Microsoft Gets Help From Both Sides of the Aisle on Lobbying

Computerworld - Brian Burke, the Microsoft official who was barred from former Massachusetts CIO Louis Gutierrez’s office because of his lobbying activities, is one of a cadre of well-connected Democrats on the company’s payroll in the state.

Burke served in senior government positions in the Clinton administration and later worked on the Kerry/Edwards presidential campaign prior to joining Microsoft as its government affairs director for the Northeast.

Massachusetts public records show that Burke registered with the state as a lobbyist for Microsoft last year. Under “activity performed,” Burke listed 96 pending pieces of legislation as well as Version 3.5 of the state’s Enterprise Technical Reference Model. Burke did not register as a lobbyist this year because he didn’t meet the hourly threshold that would have required him to do so, according to a Microsoft spokeswoman.

Another influential Democrat who has done significant work for Microsoft on a contract basis is John E. “Jack” Murphy Jr. A former state representative with close ties to leaders of the Democrat-dominated legislature, Murphy heads one of the highest-paid lobbying groups in Massachusetts. The $837,850 in lobbying fees that his firm collected last year included $60,000 from Microsoft, matching the maximum it was paid by any client.

Weighing in from the Republican side with arguments favorable to Microsoft’s position on the ODF issue were Washington-based lobbying groups such as Americans for Tax Reform. ATR is headed by conservative activist Grover Norquist, who was once a registered federal lobbyist for Microsoft and has close ties to the Bush administration.

Norquist told Computerworld that ATR sent two letters to Gov. Mitt Romney, a conservative Republican with presidential aspirations, to share its concerns that the state hadn’t done a cost-benefit analysis on ODF and might violate intellectual property rights if it moved to open-source software.

E-mail records released in mid-October by the U.S. Senate Finance Committee as part of a 600-page report show that Microsoft had paid ATR in the past. The report questions the tax-exempt status of organizations such as ATR and examines its ties to convicted federal lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a longtime Norquist associate. E-mails included in the report indicate that Abramoff channeled money to ATR and other nonprofit groups in return for their advocacy on issues.

According to the report, on March 10, 1996, Abramoff wrote to Bruce Heiman, a colleague at Preston Gates & Ellis LLP, that Microsoft was “supposed to be paying [Norquist] $120k for this year ($10k a month)” and that “these lack of payments are really disgusting.” After receiving a reminder letter from Heiman on March 26, Jack Krumholtz, Microsoft’s managing director of federal government affairs, wrote to Heiman, “A check for $60k was mailed on 3/26; he should have it any day. I forwarded the new invoice to Redmond and it’s been processed.”