VP pick Biden’s son was a CNMI lobbyist

Sen. Joseph Biden (D-DE), the newly named running mate of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (IL), has family ties—sort of—to the CNMI: His son, R. Hunter Biden, served as a lobbyist for Gov. Benigno Fitial’s administration on the minimum wage and immigration issues.

R. Hunter Biden is a founding partner of Oldaker, Biden and Belair, the Washington, D.C., firm the Fitial administration hired in 2007 at a cost of $90,000 to lobby Capitol Hill.

According to news reports, R. Hunter Biden is the son of Sen. Biden, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and previously chaired the Judiciary Committee.

As a lobbyist for the CNMI, R. Hunter Biden was barred under the terms of a contract from seeking legislative support from his own father, yet some recent media reports suggest Sen. Biden’s influence was at other times a major asset to his son’s business.

News Obama had selected Biden as his vice presidential pick leaked to the media late Friday and the campaign later confirmed it in a flurry of text messages to supporters. Political observers say the addition of Biden, a veteran senator, to the Democratic presidential ticket could give Obama cover against criticism that he lacks political experience.

However, R. Hunter Biden’s political dealings could prove a liability for his father, who has long stood out as an opponent of special interest groups.

Mainland newspapers have already noted, for example, that at the time Biden was working with the credit card industry to win passage of legislation establishing stricter criteria for consumers to file for bankruptcy protection, his son was serving as a consultant to the MBNA Corp., one of the companies vying to see the changes enacted and a contributor to Biden’s 2004 campaign.

Responding to these reports, Obama campaign staff have said Sen. Biden’s work on the bankruptcy bill was never influenced by his son, according to the New York Times, and Biden’s son has declined to comment.

President Bush earlier this year signed legislation establishing federal authority over local immigration rules despite efforts to prevent the bill from passing. Business leaders have said the new regulations, now being crafted by the Department of Homeland Security, could prove damaging to the local economy. Proponents of “federalization,” however, contend it will safeguard foreign workers against abuse.

Prior to signing the lobbying deal with Biden’s firm, the CNMI’s efforts to sway Washington politics were led by Jack Abramoff, who is now serving a sentence in a minimum-security federal prison in Maryland on fraud and corruption charges.