republican presidential campaign collected $2.2 million in the first quarter of the year, far more than any other candidate.
Mr. Giuliani has drawn support from Texans who were notable donors to President Bush, including a former Enron president, Richard D. Kinder, and business executives who direct many of the nation’s oil, gas and energy producers.
And a good part of this success, analysts say, stems from his affiliation with a well-established and politically connected law firm that is based in Houston and bears his name, Bracewell & Giuliani.
That affiliation adds to Mr. Giuliani’s personal wealth but also could pose political risks for him. The firm is perhaps the nation’s most aggressive lobbyist for coal-fired power plants, heavy emitters of air pollutants and carbon dioxide, a gas associated with global warming. Environmentalists say the firm played a significant role in persuading the Bush administration to roll back major provisions of the Clean Air Act.
Mr. Giuliani joined the 400-lawyer firm as a name partner two years ago, and though his legal work has been limited, his association with it has provided him entree into the wellspring of Texas money that meant so much to the Bush campaigns.
In addition to collecting $89,000 in contributions from Bracewell partners and employees, Mr. Giuliani has held a fund-raiser in Houston. The firm’s managing partner, Patrick C. Oxford, is a top-shelf Bush fund-raiser with a wealth of contacts within Republican money circles.
Most significantly, perhaps, the law firm is one of the higher-profile defenders of the oil, gas and energy industries, to which it provides legal help and extensive lobbying services in Washington. It is difficult to say just how much of Mr. Giuliani’s contributions from those industries stem from his affiliation with Bracewell, but employees of companies in those sectors, including several Bracewell clients, have contributed more than $400,000 to Mr. Giuliani’s campaign so far.
Allen Blakemore, a Republican political consultant based in Houston who is not working for any of the presidential candidates, said the Bracewell affiliation must be seen as an important part of Mr. Giuliani’s fund-raising success in Texas.
“That law firm has been engaged in Houston in the energy sector for a long time, and they’ve got a platinum client list,” Mr. Blakemore said. “I think it’s safe to say that this is a law firm that is incredibly well connected in the oil patch. Pat Oxford knows those connections and can connect the dots better than anyone else.”
Texas, in fact, trailed only New York and California in Mr. Giuliani’s first-quarter fund-raising, in which he collected $16.1 million over all. His campaign raised twice as much in Texas as that of Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican who had been expected to do well there.
Mr. Oxford, who is chairman of Mr. Giuliani’s national campaign committee, said the Bracewell firm had no role in generating contributions from the energy industry. He said executives were giving because “Texas loves Rudy’s message.”
In public remarks, Mr. Giuliani has supported increased use of nuclear power, natural gas, Alaskan oil drilling and ethanol to reduce American reliance on foreign oil. He has also expressed support for cleaner technology in the use of coal. He has not taken a position on reducing power plant emissions, but aides have said a major statement on environmental issues is being prepared.
Scott Segal, a Bracewell & Giuliani partner and a leading energy industry spokesman, said the firm’s energy clients had kept energy affordable and spent billions to comply with environmental laws.
“We believe the work we do is constructive for the environment and our clients,” Mr. Segal said. “Experience shows that the best environmental policy is made when all sides come prepared and represented.”
But critics say the firm has been central to rolling back environmental regulations in the Bush years, when the firm’s lobbyists met with Vice President Dick Cheney.
“From clean air to mercury pollution to global warming policies,” said Gene Karpinski, president of the League of Conservation Voters, “Giuliani’s firm has been perhaps the most anti-environment voice in Washington, representing some of the biggest corporate polluters.”
The Giuliani campaign said in a statement that he did not engage in any energy lobbying and did not take policy cues from his law firm’s clients.
Mr. Giuliani’s consulting company, Giuliani Partners, has also represented energy clients, like the operators of the Indian Point nuclear plant in Westchester County and a joint venture that is seeking to build a large natural gas transfer facility nine miles offshore in Long Island Sound.
