With Theodoric Meyer, Kelsey Tamborrino and Daniel Lippman OBAMA W.H., BIDEN CAMPAIGN OFFICIAL MERGES FIRM WITH CAPITOL COUNSEL: Democratic strategist and Obama White House alum Robert Diamond is merging his firm, Stratagem Public Affairs, with Capitol Counsel. Diamond, who oversaw New York State operations for the Biden campaign, served as a director of private sector engagement in the White House under former President Barack Obama and also worked for New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, will be a partner at Capitol Counsel and head up the firm's executive branch practice. — Diamond said in an interview that he will register to lobby and plans to work across all of the firm's practice areas and was attracted by the opportunity to work with "world class clients out of the gate with real depth and real breadth." Capitol Counsel's clients include PhRMA, Edison Electric Institute, Lockheed Martin and the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, among others. Diamond, whose Stratagem is based out of New York, added that he hopes to "bridge the gap" between the Empire State and D.C. DAVID SCOTT'S CHIEF OF STAFF HEADS DOWNTOWN: Gary Woodward has left the Hill to join H&R Block 's Washington office. He started last week as a director of federal government relations and is expected to register as a lobbyist. He was previously chief of staff to Rep. David Scott (D-Ga.). He'll report to Dan Turrentine, H&R Block's top lobbyist, who is himself a former chief of staff to a Democratic congressman: Jared Polis, who's now the governor of Colorado. Good afternoon, and welcome to PI. coprysko@politico.com. And follow me on Twitter: @caitlinoprysko. |
WHAT'S NEXT FOR THE KOCH NETWORK? The libertarian-leaning advocacy group helmed by billionaire Charles Koch had its share of disagreements with the Trump administration, from the president's waging of trade wars and his attacks on the DACA program. But it also backed President Donald Trump 's deregulatory agenda, tax cuts and judicial nominees. Now the group is gearing up for the Biden administration, CNBC's Brian Schwartz reports, looking for where it can find common ground with President-elect Joe Biden. — Dan Garza, president of the Koch-backed group Libre Initiative, "pointed to Biden's goal of reaching across the aisle to Republicans as a good sign for his organization. He said further reforms to the criminal justice code, immigration policies and trade proposals could be some of the areas where the network may support the president-elect. Issues of concern, Garza said, include Biden's proposal to raise taxes, any move to pack the Supreme Court and what he called a 'war on energy production.' 'I see opportunity, but I do see areas where we are going to have to resist,' Garza said in an interview with CNBC." — "Some of Biden's reported goals in his first 100 days in office seem to be at least partially aligned with what the Koch orbit has been pushing for in the later stages of Trump's term. Biden, according to The Wall Street Journal, is expected to review the tariffs levied by the Trump administration on a variety of European and Chinese goods. CBS News reported that Biden plans to fully restore the Obama-era DACA program after Trump's unsuccessful attempts to end it. Though Trump did sign a criminal justice reform bill known as the First Step Act, Biden appears to want to build off that." WARREN CALLS ON BUSINESS ROUNDTABLE TO BACK UP ITS CLIMATE TALK: Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) called on the Business Roundtable to provide what concrete steps it is taking to align its public statements on climate change with its political activity, and warning against "empty rhetoric without any actual climate action." — Warren, who has previously pressured the trade group about its corporate commitments, wrote Wednesday to Doug McMillon, the chair of Business Roundtable's board and BRT Energy and Environment Committee Chair Mark Sutton on the group's September support of a "market-based mechanism" as part of a plan to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Warren, while supportive of the acknowledgement of the climate crisis, wrote that the BRT "lacks specific details" for what carbon pricing strategies it supports or opposes, or how it will publicly disclose its progress. "The report repeatedly supports 'market-based' approaches but does 'not endorse' specific proposals and does not explain what is meant by this term," Warren wrote. — "If the BRT is serious this time about its commitments to address the climate crisis, it must provide detailed information to the public about its concrete actions to require corporations to meet these commitments, detail specific policies that BRT will support or oppose, and publicly report the specific commitments, metrics, and progress of its