Hutchison Bows to Lobbyist Against Views of Texans

Former Hutchison chief of staff lobbied for $700 billion Wall Street bailout and delivered for European banking giant

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison defied the will of her constituents when she voted for the $700 billion Wall Street bailout at the same time her former chief of staff was lobbying the U.S. Senate to pass it on behalf of a foreign bank.

On Sept. 30, 2008, Sen. Hutchison told a group of Texans, “My calls were running 2000 to 12 against a bailout plan,” and “I could not give a blank check for $700 billion to anyone. I wouldn't have given it to Ronald Reagan.” The very next day, she voted for the $700 billion Wall Street bailout.

At the same time, according to records from the U.S. Senate’s Lobbying Disclosure Act Database, former Hutchison chief of staff Dick Ribbentrop was lobbying for the bailout on behalf of UBS, a foreign bank. Ribbentrop was Sen. Hutchison’s chief of staff from Sept. 14, 2005, to April 1, 2007.

“It is clear that Senator Hutchison put the interests of her former chief of staff before the people of Texas when she voted for the $700 billion Wall Street bailout,” said Texans for Rick Perry spokesman Mark Miner. “With a checkered ethical past, it is not surprising that Senator Hutchison would follow the lead of lobbyists when making decisions in Washington.”