AT&T Chief Who Gives Republican May Need Democrats for Deal

Lee Drutman was quoted in Bloomberg about the approval process of the AT&T-Time Warner merger:

Now, AT&T needs Washington’s approval for its proposed purchase of Time Warner Inc. With the regulatory review expected to extend into next year and Hillary Clinton leading in polls, the fate of the $85.4 billion deal could lie with Democrats she appoints as agency leaders.

“If a CEO needs Democrats’ help on an issue, it would be pretty stupid to fund Republicans by a 281-to-1 margin,” Lee Drutman, a senior fellow in the political reform program at the New America policy group, said in an e-mail.