UnitedHealth Lobbyist Announces Pelosi Fundraiser As She Begins Backing Off Public Option

By GottaLaff

Earlier, I posted about Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid backing off their support of the public option. According to David Sirota's report below, that came just hours before... well, read what he says below.

Coincidence?

This announcement comes just hours before Steve Elmendorf, a registered UnitedHealth lobbyist and the head of UnitedHealth's lobbying firm Elmendorf Strategies, blasted this email invitation throughout Washington, D.C.

Here's a copy of the invitation:

From: Steve Elmendorf [mailto:steve@elmendorfstrategies.com]
Sent: Friday, September 11, 2009 8:31 AM
Subject: event with Speaker Pelosi at my home

You are cordially invited to a reception with

Speaker of the House
Nancy Pelosi

Thursday, September 24, 2009
6:30pm ~ 8:00pm

At the home of
Steve Elmendorf
2301 Connecticut Avenue, NW
Apt. 7B
Washington, D.C.

$5,000 PAC
$2,400 Individual

To RSVP or for additional information please contact
Carmela Clendening at (202) 485-3508 or clendening@dccc.org

Steve Elmendorf
ELMENDORF STRATEGIES
GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS SOLUTIONS
900 7th Street NW Suite 750 Washington DC 20001
(202) 737-1655

Again, Elmendorf is a registered lobbyist for UnitedHealth, and his firm's website brags about its work for UnitedHealth on its website.

And what else do we know about Steve Elmendorf? I dug around a little:

Steven A. Elmendorf, a lobbyist in Washington, D.C., was a senior advisor to House Democratic Leader Dick Gephardt for 12 years, serving as his chief of staff after 1997. Elmendorf was also deputy campaign manager for U.S. Senator John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic nominee for president.^[1]

[I]n 2006, Elmendorf gave his support to U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman's independent re-election bid after Lieberman lost the Democratic primary. Elmendorf was listed on Lieberman's campaign Web site as part of the "national chapter" of "Dems for Joe"^[4]

Per a commenter on David Sirota's post:

Elmendorf is the political genius....

....who argued against the 2004 Kerry campaign responding to the Swiftboat ads.

And subsequently went into partnership with Jack Abramoff's bag man.