Do Hedge Funds Have Chuck Schumer in Their Back Pockets?

That’s basically the contention of Washington Examiner columnist Timothy Carney, who pins his thesis on a former Schumer staffer who went on to lobby for the hedge fund and private equity industries.

Three years ago, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., leaned on hedge funds to lobby more. The funds soon hired his banking staffer as a lobbyist. She began raising money for Schumer. Now he's championing financial regulation that would benefit these hedge funds. "Racket" might be the right word here.

Carney says all the lobbying paid off because new financial regulations making their way through Congress just serve to fill the coffers of larger hedge funds at the expense of big banks and smaller funds. He argues new laws forcing all hedge funds to register with the SEC will only hobble the smaller firms who can’t afford to comply. Competition will be further eroded, Carney says, if banks are banned from operating their own hedge funds. (He neglected to mention that lobbying didn’t really do too much for private equity firms who are steaming over proposed tax hikes on carried interest.)

But how did Schumer benefit from his January 2007 meeting with the hedgies? How does Schumer always benefit? Fundraising. Democrats in 2008 brought in $11.7 million from hedge funds, nearly twice the GOP haul.

Schumer’s Racket: Lobbyists and Hedge Funds [Washington Examiner]