With help from Daniel Lippman FIRST IN PI — BROWNSTEIN HIRES STATE POLITICAL-MILITARY OFFICIAL: A senior State Department official and veteran national security hand is heading to one of the top lobbying firms on K Street. Jessica Lewis, who served until earlier this summer as assistant secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs, has joined Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck as a policy director. — During her three-year tenure at State, Lewis served as one of the department’s chief liaisons with the Pentagon and oversaw tens of millions of dollars in security assistance for Ukraine as well as security assistance for Taiwan. Lewis was also a key player in the implementation of the advanced technology and intelligence sharing defense pact between the U.S., U.K. and Australia known as AUKUS, and led State’s efforts to revamp its foreign military sales program. — Before joining the State Department, Lewis spent nearly two decades advising top Democrats in Congress on national security issues — including most recently serving as Democratic staff director on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and national security adviser to former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. — Brownstein is consistently the top-earning firm on K Street in terms of lobbying revenue, representing dozens of blue chip corporate and multinational clients. The firm also does a sizable amount of foreign work, including for the governments of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Morocco and South Korea — several of whom are key military partners of the U.S. — Under the Biden administration’s ethics agreement, Lewis is likely barred from registering as a foreign agent or lobbying the entire executive branch for the next two years, or from assisting others in the firm in doing so. Happy Tuesday and welcome to PI. What’s going on out there? Let me know: coprysko@politico.com. And be sure to follow me on X: @caitlinoprysko. ZUCKER-BUCKING WASHINGTON: “It was only a little more than a decade ago that Mark Zuckerberg had few qualms about airing his politics,” The New York Times’ Teddy Schleifer and Mike Isaac write. The Facebook founder “rushed onto the national stage to discuss issues he cared about: immigration, social justice, inequality, democracy in action.” — “He penned columns in national newspapers espousing his views, spun up foundations and philanthropic efforts and hired hundreds of people to put his vast riches to work on his political goals.” But, Schleifer and Isaac write, “that was Mark Zuckerberg in his 20s. Mark Zuckerberg in his 40s is a very different Mark Zuckerberg.” — “In conversations over the past few years with friends, colleagues and advisers, Mr. Zuckerberg has expressed cynicism about politics after years of bad experiences in Washington. He and others at the top of Meta, the parent company of Facebook, believed that both parties loathed technology and that trying to continue engaging with political causes would only draw further scrutiny to their company.” — “His preference, according to more than a dozen friends, advisers and executives familiar with his thinking, has been to wash his hands of it all. In public, that means Mr. Zuckerberg is declining to engage with Washington except when necessary. In private, he has stopped supporting programs at his philanthropy that could be perceived as partisan, and he has tamped down employee activism at Meta.” SOPS FOR ESOPS: More than four dozen different think tanks, banks, law and lobbying firms, advocacy groups and nonprofits are standing up a new coalition dedicated to expanding the prevalence of employee stock ownership plans, or ESOPs. — In particular, Expanding ESOPs is looking to boost the number of partial ESOPs — where employees own shares in less than 100 percent of a company that they don’t have to pay taxes on until they leave, die or become disabled — and potentially at a better tax rate. — The group will push for better tax incentives for partial ESOPs while making sure there are guardrails to protect employees and that partial ESOPs retain the benefits that 100 percent ESOPs receive. — The coalition’s members include: Apis & Heritage Capital Partners, ArentFox Schiff, Argent Trust, the Aspen Institute, BDO, Blank Rome, the Bipartisan Policy Center, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, Certified EO, Deloitte, the Employee Ownership Expansion Network, ESOP Law Group, EY, Faegre Drinker, Ford Foundation, Holland & Knight, Kirkland & Ellis, Loop