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New Dems Met With Wall St. Execs While Pushing to Weaken Financial Reform

Zachary Roth
January 6, 2010

A group of moderate Democrats held private meetings this fall with executives from Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase, while in the midst of pushing successfully to water down landmark legislation designed to beef up regulation of the financial industry.

In mid October, members of the New Democrat Coalition (NDC), a caucus of pro-business Democrats, traveled to New York City. According to an emailed itinerary for the trip drawn up by an event planner working for the group and obtained by TPMmuckraker, members met on October 12 with executives from Goldman, and the following day with execs from JP Morgan. Sandwiched between those events was a fundraiser for the New Dems, and a meeting with CEOs from Marsh and McLellan Companies, a consulting and insurance firm.

Based on the itinerary, the Goldman meeting was to be attended by Reps. Joe Crowley and Scott Murphy of New York, and Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona. The JP Morgan meeting was to be attended by Reps. Crowley, Murphy, Melissa Bean of Illinois, John Adler of New Jersey, and Jim Himes of Connecticut -- a former Goldman banker. Crowley serves as NDC's chair, and Bean as its vice chair.

According to a Hill aide familiar with the trip, the Wall Street meetings almost certainly didn't appear on any of the members' official schedules, because they were organized through NDC as part of a campaign trip -- hence the fundraiser -- rather than through the members' offices. If that's the case, the public had no way to know they occurred.

A spokeswoman for the NDC declined to comment on the meetings, referring questions to the individual members involved. None of the members named above immediately responded to requests for comment.

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