Van Heuvelen joins Vogel Group

From: POLITICO Influence - Thursday Oct 07,2021 09:47 pm

Oct 07, 2021

Presented by the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network

PI apologizes for the delay in sending out the free version of the newsletter on Wednesday, due to a technical error.

With Daniel Lippman

PROGRAMMING NOTE: Influence will not publish on Monday, Oct. 11. We’ll be back on our normal schedule on Tuesday, Oct. 12. Please continue to follow Pro issues.

FIRST IN PI — VOGEL GROUP EXPANDS ITS DEM OFFERINGS: Democratic lobbyist Bob Van Heuvelen and his team at Van Heuvelen Strategies are joining forces with The Vogel Group. Van Heuvelen, who founded his eponymous firm in 2007 after serving for a decade as chief of staff to then-Senate Budget Chair Kent Conrad, will become a principal at Vogel. Valerie West, who was a principal at Van Heuvelen, will hold the same title at the Vogel Group while two of their deputies, Bobby Cunningham and Samuel Yntema, will become directors. Stephen Ward, who is also a fellow Senate Democratic chief of staff, will be a consultant.

— The merger marks another expansion for The Vogel Group, which opened its first office in Tallahassee earlier this summer. In an email to PI, Chief Executive Alex Vogel, a former Senate GOP leadership aide, framed the union as a way to expand the firm’s offerings as it grows by adding lobbyists with senior-level experience and relationships with both major parties and different areas of expertise.

— “On the personal side, I have known and admired Bob Van Heuvelen since our overlapping time in the Senate — and in particular his role as founder of the Senate Bipartisan Chiefs of Staff association,” Vogel said, adding that Van Heuvelen’s team has “built a client base that fit with our most fundamental goal of providing clients with the most effective combination of substantive issue expertise, senior political relationships and a real-world understanding of how government works.”

— “I am delighted to be joining forces with Alex Vogel, one of the most talented and highly regarded lobbyists in Washington, D.C.,” Van Heuvelen said in a statement. He praised Vogel and his firm’s “reputation for integrity and effectiveness,” and added that “clients know that in terms of an ethic of hard work, dedication, and results, you cannot beat The Vogel Group.”

Good afternoon and welcome to PI. Reach out: coprysko@politico.com. And be sure to follow me on Twitter: @caitlinoprysko.

A message from the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network:

The National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program (NBCCEDP) provides lifesaving cancer screenings in low-income communities, but fewer than 2 in 10 eligible individuals received breast or cervical cancer screenings through this critical safety net program. Lawmakers must take action to end this divide in access to cancer prevention, early detection and treatment. Increased funding for the NBCCEDP will help more individuals get the cancer care they need—and help end this alarming divide.

GOP OPERATIVES LAUNCH CONSULTANCY: Lizzie Guyton and Colin Reed have launched the consulting and public affairs firm South & Hill — the name pays homage to their current and former Massachusetts roots. Guyton was most recently communications director for Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker and will be based in Boston. Reed was most recently managing director at The Levinson Group and is an NRSC and America Rising alum. He’ll be based in Washington.

MANCHIN AT ODDS WITH DRUGMAKERS, ADVOCATES OVER OPIOID FEE: “Lobbyists are trying to block a bid by West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin III to add a tax on prescription opioids to the reconciliation package as one of his requirements for supporting the legislation,” Roll Call’s Sandhya Raman reports.

— Manchin’s proposal to tax prescription pills “is drawing criticism from drug supply chain groups and advocates focused on chronic pain. … So far, Democratic leaders have not said whether they will accept the proposal for inclusion into the reconciliation package. Manchin earlier this year introduced a bill that would provide permanent funding for substance use treatment by placing a small fee on prescription opioids.”

— A pair of industry trade groups, “the Healthcare Distribution Alliance that represents drug distributors and the Association for Accessible Medicines, both oppose taxes on opioids. AAM, which represents generic drugmakers, including Teva Pharmaceuticals, said taxes on opioids ‘undermine generic competition and increase prices for patients,’” while additional pushback has come from advocates who worry it would affect acute pain patients who are not specifically carved out in the bill,” such as the National Council on Independent Living.

LEWANDOWSKI WANTED A SEVERANCE TO LEAVE TRUMP SUPER PAC: When top members of former President Donald Trump’s circle moved to relieve Corey Lewandowski from his role leading Trump’s super PAC following allegations Lewandowski sexually harassed a major donor, The Daily Beast’s Asawin Suebsaeng and Roger Sullenberger report, the former president’s first campaign manager sought to stay on before trying to extract a seven-figure payment in exchange for his resignation.

— “Two of the knowledgeable sources said the former 2016 Trump campaign manager’s demand was for hundreds of thousands of dollars,” according to Suebsaeng and Sullenberger. “But even though that Lewandowski super PAC — called Make America Great Again Action — currently sits on $6.58 million, mostly from Trump megadonors, he didn’t have the leverage he seemed to think he had. His fellow Trump lieutenants gave him a hard no. ‘It doesn’t matter if he’d asked for five dollars, it wasn’t going to happen,’ one individual familiar with the situation noted bluntly. One person who was keen on Lewandowski walking away empty-handed was none other than his ex-boss and pal: former President Trump.”

— “Instead of grappling with the notoriously belligerent operative, however, his MAGA Action colleagues simply abandoned him. Within days of Lewandowski’s firing they’d spun up a new super PAC, with a strikingly familiar name: Make America Great Again, Again! A pointed press statement on Monday declared the new group ‘the ONLY Trump-approved super PAC,’ making no mention of the wayward former leader by name.”

