Clinton aide met on trade deal
Wall Street Journal | April 4, 2008; Page A3
Clinton Aide Met on Trade Deal
Penn Held Talks On Colombia Pact Opposed by Senator
By SUSAN DAVIS
Hillary Clinton’s chief campaign strategist met with Colombia’s ambassador to the U.S. on Monday to discuss a bilateral free-trade agreement, a pact the presidential candidate opposes.
Attendance by the adviser, Mark Penn, was confirmed by two Colombian officials. He wasn’t there in his campaign role, but in his separate job as chief executive of Burson-Marsteller Worldwide, an international communications and lobbying firm. The firm has a contract with the South American nation to promote congressional approval of the trade deal, among other things, according to filings with the Justice Department.
Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates, Mr. Penn’s campaign-consulting firm, received more than $10 million in payments from the Clinton campaign as of the end of February, according to federal election filings.
Mr. Penn declined to comment. Howard Wolfson, communications director for Sen. Clinton’s campaign, said in an email that "Mark was not there on behalf of the campaign" and referred further questions to Burson-Marsteller. "Sen. Clinton’s opposition to the trade deal with Colombia is clear," Mr. Wolfson added.
A Burson-Marsteller spokesman didn’t return calls or emails seeking comment.
A spokesman for Colombia’s President Álvaro Uribe said the ambassador met with Mr. Penn to discuss the bilateral agenda. "There have also been meetings with the advisers to the campaigns of Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain," he said. "It’s the embassy’s job to explain Colombia’s reality."
The spokesman said he didn’t know if Mr. Penn was representing Sen. Clinton or Burson-Marsteller, which signed a $300,000, one-year contract with the Colombian Embassy in March 2007 to work on behalf of the trade deal and anti-drug-trafficking initiatives, according to the Justice Department filings.
A spokesman for Sen. McCain, the likely Republican presidential nominee, said a team of policy advisers met recently with 20 Latin American ambassadors, including Colombia’s. An Obama spokesman and the Colombian Embassy spokeswoman both said the Colombian ambassador had never met with an Obama representative.
Both Democratic presidential candidates have taken criticism for positions and private statements of their advisers on trade and other matters.
Sen. Clinton’s victory last month in Ohio was credited in part to reports that Sen. Obama’s economic adviser had raised doubts with Canadian officials over Sen. Obama’s opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement.
As the fight turns to the April 22 Pennsylvania primary, both Democrats continue to campaign against trade agreements.
"We’ve got to have new trade policies before we have new trade deals," Sen. Clinton told the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO on Tuesday. "That includes no trade deal with Colombia while violence against trade unionists continues in that country."
Sen. Obama also opposes that deal.
The spokeswoman for the Colombian Embassy, Sandra Ocampo Kohn, confirmed Thursday that Mr. Penn met Monday with Ambassador Carolina Barco Isakson, as talks have intensified over passage of the trade deal. Ms. Kohn said she wasn’t authorized to provide details.
President Bush has signaled that he could send the trade deal to Congress next week despite opposition from congressional Democrats and labor unions.
It is unclear how involved Mr. Penn has been in promoting the trade deal. Ms. Kohn said another Burson-Marsteller employee, Jano Cabrera, has been the primary contact with the firm on the communications strategy to promote the trade agreement.
Burson-Marsteller is part of an outside effort working on behalf of the Colombian government that includes Glover Park Group and Johnson, Madigan Peck, Boland & Stewart, both of which are contracted to lobby for Colombia on behalf of the deal, Ms. Kohn said.
Mr. Penn has been scrutinized over the dual roles he holds with his firm and the Clinton campaign. Burson-Marsteller’s contract advising the Colombian government is one of several examples of the firm advising clients on causes Sen. Clinton has opposed.
— José de Córdoba contributed to this article.
Washington Post | Sunday, April 6, 2008; Page A09
Roles Collide: Adviser To Clinton Campaign Loses Job for His Firm
Mark Penn was acting as chief executive of Burson-Marsteller when he met last week with the Colombian ambassador to talk about trade.
By Anne E. Kornblut
Washington Post Staff Writer
EUGENE, Ore., April 5 — The Colombian government fired the public relations firm run by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s chief strategist on Saturday after he tried to distance himself from a meeting he held with the country’s ambassador to the United States.
Mark Penn has walked a tricky tightrope throughout the presidential campaign, serving both as chief executive of Burson-Marsteller and as a top Clinton aide. The two roles collided last week when Penn met with Colombian officials to discuss a pending trade agreement that Colombia desires and the New York Democrat opposes.
After the meeting was made public, Penn, already a controversial figure inside the Clinton campaign, came under attack from labor unions, with some officials calling for the candidate to fire him. Both Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) have said they are against the Colombia Free Trade Agreement.
Penn said in a statement Friday that his sitting down with the Colombians was an "error in judgment." Colombia’s U.S. embassy responded Saturday that the Bogota government "considers this a lack of respect to Colombians, and finds this response unacceptable."
The embassy said Colombia is canceling its $300,000 contract with Burson-Marsteller, although Bogota will continue to seek passage of the trade deal. Penn did not have further comment.
Mo Elleithee, a Clinton spokesman, said Penn had been acting "totally independent from the campaign" when he met with the Colombian ambassador, and was not representing the senator in any way at the time. Clinton "remains steadfast in her opposition" to the Colombia Free Trade Agreement, Elleithee said.
Trade has proved a divisive issue in the Democratic primary campaign and has helped drive the debate in Wisconsin, Ohio and now Pennsylvania. Clinton, whose husband put the North American Free Trade Agreement into place when he was president, criticized Obama several weeks ago after his top economic adviser, Austan Goolsbee, met with Canadian officials and reportedly offered private assurances that Obama would not be as tough on trade as he promised on the campaign trail.
Penn, a longtime Clinton pollster and consultant, did not take a leave of absence from his firm when he took the top job at her campaign. He has repeatedly said that he would delegate most corporate work to others.
