With Daniel Lippman
HOW K STREET HAS BEEN PREPPING FOR THE MIDTERMS: Today’s elections are all but certain to usher a new party into power in at least one — if not both — chambers of Congress, a shift that stands to impact virtually every entity that turns to K Street to advance its causes in the Capitol.
— The downtown community has been preparing for months for the likely change in power, gaming out which issues Republican majorities might prioritize, snapping up GOP aides with ties to leadership or else touting their existing ones, and preparing clients who might have targets on their backs for grillings on Capitol Hill.
— “It’s going to be a different Congress for a lot of reasons,” said Tim Pataki, a partner at the GOP lobbying firm CGCN, alluding to Republicans’ growing rift with swaths of corporate America. “I think it’s fair to say helping out corporate America is not at the top of the priority list.”
— “I think generally, the conventional wisdom is that Republicans are the party of CEOs and executives, and I don’t think that can be further from what’s actually going to be the case next Congress,” added John Stipicevic, another lobbyist at CGCN who like Pataki previously worked for House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, the likely next House speaker.
— Ken Spain, a partner at Narrative Strategies and former GOP aide, argued that while “the Republican takeover will be a win for the business community overall,” it likely won’t come without a little heartburn first. “You can’t just dust off the old playbook because Republicans are taking over Congress.”
— “There are industries that will have to grapple with a new contingent of populist-minded Republicans,” Spain said, adding that the party’s evolution means “it’s going to require more sophisticated and nuanced approaches to influencing Congress.”
— With the GOP poised to come back into power, companies are now looking to rebuild their relationships with Republicans, which soured further after corporate PACs swore off political contributions to those who voted against certifying the 2020 election results. Lawmakers took the freeze as “a lack of support from the business community — who has benefited over the years from Republican policies,” Pataki told PI.
— Even with President Joe Biden’s veto power serving as a check on Republicans’ legislative agenda, the party’s newfound subpoena power and the ability to set the agenda for oversight has clients looking for insight, noted Aaron Cutler, Hogan Lovells’ point person on congressional probes. That dynamic has K Street working to suss out what parts of Republicans’ agenda is “messaging and what’s real legislating,” Hogan Lovells’ Chase Kroll added, and from there determining “where does it impact the client?”
— Complicating things still further is that some congressional targets, like tech companies or U.S. companies doing business in China, will face scrutiny from both sides of the aisle for different reasons, Cutler said. “That’s gonna make it very difficult for somebody testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee or the House Judiciary Committee next year to prepare for that, because literally, you’re gonna get punched from all sides.”
— At CGCN and elsewhere on K Street, there’s hope that estrangement between the business community and lawmakers, combined with Republican lobbyists’ network, can help juice business. “There’s nobody better than this firm” to help companies mend their reputations in the halls of Congress, Pataki said, describing the firm’s pitch to prospective clients.
— Ballard Partners’ Brian Ballard, who two years ago was emphasizing his firm’s bipartisan credentials, now is now highlighting his firm’s ties to lawmakers who could soon wield considerable power in a GOP-controlled Congress next year, listing off Florida Republicans in line to chair or sit on key committees.
— “We really are institutionalized with so many Republicans that came up through the Florida legislature or what have you, that are now in pretty senior places in Congress,” Ballard, a longtime Florida lobbyist and GOP fundraiser, said in an interview, adding that beyond the Sunshine State he’d fundraised for nearly every Republican senator up for reelection this year. “I think … our current clients are going to be very happily situated.” Still, he added: “Obviously business is going to be good for Republicans.”
Happy Election Day and welcome to PI. Send K Street gossip: [email protected]. And be sure to follow me on Twitter: @caitlinoprysko.
MY KEVIN’S MAN ON K STREET: “Jeff Miller is not a household name, but he stands to yield tremendous influence when the next Congress gets sworn into office,” POLITICO’s Hailey Fuchs writes in a profile of the Miller Strategies chief and longtime confidant of the likely next House speaker.
— “Should McCarthy end up as the next Speaker, Miller, a paid lobbyist for some of the biggest companies in America, stands poised to be the K Street operative with unmatched access. ‘Everyone else is a distant second,’ said Sam Geduldig, a fellow GOP lobbyist.”
— Even as Miller’s relationship with McCarthy “is about to pay off royally, Miller could face some hurdles in a Republican-run congress” as he balances “his work for a number of major corporate entities and a GOP leadership increasingly acrimonious towards Big Business.”
