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In advance of your meeting with Peter Rogoff, there are a couple of very important things that we think you should be doing in the immediate to get the best outcome out for this meeting.

First, it is vitally important that you spend time identifying a Congressional champion (if not more than one) that would be willing to weigh in directly on your behalf to DOT and/or the White House. This will involve CAF going up to the Hill and meeting directly with members or hiring a lobbyist who can do so. At the very least, you should be in contact with Senators Schumer, Gillibrand and Menendez. For the NY members, the message to deliver is that jobs will be lost in New York State due to the cancelation of this project. It needs to be made clear to them that while there is a chance another NY State firm may win the contract in a re-bid, there is just as good a chance that Siemens or another firm with out of state facilities will win a re-bid of the contract. For Menendez, the message should be slightly different. Menendez has taken on the role of Chairman of the U.S. Spain Council and is very interested in making sure that Spanish firms are treated fairly. As Chair of the DSCC he also would be persuaded that any re-bid of the contract will delay stimulus dollars going out and cause job loss in the immediate. Senator Lautenberg could also be helpful. Keep in mind though that while Senator Lautenberg is influential on transit issues, he and Menendez are not close and you really do need to reach out to both separately. Menendez is also closer to Schumer and in a position of leadership. FInally, we would identify influential suppliers that could lose jobs and reach out to the members that represent them. You mentioned some of the supplier jobs may be in Maryland. If they are in Steny Hoyer's district, Majority Leader Hoyer could be a great champion and someone that DOT or the White House may listen to. There may be other influential members of Congress with a connection to CAF through a supplier relationship as well. Finally, while he is a lame duck Governor, you may want to see if Governor Paterson would write a letter or weigh in on your behalf. The fact that he would do so in concert with the help of the NY Senators would send a powerful message to DOT.

In concert with the PR strategy Hilary and her team are putting together, I know that they have some suggestions for a lobbyist that you might want to hire. Between us, Hilary and that lobbyist, we can help you narrow the target list of members to reach out to, but it needs to be done quickly. In order to get directly to some of these members quickly, you may need the extra help on the lobbying front. You are finally getting your message out on the PR front, you now need to get it out to the politicians who will have a real ability to weigh in on your behalf.

Second, we wanted to make sure that you have a good strategy for what you are going to ask for in the meeting with Rogoff. Obviously, the main ask is that they just focus on the two cars and separate that out from the larger order so that there is no need to re-open the bid. However, should Rogoff not agree to do that, is there something that he could do that would at least be beneficial for CAF going forward? For example, would he publicly make it clear that CAF did nothing wrong and the fault lies completely with Houston Metro. It is worth thinking about how to get what you want out of Rogoff while at the same time allowing him to save face and not look like he is backtracking publicly.

Ultimately, Rogoff will only change his mind on this if he is persuaded by your arguments, has a way out that doesn't make him look bad and sees that there is enough political interest in this to find a way out. The two points above will go a long way to making sure that you get a chance to change his mind.


Eric D. Schwerin
Rosemont Seneca Partners, LLC
1010 Wisconsin Ave., NW
Suite 705
Washington, DC 20007
(202) 333-1880
eschwerin@rosemontseneca.com
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