With Dana Nickel, Daniel Lippman BALLARD’S BOOM: The flood of new business for Ballard Partners that began after the election still isn’t letting up. The firm — which as readers are no doubt aware by now is led by top Donald Trump fundraiser Brian Ballard and until recently employed the president-elect’s pick for attorney general — has disclosed more than two dozen new clients since November, according to disclosures, as corporate America rushes to shore up ties to the incoming president. — The most recent batch of new clients includes oil giant Chevron, which hired the firm in December for work on renewing the 2017 GOP tax law. The U.S. arm of crypto firm Blockchain.com hired Ballard last month to lobby on crypto policy and a regulatory framework for the industry, while payday lender Advance Financial brought the firm on to lobby on a CFPB rule aimed at cracking down on predatory lending. BETTING ON K STREET: Sports betting platforms have been lobbying up over the past month amid increased scrutiny of the industry in Washington, newly filed disclosures show. The Sports Betting Alliance, a coalition that includes FanDuel, DraftKings, MGM’s betting arm and Fanatics Sportsbook brought on Carmen Group’s Dal Harper and David Carmen this week to lobby on competition in the sports betting marketplace, following a Senate Judiciary hearing last month drilling down on the issue. — The same week as the hearing, the CFPB released an analysis on the use of credit cards in wagering on sports, and urged state regulators “to consider placing limits on online sportsbooks’ acceptance of credit cards or require them to post special disclosures,” our friends over at Morning Money wrote at the time. — Two weeks before that, FanDuel retained Aquia Group’s Ryan Dattilo, a former senior counsel for Senate Judiciary, and Stoney Burke, a veteran antitrust lobbyist, to work on issues related to online sports gaming. — Daily fantasy sports platform PrizePicks also registered its first in-house lobbyist last month, while Fanatics Sportsbooks’ parent company retained its first lobbyists at Duberstein Group in November, according to disclosures. DraftKings added new lobbying muscle at the end of the year as well, hiring Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck in December to lobby on the federal excise tax on sports wagering, which several lawmakers introduced a bill to repeal last Congress. Happy Thursday and welcome to PI, where it’s been moving these past few weeks to watch D.C. honor the legacy of Jimmy Carter, Georgia’s first and so far only president. (At least until Gunner Stockton is sworn in after leading the Dawgs to multiple national titles.) Send lobbying and influence tips for me to chase down: coprysko@politico.com. And be sure to follow me on X: @caitlinoprysko. NEW YEAR, NEW GIG: After leaving Congress, former Arizona independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is preparing to launch a roundtable for business leaders, Hank Stephenson and Nicole Ludden reported for the Arizona Agenda. — The organization of business leaders will work together on government initiatives, mainly focused on Arizona business interests related to taxes and tariffs. A spot in the group costs $250,000, with a goal to raise around $5 million this year through 20 seats. Efforts have been kept close to the vest so far, the report said. Austin Kennedy, Sinema’s former Senate policy adviser is reportedly leading the project. — “Arizona Cardinals owner Michael Bidwill is among the donors, per sources, along with at least a few others who have committed. Besides being the owner of the state football team and a major player in the business community, Bidwill is a big political donor — mostly for Republicans, though he has long been generous toward Sinema.” INAUGURAL FUNDRAISING GOES GANGBUSTERS: Trump’s inaugural committee has raked in more than $170 million for the festivities surrounding his swearing in, The New York Times’ Teddy Schleifer, Maggie Haberman and Ken Vogel report — a haul “so big that some seven-figure donors have been placed on wait lists or have been told they probably will not receive V.I.P. tickets at all because the events are at capacity.” — The fundraising bonanza — “even if it comes without the usual exclusive access — underscores the degree to which deep-pocketed donors and corporations are seeking to curry favor with him,” they write. To wit: “Some donors have taken the unusual step of offering donations as high as $1 million without receiving anything in return.” — Corporate giants have continued to open their checkbooks for Trump, with Google telling our Steven Overly it will kick in $1 million, Microsoft telling the Washington Examiner it is giving $1 million and AT&T telling the Examiner it will contribute an unspecified amount. STEFANIK AIDE HEADS BACK TO MERCURY: Bill Cortese is returning to Mercury Public Affairs as a senior vice president on its government relations team. For the past two years, Cortese served as a senior adviser to Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), Trump’s pick for ambassador to the U.N. — Before that, he served as executive director of a campaign opposing the expansion of casino gambling in New Jersey and worked for ADS Ventures (which has since merged with Tremont Strategies Group) and the consultancy Sharp Decisions. Cortese was previously a senior associate at Mercury from 2011-2014. — The hire adds yet another tie for Mercury to the incoming Trump administration (assuming Stefanik is confirmed). Mercury was the former K Street home of Trump chief of staff Susie Wiles for the past three years, while longtime campaign adviser Bryan Lanza has been racking up new clients at quite a clip since Trump’s win in November. A UNIONS UNION: The Service Employees International Union and AFL-CIO, two of the nation’s most prominent labor groups, announced Wednesday that they are “joining forces in an attempt to expand union membership and protect members’ interests as they face the likelihood of a less union-friendly federal government” in a GOP-controlled Washington, per the Times’ Noam Scheiber and Lisa Lerer. — While SEIU President April Verrett and AFL-CIO chief Liz Shuler “said the alliance was unrelated to the result of November’s presidential election … they acknowledged that it would help organized labor fend off potential threats from the Trump administration,” including “the possibility of mass deportation of undocumented workers, cuts to Medicaid, attacks on protections for federal employees, a rollback of investments in green energy and a commission empowered by Mr. Trump to slash government spending.” SPOTTED at reception welcoming the freshman class of the 119th Congress hosted by Fox Corporation, per a tipster: Sens. Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.) and John Curtis (R-Utah), Reps. Tom Barrett (R-Mich.), Michael Baumgartner (R-Wash.), Laura Friedman (D-Calif.), Brandon Gill (R-Texas), Craig Goldman (R-Texas), Adam Gray (D-Calif.), Mike Haridopolos (R-Fla.), Brad Knott (R-N.C.), Herb Conaway (D-N.J.), Ryan Mackenzie (R-Pa.), Derek Schmidt (R-Kan.), Laura Gillen (D-N.Y.) and Suhas Subramanyam (D-Va.); Mike Emanuel, Rich Edson, David Spunt and Lucas Tomlinson of Fox News; Kris Jones, Jamie Gillespie, Alex Dillie and Joanna Orlando of Fox; Lyndon Boozer and George Sifakis of Capitol Counsel, Bryce Harlow, Joe Orlando and Steve Elmendorf of Avoq; Doug Schwartz of HillNorth; Melinda Lewis of BL Partners Group and Eric Bergren and Paul Edattel of Todd Strategy Group.
| 
No comments:
Post a Comment