I don't have a dog in this fight, but...

[Lamplighter]

The Forbes article above has a fragrance of faint praise.

Wikipedia

A shill, plant or stooge is a person who helps a person or organization
without disclosing that he or she has a close relationship with that person or organization.

Plant and stooge more commonly refer to any person who is secretly in league
with another person or organization while pretending to be neutral or actually
a part of the organization he or she is planted in.

And besides all that:

Forbes magazine is owned and edited, in part, by Steve Forbes,
who was a GOP presidential candidate in years past, when he
ran on his proposal of a 17% "flat tax"

This year Steve Forbes is supporting Rick Perry, and it is rumored
that Perry's budget proposal is derived from, if not written by, Steve Forbes.
.