— But “Miller himself has proven valuable for the GOP on this front. He worked to assuage concerns of corporate donors in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 riot and to ensure the big dollar spigot remained open. National Republican Congressional Committee finance director Leigh Ann Gillis called Miller ‘the MVP of House Republican fundraising efforts this cycle.’”
CRYPTO MEGADONORS’ EXCHANGE HITS TURBULENCE: “The global crypto exchange Binancehas agreed to acquire Democratic Party megadonor Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto exchangeFTX after the company was bludgeoned by a severe liquidity crunch over the past week,” POLITICO’s Sam Sutton reports.
— “FTX’s sudden downfall — which Bankman-Fried said won’t affect its U.S. subsidiary FTX US — is hitting the crypto ecosystem after the 30-year-old billionaire spent roughly $40 million on super PACs and political campaigns before the midterm elections.” The exchange’s co-CEO, Ryan Salame, has also poured money into the midterms, dumping more than $20 million into races on behalf of Republicans this cycle, according to data from OpenSecrets.
— “FTX has also lobbied aggressively in support of bipartisan legislation from leaders of the Senate Agriculture Committee that would put its exchange and other crypto brokerages and trading platforms under the direct oversight of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.”
— Protocol’s Benjamin Pimentel notes that Binance’s rescue of its rival “follows a Twitter tit-for-tat between the two crypto giants over questions related to the finances of Alameda Research, the trading house started by Bankman-Fried,” with Binance’s chief executive hinting that there was more at play.
ANOTHER TRADE GROUP’S PAC PILFERED BY THIEF: The American Hospital Association’s PAC became the latest Washington trade group to report the theft of thousands of dollars from its coffers, Insider’s Dave Levinthal reports.
— “In a letter to federal regulators, American Hospital Association PAC’s treasurer acknowledged that the committee lost $12,650 in what its treasurer, Melinda Reid Hatton, described as a case of ‘fraudulent activity’ involving fake checks.”
— “‘The checks were written using the Committee’s bank account and routing number, but are in the name of a “Wendy Naylor,” listing an address in Florida,’ Hatton wrote to Federal Election Commission officials on November 7. ‘These are not real Committee checks, nor were they written on actual Committee check stock.’”
— Hatton “told federal officials there is ‘no reason to believe or suspect that anyone from American Hospital Association or the Committee participated in the fraud,’ which took place in July.” That’s the same month that an “unknown individual” stole nearly $37,000 from the Consumer Technology Association’s PAC, the committee said in an FEC filing in September.
— Curtis Swager has joined Dropbox as director of government affairs for the Americas. Swager was most recently with McCain Foods and previously served as chief of staff to former Sen. Cory Gardner.
— Jacqueline Tame will be PsiQuantum‘s first director of government affairs. She was most recently acting deputy director of DoD’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center.
— Michael O’Brien has joined BSA | The Software Alliance as vice president of global public affairs. He was most recently vice president of public affairs and advocacy for the National Association of Manufacturers.
— Roya Rahmani and Julián Ventura are joining Albright Stonebridge Group as senior advisers. Rahmani is vice chair for public policy at Delphos, distinguished fellow at the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security and the former Afghan ambassador to the U.S. Ventura is the former Mexican deputy secretary of foreign affairs.
— Brian Wagner has joined Maxar Technologies as the company’s first director for public sector communications. He was previously the senior director for strategic communications at Peraton.
None.
Americans for Prosparody (Hybrid PAC)
Justice Tranquility Defense Welfare PAC (Super PAC)
RHEEM PAC (PAC)
Success Charleston (Super PAC)
Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP: Ka Joog
Capitol Solutions LLC (Md): Critical Labor Coalition
Capitol Solutions LLC (Md): Elevanta
Chartwell Strategy Group LLC: Tickpick,LLC
Clark Hill, Plc: Consolidated Safety Services, Inc.
Downs Government Affairs: Community College Of Denver
Dutko Worldwide, LLC: Fibernet Mercurydelta
Fbb Federal Relations: Rock And Rail, LLC
Hatez Capital: Hatez Capital
Liebman & Associates, Inc.: Nexus-1 LLC
Miller & Chevalier Chartered: American Property Casualty Insurance Association
Monument Advocacy: Guarding Against Pandemics
Ms. Gwendolyn O’Brien Donaldson: Carolina West Wireless
Summit Health Care Consulting: American College Of Osteopathic Internists
Venable LLP: National Rental Home Council
The Campbell Consulting Group: New Morning Foundation