AMFREE CHAMBER STAFFS UP: The upstart small business advocacy group American Free Enterprise Chamber of Commerce is continuing its expansion with the addition of a pair of GOP K Street veterans and a former Republican Hill staffer as advisers. — Miller Strategies' Jeff Miller, a GOP strategist, fundraiser and close ally of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy ; CGCN Group President and CEO Michael Catanzaro, a Trump administration alum; and Alex Vargo, a former aide to Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and Rep. Ted Budd (R-N.C.), are coming aboard as the group's chief public affairs adviser, chief energy and environment adviser and vice president for policy, respectively. — The additions are part of an increased focus by the AmFree Chamber on ESG issues that the Biden administration and a growing coalition on Wall Street have embraced. The emphasis on ESG issues has prompted backlash from conservatives across the country, and Republicans in Washington have threatened retribution for the push should they retake control of one or more chambers of Congress next year. — "Americans across the country are seeing their bottom lines impacted by radical ideas that put activist groups first and shareholders and taxpayers last," Terry Branstad, the group's leader and the former governor of Iowa, said in a statement, adding that his group "seeks to become the leading trade association for the business community on energy and ESG issues and we are building the team that can secure a better America." CLUB FOR GROWTH LOOKS BEYOND TRUMP: After the Club for Growth's on-again off-again relationship with former President Donald Trump's most recent blowup over the Ohio GOP Senate primary, POLITICO's Alex Isenstadt reports the anti-tax group is " now taking steps to bolster his potential rivals for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination." — "The deep-pocketed conservative group is holding events with would-be 2024 contenders and funneling millions of dollars to political outfits aligned with other candidates. The Club for Growth has also conducted polling looking at how Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — widely seen as the party's leading non-Trump contender — would stack up against the former president in a Republican primary." — "Those involved with the organization say they expect Trump will be the GOP nominee in 2024. But its flirtation with other possible Republican candidates represents an escalation of its tensions with Trump, and it shows how the Club for Growth — one of the biggest-spending outfits of the 2022 midterm elections —is working to elevate other voices. — "'The Republican bullpen of leadership is strong, and Club for Growth is engaging these conservative champions with grassroots activists on the issues that matter, especially school choice,' David McIntosh, the group's president, said in a statement." FEC SHOOTS DOWN COMPLAINT OVER 'ZUCKERBUCKS': "A unanimous bipartisan vote this summer by the Federal Election Commission has undercut fantastical claims about Mark Zuckerberg's role in the 2020 election that have taken hold among GOP leaders, candidates and activists decrying 'Zuckerbucks,'" The Washington Post's Isaac Stanley-Becker reports. — The $400 million in grants from the Meta founder and his wife Priscilla Chan, "dispatched to blue and red areas of the country alike, were used to buy masks and plexiglass dividers, among other tools designed to keep voters and elections officials safe" amid the pandemic. "The funding from Zuckerberg, however, soon became kindling for the firestorm unleashed by former president Donald Trump and his allies as they questioned the legitimacy of the Nov. 3, 2020, vote." — "The contributions gave rise to numerous complaints before the FEC," including "that Zuckerberg and Chan had made excess contributions in violation of federal campaign finance law and that one of the nonprofits they funded had failed to register as a political committee." — The regulator rejected those claims in a series of 6-0 votes — a show of unity by the commissioners, who are split evenly by party. The votes took place in July, and attorneys for Zuckerberg and Chan were notified of the decisions in an Aug. 8 letter that was made public Thursday. An analysis by the FEC found that the 'nexus between the donations and any purpose to influence the 2020 election is speculative at best.' The grants, the regulator noted, 'were widely awarded across jurisdictions.'" FLYING IN: Congress is back in town and so are the fly-ins. On Monday, the Truckload Carriers Association will kick off its advocacy push with remarks from Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-N.J.) before meetings with more than 55 members of Congress, including 24 members of the House and Senate Transportation committees like Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rep. Marilyn Strickland (D-Wash). — The trade group, which represents hundreds of thousands of truck operators, will push for support for the Truck Parking Safety Improvement Act, which was recently approved by House T&I. IN MEMORIAM: Loren Hoekstra , director of government relations for the National Sheriffs' Association and a former Hill staffer, died Aug. 18 at 36. A memorial service in her honor will be held Wednesday evening at the Capitol Hill Club. SPOTTED at a party Wednesday night at Sazerac House celebrating Kountoupes Denham Carr & Reid's newest lobbyist Mary Dee Beal, per a tipster: KDCR's Julie Hershey Carr, House Ag's Caleb Crosswhite, Senate Approps' Laura Friedel, Emily Slack and Anna Lanier Fischer, the Retail Industry Leaders Association's Sarah Gilmore and Hana Greenberg, Via's Andrei Greenawalt and Aparna Paladugu, Senate Ag's Dudley Hoskins, the National Association of Chain Drug Stores' Whitney Jones and the House Education & Labor Committee's Mary Christina Riley.
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