Harold Ford\’s Merrill Lynch Pay Under Scrutiny

This is a tough time to be transitioning from the world of banking to the world of politics, as the latter is gaining plenty of ground from the populist move of decrying the former. Harold Ford, the former Tennessee congressman who is considering challenging Kirsten E. Gillibrand for a New York Senate seat in the Democratic primary, is now under fire for the pay he received in the interval between political jobs, when he worked at Merrill Lynch. The Times cites two sources who said that Ford\’s contract guaranteed him $2 million per year in salary, a significantly higher level of base pay than that of Merrill\’s CEO, Stanley O\’Neal, who took home only $700,000 in base salary in 2007. (Don\’t feel too badly for O\’Neal, however; he netted another $18.5 million in cash and $27 million in restricted stock as his 2007 bonus.)

Even for politicians who\’ve ended their relationships with these former employers, one-time bank affiliation is going to be a hot-button issue for years to come, and no amount of impartiality claims will quench speculation that a politician is a mere shill for his or her former bank. For those considering leaving Wall Street for Capitol Hill, it\’s something that\’s worth keeping in mind.