member companies as they strive to meet these commitments," Warren added. "Failure to do so would indicate that the new statement is yet another empty press release by the BRT, designed to boost its public image without taking any action that would merit it." LOBBYISTS ON THE TRANSITION TEAM: The Biden transition team has granted waivers to members of its agency review teams who are currently registered lobbyists or were registered to lobby until earlier this year, The Wall Street Journal's Chad Day and Andrew Restuccia report. According to an analysis by the WSJ, at least 40 members of the transition teams announced earlier this week are or were registered lobbyists at one point. The transition team's ethics rules don't bar lobbyists entirely, but current lobbyists or those who registered to lobby within the past year are required to seek a waiver from the transition's general counsel. — Those granted waivers, per the Journal, are: "Andrea Delgado , who is currently registered as a lobbyist for the United Farm Workers Foundation; Celeste Drake, who is currently registered as a lobbyist for the Directors Guild of America; Josh Nassar, who is currently registered as a lobbyist for the United Auto Workers; LaQuita Honeysucker, who was registered as a lobbyist for the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union until earlier this year; and Scott Frey, who was registered as a lobbyist for the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees until earlier this year." NYT UNEARTHS FOSSIL FUELS ASTROTURFING CAMPAIGN: The New York Times is out with a deep dive on what appears to be an expansive, yearslong corporate influence campaign on run by the global consulting firm FTI purporting to show grassroots support for fossil fuels but was really funded by oil and gas giants like Exxon, a push that "often obscure the industry's role, portraying pro-petroleum groups as grass-roots movements," the Times' Hiroko Tabuchi reports. "One of FTI's largest shareholders, the investment firm BlackRock, won kudos this year for saying it would put environmental sustainability at the center of its investment approach," Tabuchi notes. — "As part of its services to the industry, FTI monitored environmental activists online, and in one instance an employee created a fake Facebook persona — an imaginary, middle-aged Texas woman with a dog — to help keep tabs on protesters. Former FTI employees say they studied other online influence campaigns and compiled strategies for affecting public discourse. They helped run a campaign that sought a securities rule change, described as protecting the interests of mom-and-pop investors, that aimed to protect oil and gas companies from shareholder pressure to address climate and other concerns." AKIN GUMP SEES PROSPECT FOR 'INDEFINITE' DELAY ON COVID STIMULUS IF LAME-DUCK DEAL STRUCK: Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld is sending a memo to clients later today on the results of last week's election, including a look at what could get done in the lame duck, and the Biden administration's first 100 days. Among the things that caught PI's eye in the first 100-day outlook is the firm's take on the prospects of a coronavirus-related stimulus package. The memo points out that a potentially divided Congress will "limit the size and scope" of any stimulus. But it adds: "This effort may be delayed indefinitely if Republicans and Democrats are able to agree on a COVID-19-relief package in the lame duck session of the current Congress." |
— Alissa Clees is now a principal at Ogilvy Government Relations. Previously she was a senior associate and lobbied on behalf of Ogilvy's clients focused primarily on telecommunications, trade, intellectual property, health care, and tourism issues, and she worked for former Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.). — Kate Sullivan Hare is joining Alliance for Health Policy as the vice president for policy and communications, POLITICO Pulse reports. She was most recently chief public affairs officer at the American Association of Clinical Endocrinology. — The National Retail Federation has hired Edwin Egee as a vice president for government relations and workforce development. Egee previously served as the director of the Office of Congressional and Public Affairs for the National Labor Relations Board. — The National Confectioners Association has added Steve McCroddan as its chief financial officer, and Kyle Jordan as vice president of membership and meetings. McCroddan previously served as the CFO of both the Consumer Brands Association — formerly the Grocery Manufacturers Association — and the Food Products Association, and Jordan was previously the managing director of learning and conferences at the Financial Planning Association.
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