Lobbyists Help Save General Dynamics's Seawolf Sub

The Washington lobbying firm of Cassidy and Associates Inc. is a comer as far as Getting the Job Done in the defense business.

Falls Church-based defense giant General Dynamics Corp. hired Cassidy in March 1992 to help with a crisis -- the Pentagon wanted to stop buying Seawolf submarines, built at the company's shipyard in Connecticut.

Cassidy and its sister public relations firm, Powell Tate, swung into action. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii), the powerful chairman of the defense appropriations subcommittee, emerged as a key ally. Inouye supported the Seawolf at several key points during the legislative process, including making speeches in its support.

Several sources in the local defense lobbying community suggested that Inouye may have been influenced by one of Cassidy's associates, Henry K. Giugni, who is a former aide of Inouye's. Giugni, a former Honolulu police officer, was Inouye's administrative assistant for 23 years before serving as the Senate's sergeant-at-arms from 1986 to 1990.

A Washington lobbyist said Cassidy employees had boasted that Giugni "can deliver" Inouye, and by extension the appropriations committee, on the Seawolf.

Washington lobbying insiders say Giugni's main strength as a lobbyist is his closeness to Inouye. "He's a door opener," a defense industry executive said.

Cassidy also was hired in June by McDonnell Douglas Corp. to win support for its troubled C-17 cargo jet. A month later, Inouye wrote Defense Secretary Les Aspin that company and Air Force representatives assured him that the plane's problems "have been resolved." His letter also echoed the firm's line that the Pentagon should not cut its purchase of 120 C-17s.

Inouye's spokeswoman, Heidi Umbhau, said that the lawmaker has supported the Seawolf and the C-17 "for a long time," and that Giugni has nothing to do with Inouye's support.

Jerry Ray, a Powell Tate spokesman, said the Cassidy firm worked hard on the two lobbying efforts, assigning 30 people who, among other things, contacted 500 members of Congress.

"Henry's an important and integral member of both teams," Ray said. "He knows the Senate backwards and forwards." Ray said Giugni declined to comment.

Earlier this year, a federal judge sentenced Giugni to a year's probation for violating a conflict-of-interest law. In the 1980s, Giugni recommended that the Capitol Police, which he oversaw as sergeant-at-arms, buy an AT&T phone network -- after Giugni had accepted a $2,700 round-trip airline ticket to Hawaii from the firm.

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