Operators cook up support for campaigns: industry groups back 29 restaurant-friendly congressional candidates

Nation's Restaurant News, Oct 13, 2008 by Milford Prewitt

Even as this year's polarizing presidential race commands most of the attention from the press and pundits, restaurateurs also are keeping an eye on several of the 2008 congressional elections.

On Nov. 4, voters will decide who next will fill 33 Senate seats and all 435 House seats. The results could not only change the balance of power in Congress--especially in the Senate, where Republicans are defending 23 seats--but also could put into office a notable number of individuals with ties to the restaurant and hospitality industries.

Twenty-nine candidates--five contestants for the Senate and 24 for the House--are considered friends of the industry who might be counted on to defend or advance industry concerns. Among those industry issues that could be addressed in the next Congress are immigration reform, card-check union organizing, health care, food safety, menu labeling, depreciation schedules and many other accounting, tax and tort proposals.

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But the irony behind the large slate of industry-favored candidates is that they are looking to join a body of legislators likely voters say they believe do a lousy job steering the country in the right direction, according to polls from several news organizations.

Whether conservative or liberal, polls from CNN, FOX News, the Wall Street Journal and others have been tracking voter approval ratings of Congress below 20 percent for the past month, a dismal report card darkened all the more by the uncertainty and divisiveness related to the Wall Street bailout as well as lawmakers' general handling of the economy.

Of the 29 industry-related candidates, 18 are Republicans and 11 are Democrats. Twenty are incumbents. Of the five candidates running for Senate seats, all but one is an incumbent.

"We're seeing an unprecedented number of people with links to the industry running for Congress this election," Ned Monroe, the National Restaurant Association's vice president of political affairs, said recently.

The need to put into office lawmakers who are sympathetic to the industry has attracted support from a broad swath of industry-related political action committees.

Among the most active PACs are those of the NRA; the International Franchise Association; the National Council of Chain Restaurant's parent group, the National Retail Merchants Association; and nearly a dozen PACs run by the restaurant industry's leading companies, such as McDonald's Corp., Darden Restaurants Inc., Burger King and Yum! Brands Inc.

As has been the restaurant industry's political tradition, financial support for Republicans outnumbers that for Democrats. For instance, as of Sept. 26 the NRA PAC had contributed to 17 Republicans and five Democrats.

Ed Tinsley III, former NRA chairman and owner of the Santa Fe, N.M.-based K-Bob's Steakhouse chain, is perhaps the best-known foodservice operator seeking a congressional seat. He is running on the Republican ticket to represent New Mexico's 2nd Congressional District, and has received $210,000 from the NRA, the biggest sum the group has ever given out.

Among lesser-known office-seekers drawing industry support is Jay Love, a six-year member of the Alabama Legislature who is running on the Republican ticket for a House seat in Alabama's 2nd Congressional District.

Flush with NRA-PAC money, Love was previously a successful Subway area developer who sold his company in order to enter politics.

Love's director of communications, Todd Stacy, says that there are many reasons why the restaurant industry is high on his boss, but perhaps the most important is his health care insurance financing plan for small companies and their workers.

Stacy says that as a state legislator, Love--who is 40 years old, married and has two children--consistently voted for or proposed legislation that supported small-business development and entrepreneurship.

Love's signature piece of legislation, and one he wants to duplicate in Washington, is a schedule of tax deductions for small-business employers and their employees who pay health insurance premiums in group policies or individual coverage, respectively.

In a nutshell, Love's proposal would allow small businesses that employ 25 or fewer workers to write off of their state income taxes 150 percent of what they spend annually on group health plans or individual policies, Stacy explains. The health insurance tax deduction became law in Alabama during the most recent session of the state Legislature, following a three-year fight for its passage by Love and other state legislators, Stacy notes.

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"Support for small business is a natural fit for Jay because that is how he started," Stacy says. "From a single Subway franchise as a young man, he became a multiple-store owner and regional developer who went on and sold his business.

"Now he is no longer in the restaurant business, but he speaks for small-business people like restaurant owners, auto repair shops, dry cleaners, franchisees and grocery store owners because he understands what they face and knows the issues they confront."