Dem senator used to bash lobbyists. Now they're feting him at exclusive D.C. fundraisers.

WASHINGTON — Just before Democrat Bob Casey entered the U.S. Senate a political generation ago, he railed at his incumbent Republican opponent, Rick Santorum, for selling himself out to lobbyists.

“You’ve been the Senate liaison to K Street, which is a mess, which is a place of corruption and influence peddling,” Casey said in a 2006 debate with Santorum. “And you spend a lot of time on K Street and you’ve been spending a lot of time with people that practice the politics of influence peddling on K Street.”

Fast forward to the present and Casey finds himself preparing for a closely-watched — and expensive — election battle against wealthy former hedge fund CEO David McCormick.

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Casey’s campaign has scheduled expensive fundraisers hosted by influential lobbyists whose numerous clients run the gamut from Amazon.com to Pfizer to SeaWorld.

On Tuesday, members of Van Scoyoc Associates will serve as hosts for a dinner to benefit Casey’s campaign. The price is $1,000 to $5,000, according to an invitation obtained by Raw Story. Founder Stu Van Scoyoc and lobbyists Jennifer LaTourette and Chad Schulken are among the named hosts.

“While other firms have come and gone, for more than 25 years, Van Scoyoc Associates (VSA) has consistently succeeded on behalf of its clients by successfully anticipating, navigating, and harnessing the change in Washington,” it says on the firm’s website.

Van Scoyoc Associates clients include defense contractors Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics, the University of Alabama and University of Utah and a variety of municipal governments and local governmental entities, from the city of Modesto, Calif., to Fort Myers, Fla., according to federal lobbying records compiled by nonprofit research group OpenSecrets.

The next day, Steve Elmendorf and Jimmy Ryan, partners and co-founders of the lobbying firm Subject Matter, are among the hosts for a lunch with Casey that costs $1,000 to $3,300.

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“Creative advocacy that changes minds,” a headline says on Subject Matter’s website.

Among Subject Matter’s several dozen lobbying clients: the American Gaming Association, aviation and defense giant Boeing, Capital One Financial, Goldman Sachs, Facebook parent Meta, Molson Coors Brewing, Verizon Communications and college sports’ Big Ten Conference, per federal lobbying records.

Asked by Raw Story if he had changed over time in the Senate, Casey said his criticism of Santorum focused on the bygone K Street Project, which involved a formal process for lobbyists to gain access to Republican leaders based on donations and hiring Republican staff members. Those lobbyists would then be pressured to influence Congress on certain issues.

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“When I was critical with him, it was regarding what was happening in those days where lobbyists were being pressured to contribute to the K Street Project, which is now defunct,” Casey told Raw Story this week while walking through the U.S. Capitol. “Look, I take contributions from across the board. When they contribute, that’s the end of the story. They don’t get anything for it.”

Casey is a three-term incumbent. In a recent fundraising appeal, he told donors it will take a lot of money to win.

"With the presidential race at the top of the ticket in 2024, Pennsylvania will be a key battleground and could see more political spending than any other state," Casey said. "Plus, we know this opponent could self-fund this race and outspend us — on top of the immense super PAC and national Republican establishment support Mitch McConnell has promised him."

McCormick is making his second bid for the U.S. Senate in as many years, having lost the Republican nomination in 2022 to Mehmet Oz, who in turn lost the general election to Democrat John Fetterman.

“My opponent was born to run for political office,” McCormick said when announcing his candidacy last month. “I was born to shake things up. … That’s why I refuse to let things stay the way they are in Washington. Congress is broken. I’m the only candidate in this race that can change Washington.”