In October,
Aubrey Sarvis took the helm at the Servicemembers Legal
Defense Network. Will his Rolodex of political and business
bigwigs be enough to overturn “don’t
ask, don’t tell”?
U.S. Army veteran
Aubrey Sarvis has won his share of skirmishes in
Washington. As chief counsel for the Senate Commerce
Committee, he helped push through historic airline
deregulation; as Verizon’s top lobbyist, he
fought for the landmark overhaul of U.S. telecommunications
law. But as the new executive director of
Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, the 63-year-old
South Carolinian could be in for his biggest battle yet.
Do you have what it takes to repeal “don’t
ask, don’t tell”?
The challenge is not unlike my previous experiences. On
the Hill it was about moving legislation and
persuading the president to sign it. It was the same
in the private sector -- bringing before the Congress the
business and practical realities of particular legislation.
Here, we’re faced with bringing before the
Congress the practical realities of a really bad law.
What is your game plan for getting lawmakers’ attention?
Do you expect that the issue will progress differently
with a Democratic-led Congress? We have to go before
the House and Senate Armed Services committees and
make our case. It’s one vote at a time. It’s
sitting down face-to-face and telling our story and making
the case that it was a mistake in 1993 when Congress
passed this law.
What is priority number 1 as you embark on this challenge?
Creating a national political campaign. This is a new
commitment from the board, and it and the staff are
committed to raising the resources to mount this.
It’ll look like a traditional national presidential
campaign: We’ll go to targeted congressional
districts; we’ll focus on targeted states. The
organization has already been doing that, but we have to do
a hell of a lot more.
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