Former Gov. returns to Ballard Spahr, which received $21 million from state since ’02
Philadelphia has been called “the biggest small town in America”, primarily because of the close personal ties in the city’s upper crust. And Ed Rendell is the perfect example.
Less than a week after leaving the governor’s mansion, Mr. Rendell landed a position at the politically-wired Philadelphia-based Ballard Spahr law firm. The national firm – by Mr. Rendell’s own admission – paid him $252,000 in 2002 for doing very little. That was the year Mr. Rendell successfully campaigned for his first term as governor.
Former Gov. Ed Rendell
Mr. Rendell also said in 2002 it would not be proper for him to return to Ballard Spahr when his term of office ended, because of the potential appearance of conflict of interest.
Ballard Spahr was paid more than $21 million in taxpayer funds from the state treasury during Mr. Rendell’s eight years as governor. That figure does not include commissions for bond work and other payments that did not go through the state treasurer’s office.
Mr. Rendell recently recently the delegation of state legal work to various firms was decided by his chief counsel, Barbara Adams.
Almost simultaneously, Mr. Rendell signed on to be a political commentator for NBC. Philadelphia-based Comcast Corp. was cleared by the Obama Administration to purchase NBC Universal on the day Mr. Rendell left office.
As governor, Mr. Rendell played a major role in getting $33 million in tax funds to guarantee Comcast would build its skyscraper headquarters in Philadelphia.
The Comcast deal for NBC is expected to be closed by the end of the month with Comcast owning 51 percent and former majority owner General Electric (GE) holding 49 percent. It will be the first time a cable provider has owned a national network.
Comcast will pay $6.5 billion cash to GE. Comcast will also contribute $7.5 billion in programming including regional sports networks and cable channels such as Golf Channel and E! Entertainment Television.
David Cohen, who was Mr. Rendell’s Chief of Staff when Mr. Rendell was mayor of Philadelphia is executive vice president of Comcast. Mr. Rendell’s former gubernatorial chief of staff, John Estey, is a partner at Ballard Spahr, where he is a co-chair of the Government Relations and Regulatory Affairs Group.
Mr. Rendell has worked for several years on Comcast Sports Network doing analysis of Philadelphia Eagles football games. He has also been a frequent guest as governor on NBC and MSNBC news programs and talk shows.
Friday, President Obama named General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt as head of a new White House board aimed at boosting the economy’s sluggish job growth, just after the GE-Comcast deal was approved.