Capital, McDermott Will & Emery, PNC, Polsinelli, Project Equity, Summit Fiduciaries, TI Trust, UBS, Vedder Price and Wells Fargo. LONG ISLAND GOP’S LATEST ETHICS FLAP: The Times’ Nick Fandos reports that first-term Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-N.Y.) “hired his longtime fiancée’s daughter to work as a special assistant in his district office, eventually bumping her salary to about $3,800 a month, payroll records show.” — “In April, Mr. D’Esposito added someone even closer to him to his payroll: a woman with whom he was having an affair, according to four people familiar with the relationship. The woman, Devin Faas, collected $2,000 a month for a part-time job in the same district office.” — D’Esposito’s “employment of the two women, which resulted in the payment of about $29,000 in taxpayer funds, could expose him to discipline in the House of Representatives” for potentially running afoul of rules barring nepotism hires and sexual relationships between lawmakers and members of their staff, as well as a ban on low-show or no-show jobs. ICYMI MONDAY — BLACK STRATEGISTS RIB HARRIS TEAM: Black political operatives around Washington are pressing Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign over its lack of contracts with minority-owned political firms and strategists, despite Democrats losing ground among Black voters and the record-breaking sums pouring into Harris’ campaign coffers, NOTUS’ Jasmine Wright and Nuha Dolby report. — “Black vendors and their allies see an obvious solution: spend more money with the political class who actually know the most about that constituency and can adeptly tell Harris’ story. But minority vendors and media companies believe the Harris campaign is taking operatives of color for granted, and failing to spread around the lucrative contracts white-owned firms are getting.” — “The result doesn’t just imperil the bottom lines for minority-owned consulting companies, which typically rely on presidential campaigns to stay afloat in the off years. It’s also impacting the campaign’s outreach to the communities that the firms reflect, they say.” FLYING IN: Americans for Prosperity has kicked off a two-day fly-in focused on next year’s tax package. The Koch-backed group has more than 200 Hill meetings on the books to discuss the expiring 2017 tax breaks as well as other fiscal deadlines the next Congress will need to confront, like another debt ceiling. The fly-in coincides with new polling from AFP that found 90 percent of Americans oppose tax hikes at the moment. SPEAKING OF THE KOCHS: AFP “has been quietly touting North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson for his policy positions despite a litany of controversies,” CNBC’s Brian Schwartz reports. The organization “ran digital advertisements supporting Robinson as recently as this month. It’s also funded pro-Robinson door knocking, launched a website that encouraged voters to thank him for his work as lieutenant governor, interviewed him on a podcast and hosted him for an April event featuring Sen. Ted Budd, R-N.C.” — “The ads aired just days before CNN reported on racist and graphic comments Robinson allegedly posted on a porn forum over a decade ago,” and which Robinson has denied were his. — “The September pro-Robinson ads funded by AFP feature a message of praise for the lieutenant governor’s advocacy to expand the state’s school voucher program, as well as a testimonial from Robinson himself.” — “AFP says the ‘thank you’ ads are not the same as an endorsement, but merely intended to reward elected officials who back policies the nonprofit supports. That said, during an election year any positive ads will have the effect of boosting the candidate’s campaign, whether this is deliberate or not.” SPOTTED last night at the Capitol Hill Club, where the National Independent Automobile Dealers Association kicked off its annual policy conference with a congressional reception, per a tipster: Reps. Steve Womack (R-Ark.), Morgan Griffith, (R-Va.), Gary Palmer (R-Ala.), Monica de la Cruz (R-Texas), Beth Van Duyne (R-Texas), Mike Collins (R-Ga.), Buddy Carter (R-Ga.), John Joyce (R-Pa.), Russell Fry (R-S.C.), Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), Michelle Fischbach (R-Minn.), Brad Finstead (R-Minn.) and Bob Latta (R-Ohio); Jeff Martin and Jeremy Beck of NIADA; NIADA members and auto dealers Michael Darrow, Robert Case, Don Griffin, Lawrence Meade Jr. and Bet Gaylord; and David Pore of Hance Scarborough.
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