Navigating WashingtonSat. Aug 2, 2008 by Julie KosterlitzIf the cruise industry needs lobbying help, it never has to look far. The Cruise Lines International Association shares offices in Arlington, Va., with lobbying firm Alcalde & Fay, and the two have something of a symbiotic relationship.The firm represented the International Council of Cruise Lines for more than two decades, and since that group's 2006 merger with the Cruise Lines International Association, Alcalde & Fay has represented CLIA. The association and the firm "have had a very good relationship over many years," said CLIA Executive Vice President Michael Crye, who formerly headed the ICCL.The cruise-industry association is Alcalde & Fay's largest client; in 2007 the trade association paid the firm nearly $1.2 million--four times as much as the next largest client. One of the firm's partners, Cynthia Colenda, who is the daughter of name partner Hector Alcalde, ran the ICCL for five years in the 1990s and still lobbies for CLIA. She also founded and continues to head an industry-affiliated charity, the Cruise Industry Charitable Foundation.In addition, for the past three election cycles, top executives of Carnival and Royal Caribbean, partners at Alcalde & Fay, and some of their spouses have been the sole contributors to the unaffiliated American Freedom political action committee, which doled out $80,000 to federal candidates before closing its doors earlier this year.Alcalde & Fay did not respond to a request for a comment.These contributions came on top of those made by industry PACs, which have doled out, on average, just under $200,000 per election cycle over the past decade (through mid-2008), according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics. Royal Caribbean Cruises Chairman and CEO Richard Fain and his wife have also made $367,700 in other political contributions from 2003 through the first quarter of this year. Micky Arison, chairman and CEO of Carnival (which owns Carnival Cruise Lines), and his wife contributed $261,600 over the same period.The cruise industry also sought to acquire goodwill with contributions from its charity, which totaled almost $2.6 million from 2002 through 2006. The charity's top recipients in 2006, the most recent year for which records are available, included the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, which each received $35,000; and the Congressional Hispanic Leadership Institute, which got $25,000. The Coast Guard Foundation received $10,000.Other recipients included medical charities, small local groups serving disadvantaged children, and local environmental groups; most of these groups were located in states where the industry does business.
