Source: Politics<\/p>\n
Ivan Adler is nothing if not self-aware. Sitting down at an Irish gastro pub located just a few miles outside Washington, D.C.\u2019s confines, he wore a black and white T-shirt that got straight to the point:<\/p>\n
\u201clob\u2022by\u2022ist
[lob-ee-ist]
-noun
a friend with benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adler, 56, is not in fact a lobbyist. But his job shares some key similarities. He is a recruiter \u2014 one of the top in D.C. \u2014 who specializes in plucking lawmakers and staffers off the Hill or elsewhere in government and placing them into jobs on K Street, whether it be trade associations, corporations, law practices or lobbying firms. <\/p>\n
The president of the boutique shop Ivan Adler Associates, he calls himself \u201cThe Lobbyist Hunter.\u201d His eponymous firm specializes in matching government relations and public affairs professionals with gigs on \u201cK Street….and beyond.\u201d His task is to convince the idealists who descended on the nation\u2019s capital to become public servants that the lifestyle of influence peddling is more laid back and certainly more lucrative. He maintains that \u201cnobody has a gun to their head,\u201d but he is, effectively, the doorman for the revolving door.<\/p>\n
\u201cGuilty as charged,\u201d he told POLITICO over lunch at one of his regular haunts, having warned that his voice may be a bit \u201cgrowly\u201d due to the Red Sox and Patriots games the weekend prior. Like most things with Adler, there was little formality, even for a profile piece. He showed up dressed as if he was meeting an old friend, donning a pair of cargo shorts and a cap with his own name on it.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomebody\u2019s gotta do it. It might as well be me,\u201d he said. \u201cI used to laugh when I walk into, like, the bar in Capital Grille, and there were people that know me and are working with me to find a job that, like, don\u2019t wave at me or talk to me when I\u2019m there because they don\u2019t want other people there to know that they\u2019re looking.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI love it, it\u2019s great,\u201d Adler added. \u201cI get a huge kick out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are other lobbyist recruiters in Washington, but few if any do it with as much bravado as Adler. His name is well-known among lawmakers who are leaving their posts on the Hill for jobs in the private sector. He\u2019s a regular at the city\u2019s cocktail circuit, where he knows how to work a room. He\u2019s so plugged in, he says, that he is sometimes among the first to know a member of Congress is contemplating whether or not to seek reelection. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s part of the swamp, right? He\u2019s part of the, he\u2019s part of the crew,\u201d said Ivan Zapien, a partner and lobbyist at Hogan Lovells. He called Adler a personal \u201ccareer rabbi\u201d who helped him land at his current firm. The two used to grab lunches at the Palm while Zapien was a Democratic Hill staffer, and chat about his potential exit. Adler, he maintained, does not convince people to leave the Hill; rather, he \u201cfacilitates\u201d their departure.<\/p>\n
Adler claims to be well compensated for this work, though it\u2019s tough to tell. With about six or so hires each year, Adler says he makes a usual rate of 25 percent of the job candidate\u2019s annual salary (paid by the hiring organization). Beyond his schlubby appearance, his modest two-bedroom apartment suggests he lives a lifestyle more akin to the Hill aides he tries to lure to K Street than a K Street denizen himself. There was, what appeared to be, a lone red solo cup on his coffee table and some flowers in a Tito\u2019s handle on his countertop, beside a sign that reads: \u201cAlcohol because no great story ever started with someone eating a salad.\u201d<\/p>\n
It can be difficult at times to figure out where the projection ends and the reality begins. Adler is a perpetual name dropper. He referred to Sheldon Adelson, the deceased Republican mega-donor, as \u201cShelly,\u201d and boasted of a client list that includes dozens members of Congress. And yet, lawmakers who responded to requests for comment from POLITICO did confirm many of his assertions. The list of congressional alums whom he has advised or placed at firms include former Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.) and former Reps. Albert Wynn (D-Md.) and James T. Walsh (R-N.Y.), among others. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of people that stay 20 years, and they retire. My argument is, what are these people supposed to do?\u201d Adler asked. \u201cDo you expect them to go and do something, do you want to force them to do something else? I mean that\u2019s just what, it\u2019s just their job. That\u2019s how I think about it. I don\u2019t look at it as unethical.\u201d<\/p>\n
All of this makes Adler a rather unique Washington character. At a time when most people shun the This Town persona, he plays it up. He is an unapologetic purveyor of the revolving door between the Hill and K Street, itself among the most controversial but everlasting elements of Washington\u2019s dark underbelly. To many observers, it\u2019s everything that\u2019s wrong with politics: a constant flow of personnel from posts where they make laws to ones where they try to change or take advantage of the laws they helped craft. But to Adler, it\u2019s been a woefully misunderstood opportunity.<\/p>\n