WASHINGTON - Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu's realtor husband has some high-profile clients, including two of her former Louisiana congressional colleagues who now lobby for a living. The real estate activities of Frank Snellings, Landrieu's husband of nearly 25 years, are drawing criticism from the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, which sees a potential conflict of interest. But Melanie Sloan,...
WASHINGTON - Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu's realtor husband has some high-profile clients, including two of her former Louisiana congressional colleagues who now lobby for a living.
The real estate activities of Frank Snellings, Landrieu's husband of nearly 25 years, are drawing criticism from the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, which sees a potential conflict of interest.
But Melanie Sloan, head of the Washington ethics watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said she sees no ethical issue -- given that the Senate Ethics Committee allows members' spouses to take almost any job they want, including lobbying, as long as they don't influence their spouses on behalf of clients.
Sloan is far from a Landrieu apologist. In 2010, Sloan included Democrat Landrieu -- and her Louisiana colleague Republican David Vitter -- on a list of the 26 most corrupt members of Congress. Landrieu was included in the dubious group for allegedly seeking campaign donations from a Texas education company in 2001 just a few days after securing the firm a $2 million earmark.
Landrieu staffers said CREW had the facts wrong. She began seeking money for the firm months before the fundraiser, she said, and only after Washington, D.C., officials had asked for the funds to improve student reading scores.
An examination of a Washington real estate data base shows that Snellings, a former Monroe, La., lawyer, has influential real estate clients at his Capitol Hill realty office. But it also shows a diversified list of clients, some with no apparent political connections.
In 2006, Snellings helped former Louisiana Sen. John Breaux sell his Capitol Hill townhouse for $723,000 and buy a downtown Washington condo for $630,000 shortly thereafter. Breaux is now a lobbyist with Patton-Boggs, the giant firm headed by Tommy Boggs, son of the late Hale and Lindy Boggs.
"I knew Frank long before they were married and he was the only real estate person in D.C. that we knew," Breaux said via email. "He did a great job for us."
Richard Zuschlag, CEO of Acadian Ambulance Services, who donates generously to candidates of both parties, including $5,000 to Landrieu and $1,000 to her now GOP Senate opponent, Rep. Bill Cassidy -- before he entered the race -- arranged in 2006 for Snellings to help him buy an apartment in Washington, near the vice president's official residence. Five years later, Snellings worked as Zuschlag's agent to sell the apartment.
Former Rep. Chris John, D-Lafayette, now president of the Mid Continent Oil and Gas Association in Lafayette, an advocacy group, used Snellings' services to sell his Capitol Hill apartment in 2007.
Melissa Maxfield, a lobbyist for Comcast, chose Snellings to help her buy a Washington home in 2006 for $670,000. Maxfield has hosted some crawfish fundraisers for Landrieu.
Also buying a house with Snellings as the agent was Jeffrey Bjornstad, a former top aide to Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who also now works as a lobbyist.
Snellings also helped Thomas Hoenig, vice chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., purchase a home in 2007.
Each transaction brings Snellings a commission, usually 3 percent of the sale price, though it's not clear how much of it goes to his real estate firm, Coldwell Banker.
Snellings is now selling a $1.8 million Capitol Hill townhouse for Tony Podesta, one of Washington's best known lobbyists with clients that include BP and Lockheed Martin.
Podesta said it was Snellings who helped him find the townhouse, and that he chose him because he has known him for years, likes him and respects his real estate skills.
Podesta said he never mentioned his clients' legislative interest to Snellings, or lobbied Landrieu, a member of the Senate Energy Committee and chairwoman of the Senate Homeland Security appropriations subcommittee, on behalf of BP or Lockheed Martin.
Sloan, executive director of CREW, the liberal ethics watchdog group, said she doesn't see evidence of the possible ethical lapses raised by some Republicans regarding Landrieu's husband's real estate work.
Washington is a pretty insular place, and Sloan said lobbyists and others using Landrieu's husband for real estate transactions probably got to know him through the city's frequent political events.
"So, when they are looking for an agent, they probably say, why not help Mary Landrieu's husband?" Sloan said. Unless there's a quid pro quo for Landrieu to help Snellings' clients -- and there's no evidence to suggest that -- Sloan said there's no ethical issue.
Even real estate agents not married to a member of Congress are likely to get some political types and lobbyists as clients because Washington is basically a one-employer town centered around the federal government, the Huffington Post wrote Friday in discussing Snellings' clients.
The National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, which has made Landrieu a top target for the 2014 elections, is calling the disclosures about Snellings' real estate clients a scandal. "We hope that Mary Landrieu's Senate office isn't for sale to the highest bidder, but it appears as though lobbyists with business before Mary Landrieu have found a way to potentially channel hundreds of thousands of dollars to her through these questionable real estate deals," said NRSC spokeswoman Brook Hougesen.