Paper - Talent was paid $320,000 for lobbying and teaching work

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Jim Talent, who is running for U.S. Senate against Sen. Jean Carnahan, was paid at least $320,000 last year for lobbying part-time and teaching one class at a university, a newspaper reported.

Talent, who served four terms in the U.S House of Representatives, was paid more than $230,000 in 2001 by Arent Fox Kintner Plotkin and Kahn, a Washington-based law and lobbying firm, The Kansas City Star reported Sunday.

In addition, the 2000 Republican candidate for Missouri governor was paid $90,000 for teaching one class each semester, called "Thinking Like A Congressman," at Washington University in St. Louis, the paper said.

Democrats say the clients Talent lobbied for -- including three with GOP ties -- may expect future favors for keeping Talent financially comfortable while he prepared for another statewide campaign.

"It definitely raises some suspicions," Mike Kelley, executive director of the Missouri Democratic Party, told the paper. "It sends a red flag to anyone on whether this is something to circumvent campaign-finance laws."

Talent, a lawyer who was chairman of the House Small Business Committee, defended his work and pay.

"My understanding is my pay was comparable to what people of my experience get paid in the legal and medical field," Talent said. "I got comparable pay to what people with my credentials get. I solved problems for Missouri clients and added a lot of value to them."

Among Talent's clients at Arent, which he joined on March 12 and resigned from Dec. 31, were UniGroup Inc. of Fenton, which owns two major moving companies; job-training firm Midwest Manufacturing Technology Corp. of St. Louis, and the National Federation of Independent Business.

Richard McClure, executive vice president of UniGroup's financial services unit, was chief of staff for then-Gov. John Ashcroft, a Republican who is now U.S. Attorney General. Midwest is run by former state Rep. Brent Evans, R-Manchester.

The federation, which represents small companies, has endorsed Talent over Carnahan, a Democrat. Talent dealt frequently with the federation when he led the small-business panel.

The Federal Election Commission has ruled that a political candidate's employment must be independent of candidacy, and money a politician earns cannot exceed the amount that would be paid to a similarly qualified person.

In January, Congress Daily, published by the National Journal, called the federation's hiring of Talent "ingenious," because it allowed the group to give Talent more money than it could legally give to his campaign.

That's "totally off base and totally false," said Dan Danner, a senior vice president for public policy for the federation. He said Talent was hired for his expertise on health-insurance issues.

Talent registered as the federation's lobbyist on May 29, 2001, nearly three months before he formed an exploratory committee for a U.S. Senate campaign.