The Wall Street Journal, Jackie Calmes, 8/4/2008

Rather than circle through Washington’s oft-criticized revolving door between lobbying and working for public officials, Doug Davenport is apparently keeping his regular job as a founding lobbyist at DCI Group and his new gig as campaign manager for mid-Atlantic states for Sen. John McCain, the Republican nominee-to-be.

A McCain campaign spokeswoman told the Journal that Davenport, who isn’t yet paid by the campaign, likely would take a leave of absence from his firm; Davenport didn’t return a call. But a leave isn’t exactly what DCI President Jim Murphy described in an email to employees last week announcing Davenport’s role with McCain.

“While this new, full-time position will require him to take a leave of absence from the DCI Group partnership, we are fortunate that he will remain professionally affiliated with us as a senior consultant, assisting us with our portfolio clients and special projects,” Murphy wrote. He added: “Doug will still maintain an office here.”

Word of Davenport’s dual roles surfaces just as news of Mark Penn’s ouster as Sen. Hillary Clinton’s longtime chief strategist has underscored the pitfalls of mixing campaign and lobbying work. The Democratic presidential candidate demoted Penn Sunday, after the Journal disclosed that he had met with Colombia’s U.S. ambassador in his separate capacity as chief executive of Burson-Marsteller Worldwide, which is helping Colombia win Congress’s approval of a trade pact that Clinton—and U.S. unions–oppose. McCain, like Clinton and rival Democratic Sen. Barack Obama all have been vocal critics of lobbying.

Davenport heads the lobbying practice at DCI. The firm’s expertise is on issues of transportation, homeland security, telecommunications, health care, energy, tax, appropriations and emerging technologies, according to its web site. Many of those issues come before the Senate Commerce Committee, where McCain is a senior member and former chairman.

UPDATE, 6:41 p.m.: While calls to DCI Group weren’t returned, the McCain campaign has sent along an email from Davenport saying he won’t be consulting for the company. The email also confirms he has taken a full leave from the firm without pay, effective last week, on April 1; he also has given up his owner equity, and has begun deregistering as a lobbyist.

Correcting the DCI president’s April 2 email to employees, it adds, “At the time of Mr. Murphy’s email, the company had hoped to keep Davenport on as an internal consultant—as he has been with the firm for 8 years—to provide historical background info on the projects he had worked on. At Mr. Davenport’s request, he will not have any on-going consultant relationship with DCI Group.”