WHITE HOUSE AIDE HEADS TO FOX: Carissa Smith has started as vice president for government relations at Fox Corp., West Wing Playbook reported Thursday . Smith most recently was senior adviser on women and girls and health in the White House's Office of Public Engagement. Before that, she worked on the Biden campaign and was a digital press secretary to late House Oversight Chair Elijah Cummings. — Smith will, of course, not be the first former staffer of President Joe Biden on Fox's government relations team. That team is led by Danny O'Brien , who served as Biden's chief of staff in the Senate and was a key adviser to his 2008 presidential campaign. ANNALS OF DARK MONEY: "Documents obtained by OpenSecrets shed new light on the mysterious 'dark money' groupDefending America Together , which has poured millions of dollars from undisclosed donors into recent midterm elections in Pennsylvania and Alabama," OpenSecrets' Taylor Giorno reports. — "According to a certificate of incorporation obtained by OpenSecrets, Erick Todd used a personal mailbox address in San Juan, Puerto Rico, to incorporate Defending America Together, Inc. in Lewes, Del. Defending America Together was incorporated on Jan. 10, 2022, as a 501(c)(4) tax-exempt organization formed and operated exclusively for 'the promotion of social welfare.' These groups are generally not required to disclose their donors, and their 'primary' purpose is not supposed to be political activities." — "Defending America Together has not publicized any social welfare activities, but a corporation with the same name contributed $5 million to super PACs that spent big in the Alabama and Pennsylvania primaries." — "On Jan. 20, 10 days after Todd incorporated the group, Defending America Together made its first contribution. The group gave $1 million to America's Promise, and it gave another $1 million to the super PAC on March 9. America's Promise contributed over $3.1 million to the Alabama Patriots PAC, a different super PAC supporting Michael Durant in Tuesday's Alabama Senate GOP primary. Defending America Together is the top contributor to America's Promise, " whose treasurer "is also the founder and CEO of More Perfect Union, a group that aims to elect moderate Senators from both parties." — "On March 15, Defending America Together contributed $3 million to the Pennsylvania Conservative Fund , which spent $3 million opposing celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz in the contentious Pennsylvania Senate GOP primary. Pennsylvania Conservative Fund raised $3.5 million ahead of the primary. The other $500,000 came from billionaire investor Thomas Tull." NRA MAY BE LANGUISHING BUT ITS LEGACY LIVES ON: The lede of this Washington Post story from Isaac Arnsdorf and Carol D. Leonnig sums up neatly how the decline of the National Rifle Association has paved the way for the movement to take on a life of its own in recent years : "Nearly a decade ago, the massacre of 20 children and six adults at a Connecticut elementary school threw the politics of gun violence into a state of suspension for a full week, as conservative politicians waited to hear from the powerful gun lobby, the National Rifle Association, before taking a stand," they write. — "This week, after another rampage, at a Texas elementary school that left 19 children and two teachers dead, Republican lawmakers didn't wait for the NRA as they lined up within hours to rebuff any proposed gun-control measures." — "The NRA, which will host former president Donald Trump at its annual convention Friday in Houston, has been embroiled in lawsuits and infighting for the last four years, taking a toll on its budget and standing in Washington — and also creating space for more-extreme groups to gain traction." — "'The NRA is not doing anything around the country anywhere; all their staff lawyered up and are fighting amongst each other,' said Dudley Brown, a gun rights lobbyist who has long criticized the NRA for being too open to compromise. Brown's rival group, the National Association for Gun Rights, has grown to 75 staff members and a $15 million budget, he said, up from about $6 million in 2019." — "For GOP voters and lawmakers, gun rights have become a central culture-war issue animating their movement. Arguments that once centered on hunting and rural traditions have turned into bitter battles over identity, with no need for a giant lobbying group like the NRA to stoke the flames." HOT ANTITRUST SUMMER: "A revised version of the American Innovation and Choice Online Act would firm up the bill's cybersecurity and privacy protections — but not in any way that appeased the big tech companies lobbying against the effort," POLITICO's Emily Birnbaum reports. — "Late Wednesday night, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) released the new draft of the legislation, an antitrust bill that aims to prohibit the biggest tech companies from discriminating against their rivals. While the bill as a whole remains largely unchanged, Klobuchar's office worked to address some of the concerns that lawmakers have raised about it hitting companies outside of the tech industry and protecting user data." — "The new version includes two new provisions to ensure that telecom and credit card companies are not covered by the bill, ensuring that it is narrowly targeted toward Apple, Google, Amazon and Meta." — "The legislation also seeks to address the concerns about privacy and cybersecurity raised by both lawmakers and the tech titans. The major tech companies — most prominently Apple — have spent months arguing that the bill would harm privacy and cybersecurity, pointing out that the legislation would require tech companies to open up their platforms to third parties. For instance, it would allow people to download apps to their iPhones from a variety of app stores rather than only Apple's app store. … Still, the bill's most aggressive critics remain unwavering in their opposition."
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