Daschle’s Flip Flop

Former U.S. Senator Thomas Daschle abruptly resigned from the board of directors of Apollo Management’s business development company, Apollo Investment Corp. (NASDAQ: AINV). The departure comes less than three months after Apollo initially brought Daschle onto the company’s board.

When Daschle’s arrival was first announced in April, a spokesman for the firm was quoted in a Dow Jones story as saying the former Democratic Senate majority leader would be able to bring to the firm a background in government affairs.

Daschle, in addition to his public service, works in the Washington, D.C. office of law firm Alston & Bird, where he servs as a Special Policy Advisor working on public policy issues. According to the initial Apollo statement, his emphasis at Alston & Bird is on financial services, health care, energy, telecommunications, taxes, trade and international matters.

Prior to his short-lived Apollo appointment, Daschle had served the state of South Dakota for more than 25 years, split between the House of Representatives and the Senate. He had co-chaired the Democratic Policy Committee, and served as both the Senate Minority Leader and the Senate Majority Leader, each role starting in 1994 and 2001, respectively.

In a statement, Apollo said that Daschle’s resignation was due to other commitments he had made that prevented him from continuing on as a director.

While Apollo will likely suffer little impact from Daschle’s departure, the BDC has suffered other notable defections. This past May, its founder, Michael Gross, left Apollo to launch his own “blank check” company, Marathon Acquisition Corp. —K.M.