From the K Street Corridor

The New Kid on the GOP Block

31 Jul 1999 // In the past several years, plenty of top aides to House Republican leaders have bolted Capitol Hill for high-paying careers as lobbyists. Edwin A. Buckham, a former chief of staff to House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas, is--finally--starting to do the same. Although he left DeLay's office in November 1997, Buckham has just recently registered to lobby. His first clients are the Enron Corp. and the Nuclear Energy Institute. Enron has retained Buckham to help with the energy deregulation issues on the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. DeLay is a longtime supporter of the Saipan government, which has come under repeated attack by Democrats because of labor practices on the
islands. Buckham is well-acquainted with the Marianas. He accompanied the Majority Whip on a trip there over the Christmas holidays in 1997. Meanwhile, Buckham will lobby for the NEI on nuclear-waste issues.

Since leaving Capitol Hill two years ago, Buckham has done political consulting for DeLay and other House Republicans. He has also worked for ARMPAC, DeLay's leadership political action committee, and the Rely on Your Beliefs Fund, or the RoyB
Fund, the new leadership PAC that House Chief Deputy Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., established in May. All these connections should help Buckham's budding K Street career. But Buckham, who runs his own firm, the Alexander Strategy Group, emphasizes that he expects to spend only about a quarter of his time lobbying.