But a devastating new CNN report reveals that Bayh was likely selling access to donors as he was voting on key issues that those very same donors sought to influence.
According to the report, Bayh’s political fundraiser was often present in his official Senate office while those conversations took place, raising even more questions about the ethics and legality of those meetings.
Bayh appears to have put his office up for sale so he could bank big donations from influential industry insiders – as if it wasn’t already obvious that Bayh used his political influence to help himself instead of helping Hoosier families.
See the key details of the report below:
His internal 2009 schedule — obtained by CNN — shows how he maneuvered behind the scenes during one of the most consequential periods of legislating on Capitol Hill.
The schedule provides a rare account of how Bayh privately engaged with fundraisers, lobbyists and donors who had a keen interest on the issues dominating Capitol Hill. At times, his own campaign fundraiser was sitting in on his meetings with donors in his official Senate office, the schedule says, raising potential conflict-of-interest concerns.
The schedule lays bare a reality of Washington: Well-connected donors often get a private audience with a powerful member of Congress, a luxury most Americans can’t afford.
"At a minimum, the meetings raise questions about buying access, and they raise questions about selling influence," said Brendan Fischer, associate counsel at the non-partisan Campaign Legal Center, a group that calls for stricter campaign finance rules.
Aides to Bayh told CNN there was nothing untoward. They said the then-senator’s office had created strict firewalls between official and political action. And the campaign cast doubt on the accuracy of the schedule, but did not dispute its authenticity or deny that any of the meetings took place.
According to the schedule, it appeared that lines were potentially blurred.
In his office in the Senate Russell Building in 2009, Bayh repeatedly met with donors for the health insurance and pharmaceutical sectors who were trying to shape the health care bill that was steamrolling through Congress at the time, according to the schedule. He met with donors of the medical device industry just as he was championing a reduction in the tax on that sector. Those meetings at times occurred shortly after the donor held a fundraiser for the senator or contributed to Bayh’s campaign account.
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In 2009, as Bayh was still considering running for reelection, his top fundraiser, Nancy Jacobson, attended a number of meetings with donors in Bayh’s office, even though she was not part of his official staff. She even made recommendations for Bayh to call donors who were pushing issues on the Hill, the schedule says.
A day before Bayh cast a deciding vote on Obamacare in late December, Jacobson recommended that he place a call to a UCLA doctors group and Bill Powers, a man who donated $10,000 to his campaign in 2005 and 2006, respectively. The call, according to the schedule, was supposed to take place at his office or his residence.
Powers, who also hosted a fundraiser in the tony Los Angeles neighborhood of Manhattan Beach in April 2009, declined to comment to CNN. Bayh and Powers were friends from their school days, according to the campaign.
In May 2009, private equity consultant Ralph Isham met with Bayh in his Russell office. Isham had donated $20,000 to Bayh between 2005 and 2008, and had attended an October fundraiser dinner for the senator. Jacobson was listed as staff for the May meeting and the fundraiser. Isham did not respond to a phone call seeking comment, but the campaign said the senator and donor were long-time friends.
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But Fischer, the attorney with the Campaign Legal Center, said that the fact that a senator’s top fundraiser attended such meetings may have implicitly pressured donors to consider opening up their pocket books.
"It’s reasonable to question whether there was at least implicit fundraising solicitations by virtue of his fundraiser being present at these meetings," Fischer said.
There were other scheduled meetings as well.
Jacobson, Bayh’s top fundraiser, attended a Senate meeting on December 10, 2009, with Bob Beizer, who worked at Gray Television, which owns a local television station in South Bend, Indiana. (Beizer contributed $12,500 to Bayh’s campaign accounts between 2005 and 2009, while the schedule noted that he attended a January fundraiser for Bayh that year.)
Beizer had a long time personal relationship with Bayh, according to the campaign, but couldn’t could be reached for comment.
A managing partner at a New York investment firm, Glenn Fuhrman, also attended an October 2009 meeting with Bayh after joining a fundraiser for the Democrat that year. Jacobson attended both events, the schedule said, while Fuhrman did not return a phone call seeking comment.
And Jacobson also was listed as a guest for a meeting on U.S.-Chinese relations in Bayh’s office with Donald Tang, a former Bear Stearns who cut the senator a check for $1,000 in 2005. Reached for comment, Tang recalled meeting with Bayh but not the specifics.