The Fred Files

Thirty years of Fred Thompson lobbying disclosure forms have been unavailable online...until now. NashvillePost.com has some of the files that have had campaign research rats scrambling.

Email | Print By Ken Whitehouse and E. Thomas Wood

Have you heard of the Central States Southeast and Southwest Areas Health and Welfare Pension Fund? What about the American Business Coalition?

Former U.S. Senator and likely Republican presidential contender Fred Thompson has — he used to lobby for these groups and many more.

With Thompson on the cusp of announcing a presidential run, political researchers for both Democratic and Republican candidates, as well as newspaper reporters from Los Angeles to New York, have been scrambling to learn more about ol' Fred.

While much of the work these people do can be done online these days, it's very difficult to find government forms filed in the pre-internet era. While opposition campaigns know about most of Thompson's former clients, we hear they still have been frantically looking for the disclosure forms.

We at NashvillePost.com thought we'd give the research rats, as they are also known, a break.

At the links below are lobbying disclosure forms filed by Thompson beginning in the 1970s and continuing up until he ran for the U.S. Senate in 1994. Lobbying records after he left office are easily available online.

Have you seen the movie Hoffa? No, Thompson wasn't in that movie, but he did lobby for the pension fund that sent former Teamsters Union president and alleged New York Giants stadium hash mark Jimmy Hoffa to jail. Relax, you crazy "fredofiles" — he did so after the federal government took the fund over.

Thompson also lobbied on behalf of the Tennessee Savings and Loan League, before that industry took a beating amid the S&L scandal of the late 1980s.

Ever hear of the Boston engineering firm of Stone and Webster? Thompson served on its board of directors and did legal work for it, as documented in this campaign disclosure form. Although he left the board in 1994, Thompson was accused in shareholder lawsuits of having a conflict of interest because he did the legal work while serving on the board. The firm went bankrupt in 2000 after years of mismanagement.

That disclosure also details the substantial amount Thompson made in fees as a lobbyist for the major law firm Arent, Fox, Kintner, Plotkin & Kahn during the early 1990s. It is known that Arent Fox had numerous foreign lobbying clients at the time, but it is not clear whether Thompson did any work for those clients.

The client Thompson worked with the longest, for more than ten years, was Westinghouse Electric, which was renamed the CBS Corp. in 1997 and then purchased by Viacom in 1999.

From aircraft engine manufacturers to nuclear power plant builders, Thompson has represented them all. Take a look:

• Westinghouse Electric Corp.
• Central States Pension Fund of Teamsters
• Tennessee Savings and Loan League
• American Business Coalition
• Cable America/U.S. Cablesystems
• G.E. Aircraft Engines