With help from Daniel Lippman THE RISE OF THE OTHER KIND OF INFLUENCER: The Consumer Bankers Association has enlisted social media influencers to help reach young adults, as part of the trade group’s latest campaign pushing back on efforts to clamp down on the consumer finance industry. — With the help of six influencers who boast a collective TikTok following of more than 14 million, CBA’s campaign aims to provide educational resources on the credit card basics and various options on the market to “ultimately choose a card that best fits their lifestyle, spending habits, and overall financial goals,” the group’s President and CEO Lindsey Johnson said in a statement. — The push comes as the banking industry fights Biden administration proposals to cap credit card late fees and overdraft fees, which are rooted in part in the argument that consumers may be unaware of those fees. — Social media influencers are increasingly becoming part of public affairs campaigns. While this may be the first time CBA individually is mobilizing content creators to fend off regulatory pressure, the organization is part of an industrywide coalition fighting proposed swipe fee legislation that has deployed credit card influencer The Points Guy, among other financial creators, to plead Wall Street’s case. — Meat and dairy industry groups have adopted the strategy as well, and of course, TikTok (unsuccessfully) unleashed an army of users and creators on Washington earlier this year in the face of a potential ban. — As for CBA’s campaign, Johnson said in a statement that “in today’s fast-paced financial services market, it is critical to meet people where they are,” and that retail banks want to get their message out in a manner “that is easy to understand and in a way that many people — and in particular, young people — get their information.” CBA declined to comment on the budget for its campaign. — Foreign governments have sought to harness the impact of online creators as well. In 2022, the Chinese Consulate General in New York shelled out $300,000 for an influencer campaign to boost the Beijing Olympics. — Then there’s Wednesday’s revelation that the Kremlin-backed outlet RT has been covertly running an online platform to pump out content favorable to the Russian government, with one conservative commentator recruited to the outlet making as much as $400,000 per month. (In an important distinction, federal prosecutors said that at least some of the outlet’s right-wing talent were “deceived” as to the source of their payments, and in posts online yesterday, the personalities described themselves as “victims” of the alleged scheme.) Happy Thursday and welcome to PI. Send tips: coprysko@politico.com. And be sure to follow me on X: @caitlinoprysko. RIP ‘PAT SMITH’: LobbyMatic, the company trying to integrate AI into lobbying that was covertly run by far-right conspiracy theorists Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman, has killed off a fake employee that it used to try to get introductions on LinkedIn, Daniel reports. — Three former employees said that Wohl had told them that “Pat Smith,” who was LobbyMatic’s “VP of Growth,” was created for business prospecting and was made as a blonde woman because they thought it would draw more interest. — But as of Wednesday, Smith, who had hundreds of LinkedIn connections, including with top lobbyists at Fortune 500 companies, is no more. Trying to access her LinkedIn profile now leads to an error message. — In a statement, LobbyMatic confirmed that Smith was never a real person. It said that it had “made experimental use of an AI business development representative in pursuit of efficiency. There are currently dozens of startups that provide AI BDRs.” DUNHAM HEADS TO AIC: The American Investment Council, which represents the private equity industry, has hired former House leadership staffer Will Dunham to oversee the trade group’s legislative lobbying operation. — Dunham was most recently a policy director at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, and before that, he served as a deputy chief of staff for then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Dunham will be senior vice president of government affairs at AIC. He succeeds Brad Bailey, who is leaving the trade group after nearly six years for a new job. INSIDE THE CRYPTO LOBBY’S IDENTITY CRISIS: “The cryptocurrency industry is exerting more sway than ever over U.S. politics. But behind the scenes, cracks are emerging between its left and right flanks over how to influence who will be president and control Congress next year,” our Eleanor Mueller reports. — “Democratic crypto lobbyists, executives and investors say the industry is at risk of leaning too far right as its leaders come out in force for GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, who is promising policies that would boost digital asset firms.” — “Their Republican counterparts say engaging with Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and backing her party's down-ballot candidates risks isolating long-time allies in the GOP, with little to no guarantee it will pay off. The Biden administration has taken a skeptical approach to crypto trading, and it’s unclear what Harris would do.” — “The internal dispute has spilled into view as the industry’s nearly $170 million super PAC effort begins to spend on key races across the country and some crypto advocates seek inroads with Harris.” — Now, “nearly a dozen crypto advocates familiar with the conflict said in interviews that the rising tension is creating new hurdles for the industry as it tries to advance a regulatory overhaul on Capitol Hill, which was already a long shot thanks to election-year politics and limited floor time.” RELATED READING: Future Forward, the top super PAC backing Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign, is set to begin accepting cryptocurrency donations, according to The Block’s MK Manoylov. — The super PAC, which has raised nearly $164 million so far this cycle, is partnering with digital payments platform Coinbase Commerce. “It’s the same platform being used by the Trump campaign to accept donations in crypto and President Joe Biden was in talks to begin doing so before dropping out of the race. DUNHAM HEADS TO AIC: The American Investment Council, which represents the private equity industry, has hired former House leadership staffer Will Dunham to oversee the trade group’s legislative lobbying operation. — Dunham was most recently a policy director at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, and before that, he served as a deputy chief of staff for then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Dunham will be senior vice president of government affairs at AIC. He succeeds Brad Bailey, who is leaving the trade group after nearly six years for a new role. TECH EYES ONE MORE PRIZE IN SACRAMENTO: While state legislators entered this year “determined to act on artificial intelligence and social media,” our Jeremy White writes that “California’s homegrown technology industry responded by flexing its lobbying muscles, beating back much of Democrats’ regulatory agenda by diluting and sidelining bills meant to protect kids from social media, root out biased algorithms and divert some of platforms’ profits toward journalists.” — “Now they want to finish the job by persuading Gov. Gavin Newsom, a longtime industry ally who has touted AI’s economic potential, to kill off a nationally watched AI safety bill that Silicon Valley opponents deride as a damper on a promising and rapidly growing sector. He has until Sept. 30 to sign or veto the measure.” — “The fight now before Newsom over [the AI] bill caps a year in which technology issues dominated Sacramento’s agenda, attracting heavy lobbying from major players like Google, Meta, Amazon and OpenAI.” — “Democratic lawmakers in the state argued California had the political will and the responsibility to curb the hazards emanating from untrammeled social media platforms and artificial intelligence systems emerging in its backyard, acting where Congress had failed.” But “in the nation’s premiere battleground for tech policy, the industry demonstrated its continued ability to overwhelm lawmakers with its deep pockets and political clout.” THE LATEST CASUALTY OF THE DEI BACKLASH: "When Ford scaled back its diversity initiatives it called out one organization by name: the Human Rights Campaign," The Wall Street Journal's Theo Francis and Lauren Weber report. — "The automaker last week told employees it would stop providing workplace data to the gay-rights lobbying group, which spent decades persuading big companies to embrace policies hospitable to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer employees and customers. Other companies dialing down diversity initiatives this summer also said they would distance themselves from HRC: Harley-Davidson, Lowe’s, rural retailer Tractor Supply and distiller Brown-Forman, which makes Jack Daniel’s. On Tuesday, Molson Coors also said it would stop working with the group." — "The companies didn’t elaborate on why they highlighted HRC in their announcements. Nearly all of them had ranked well on an index that HRC uses to score companies by their LGBTQ-friendly policies. Some of the companies said they would stop sharing data with HRC after they had been targeted by social-media activist Robby Starbuck." — "The focus on the HRC—and in particular its equality ranking—marks a shift in efforts to unwind diversity initiatives in the private sector. This year, companies have mostly faced pressure over workplace and funding programs based on race and ethnicity, including pay incentives, grants and supplier contracting. But a few companies—including the brewer of Bud Light—have suffered from backlash from consumers upset over LGBTQ support."
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