In a city of transplants, Dan Tate Jr.’s D.C. roots run deeper than most.
Born in Georgia, Tate moved inside the Beltway in 1969 when he was just 3, after his father, Dan Tate Sr., took a job on the staff of Sen. Herman Tallmadge (D-Ga.). Tate Sr. eventually became Senate liaison for President Jimmy Carter before becoming a lobbyist.
Tate’s mother, Tina, started working at the House Radio and TV Gallery in 1972. When she retired as director of the gallery earlier this year, both Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) attended the ceremony.
“I would come in to work with my mom and go play in the halls of the Capitol,” said Tate. “I didn’t think anything of it.”
“I remember walking in my Dad’s office [in the White House] thinking how big it was,” he added.
Now a lobbyist whose own ties to congressional Democrats have helped give his firm, Capitol Solutions, a jolt of new business this year, Tate began his political education earlier than most.
In high school, Tate kept quiet about his age to spend a few weeks in Maine volunteering for Carter’s reelection. By the time he graduated from Amherst College, where he played lacrosse and football, Tate had a couple of congressional internships under his belt.
“When I graduated from college and thought about doing something [besides politics], everyone looked at my résumé and said, ‘Come on. Who are you kidding?’ ”
Tate took a job as Rep. Billy Tauzin’s legislative assistant on energy when he was just 21. The Louisiana lawmaker was then still a Democrat.
After four years on Capitol Hill, Tate moved to the Energy Department (DoE), where he worked as the agency’s main liaison to the House. He then took the same job at the White House.
“I was lucky to have the slice of working on the Hill for a very active member, and then going to an agency where you see the inner workings and see how tough it is to manage one of those things,” Tate says. “And [at] the White House … you have to mix it all together with the overall big-picture direction that a presidency has to have.”
Tate’s White House office was familiar: It was across the hall from the one his dad had occupied. It looked smaller than it had when Tate was a kid, but the job was still big: “Even when you were just getting pounded, you knew you were working for the president of the United States and there is an honor and a dignity in that. It is a meaningful thing.”
One of Tate’s main responsibilities was to build links between the administration and moderate blocs like the Blue Dog and New Democrat coalitions, connections that continue to be important to Tate’s lobbying practice.
Newly married, Tate decided to leave the White House and follow his father into lobbying. He started at Cassidy & Associates, then moved to a firm he started with a friend, and eventually joined Capitol Solutions, which was founded by David Taylor, a former aide to both George H.W. Bush and Senate Republican leader Bob Dole (Kan.).
Tate’s Democratic ties have helped Capitol Solutions generate a growth rate of roughly 30 percent during the first six months of this year compared to the first half of 2006. The firm took in $1.35 million in business, up from just over $1 million a year ago.
The five other lobbyists who work with Tate at Capitol Solutions include Tate’s father. The firm’s clients include the drug maker Amgen, the telephone giant Verizon and automaker Honda.
“A lot of the relationships that I made when I was in the White House and at DoE, those folks have grown through the system and have become real influencers,” Tate says. “I’d love to say that I’m a self-made man, but nobody is.”
Tate says he learned the importance of looking at issues strategically from the tutelage of Tauzin, Energy Secretary Hazel O’Leary and President Clinton.
After the midterm elections last year, the American Federation of Hospitals was looking for a Democratic lobbyist with House ties. The group hired Tate even though he had no other healthcare clients.
“He could see the decision tree, how we could get from point A to point B,” said Jeff Cohen, senior vice president for legislation at the hospital group.
Tate helped convince Congress to block a new hospital payment regulatory change the White House was contemplating that would have cost the group’s members billions of dollars, Cohen said.
“It was a bitter battle, and he was instrumental is targeting the right people at the right time,” said Cohen.
“If you combine your experience with a competitive drive to do something creative, you can have a lot of fun doing this,” Tate says of lobbying.
The Washington of Tate’s youth was slower and sleepier. “The Washington reps book wasn’t six inches thick. There just weren’t as many people. It wasn’t as big a business.”
Now members and staff are flooded with all sorts of information. It is the lobbyist’s job to filter out the good from the bad, and provide lawmakers and staff with what they need to make decisions.
“That’s one thing my father always said is the one thing you have in this town: your word,” Tate says. “The second you lose that reputation, you’ve lost your ability to function.” |
