Dutko Worldwide, listed by Political Moneyline as the sixth-largest lobbying firm in the nation's capital for the first half of 2004, will represent Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and the state in the fight to block a proposed high-level nuclear waste storage site in Utah.
Utah will join a list of about 140 current Dutko clients, from Harley Davidson to the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Dutko lobbyist Bill Simmons, an ex-staffer for former U.S. Rep. Jim Hansen, says the firm and its 57 lobbyists are uniquely positioned to represent Utah's interests.
"We have unique expertise nobody else has," Simmons said, noting he was in Hansen's meeting with members of the Skull Valley band of Goshutes representatives when they first pitched the idea of a radioactive waste landfill on their Tooele County reservation in the early 1990s.
Dutko represents Vermont, North Dakota, Los Angeles County, the Western Governors Association and the Western Governors University. Many of its lobbyists are former congressional staffers. By number of clients, nuclear and energy issues are ranked fourth among Dutko's lobbying issues by the Center for Public Integrity.
When Huntsman took office in January, he closed the state's long-time Washington office. Then in March, the governor's office requested proposals from lobbying firms interested in representing the state - one for public lands and water rights issues, another for transportation and a third for companies that focus on high-level nuclear waste. Dutko is the first firm to be hired.
"We determined the nuclear issues had the most immediate need," said Tammy Kikuchi, Huntsman's spokeswoman. "As the other issues become hot, we'll go ahead and select a lobbyist for those."
In an open-ended contract, Dutko will be paid $7,500 a month - $90,000 annually - plus pre-approved expenses. Simmons expects expenses to be minimal. The state will pay about the same amount Sandy City paid the company for its lobbying contract in 2004, according to the Center for Public Integrity.
The nonprofit, nonpartisan research group reports Dutko's 2004 lobbying contracts totalled $9 million last year. Since 1998, the company has represented more than 250 clients. Besides local and state governments, Dutko lobbies for telecommunications giants AT&T and Sprint, Union Pacific Corp. and several energy and oil companies, including BP Amoco and CITGO Petroleum Corp. Simmons said a Dutko internal conflict of interest check found no clients that will undermine his responsibility to represent Utah in the fight to keep a consortium of energy companies from building a nuclear waste site on the Goshutes' reservation.
Environmental activist Jason Groenewold is waiting to see how Dutko does with the complex job. "The nuclear industry has been working the halls of Congress for a long time," he said. "It's imperative that we have people in Washington working on Utah's behalf. At this point, we need someone full-time. We're under the gun."
Huntsman's decision to close the Washington office earlier this year was controversial. For more than 20 years, Utah had an office in the nation's capital. Governors from Scott Matheson to Olene Walker had set aside money to staff an office responsible for the state's lobbying and politicking on Capitol Hill. Huntsman pitched the closure as a way to save money - the Washington office space and two staff salaries cost the state $230,000 a year - and fine-tune lobbying efforts. A former diplomat, he said he could handle some of the work himself.
"It's a more focused approach rather than an everything approach," Kikuchi said.
Joanne Neumann, the former director of Utah's office, says Huntsman had the right to change things. "We thought it was important to have a Washington office. But each administration comes in and does it their own way," Neumann said. "Hopefully, this new approach will work for them."