INTRODUCING CONGRESS MINUTES: Need to follow the action on Capitol Hill blow-by-blow? Check out Minutes, POLITICO’s new platform that delivers the latest exclusives, twists and much more in real time. Get it on your desktop or download the POLITICO mobile app for iOS or Android. GET A FIRST LOOK AT CONGRESS MINUTES HERE.

BIG TOBACCO’S EXCISE TAX THREAT: “A group tied to major cigarette manufacturers is warning Congress that if lawmakers tax tobacco to help pay for President Joe Biden’s domestic agenda, suppliers will market smokes to children,” POLITICO’s Hailey Fuchs writes. “That was the not-so-subtle message made last month by a coalition of trade associations, including the National Association of Convenience Stores, as Congress began hammering out the specifics of the president’s Build Back Better bill.”

— “Though the e-cigarette and tobacco company names aren’t directly on the letter, the convenience store association counts as its members some of the biggest names in the industry: Altria Group, Reynolds American Inc., and JUUL Labs , the e-cigarette giant that has faced a myriad of probes of its own into whether the company has marketed towards children. Just this week, in fact, the trade association announced that top executives from the tobacco and vaping companies had taken on a leadership position in the lobby group.”

— The trade associations warned in their letter to House leaders and tax writers last month “that if the price of tobacco products spikes, buyers would move to the tobacco black market, where sellers don’t abide by standard regulations and often prey on young people. ‘When the price of a product rises too much too fast, illicit purveyors will seize the opportunity to exploit and take advantage of current users and entice new users without discriminating based on age,’ the letter read. ‘This undermines the responsible measures our retailers have taken and creates a problem for society as a whole.’ The warning is one of the most public cases of pushback from the tobacco industry as it finds itself once more being targeted by Congress.”

IS FACEBOOK HAVING ITS ‘BIG TOBACCO’ MOMENT?: “Lawmakers say that testimony from Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen is galvanizing members of both parties to unify behind sweeping proposals targeting social media companies, after years of stalled attempts, with some calling it the tech industry’s ‘Big Tobacco moment,’” according to The Washington Post’s Cat Zakrzewski.

— “This time feels distinctly different,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), chair of the Senate Commerce consumer protection subcommittee, told the Post. “The public has been engaged and outraged in a very different way.” Zakrzewski reports that “multiple lawmakers said Haugen’s Tuesday Senate subcommittee testimony, arguing that Facebook systematically placed profits over users’ well-being, marks a turning point in Congress’s long-running efforts to enact barriers for large social media companies.”

THE CHAMBER’S TROUBLES WITH REPUBLICANS: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s relationship with Hill Republicans continues to fray, as the business lobby works to pressure House members to support a bipartisan infrastructure bill, The Hill’s Karl Evers-Hillstrom reports. “House GOP leaders are at odds with every major business group, including the Business Roundtable and the National Association of Manufacturers, over the infrastructure package. But their disagreement with the Chamber is personal.”

— “Republicans were outraged when the Chamber, an organization often aligned with the GOP, endorsed nearly two dozen House Democrats in September 2020. At the time, [House Minority Leader Kevin] McCarthy said the Chamber had ‘sold out’ and boasted that he didn’t want the group’s endorsement.”

— Look no further than this comment from Brett Horton, chief of staff to House Minority Whip Steve Scalise , as the proof of the troubled relationship between party leadership and the historically GOP-aligned Chamber: “People care what their local Chambers of Commerce and business owners have to say, not the U.S. Chamber,” he told The Hill. “If the U.S. Chamber sent me a meeting request right now, I wouldn’t even staff that meeting out to an intern, and I don’t see that changing.” The Chamber, for its part, has pushed back on critics frustrated with the business group pushing a bill Democrats have linked to a larger social spending package, one the Chamber opposes, too.

Jobs Report

— Tyler Wilson has joined Strategies 360 as vice president in the Washington D.C. office. He previously served as chief of staff and campaign adviser to former Rep. Abby Finkenauer (D-Iowa).

— Jacob Fischler will be marketing and communications manager for Greenberg Traurig in their D.C. office. He was most recently PR manager at Hogan Lovells.

— Former Bernie Sanders operatives Bill Neidhardt, Anna Bahr and Karthik Ganapathy have launched Left Flank Strategies.

— Abbi Sothmann has been promoted to chief operating officer at Prime Policy Group . She was previously chief of staff.

— The Investment Company Institute’s board of governors has elected Yie-Hsin Hung, chief executive officer of New York Life Investment Management to serve as its chair, becoming the first woman or person of color to hold the role.

— Kayla Irby is joining the communications team at Invariant. She most recently was digital communications specialist at Pepco Holdings.

— Jamilia Headley is now co-executive director at Ady Barkan’s Be A Hero. She most recently was chief of staff at Center for Popular Democracy and Center for Popular Democracy Action.

— Juniper Downs is now global head of community policy and partnerships at Airbnb . She most recently was global director of public affairs for government affairs and public policy at Google and is a YouTube alum.

— Pyxis Partners is adding Jason Wallace and Monica Rodriguez as directors, Marlene Puthiyath as director of government affairs and Rachelle Ciulla as senior associate.

— Kevin Brinegar is now a comms manager at Purple Strategies. He previously was a regional communications manager for Stand Together.

— Emma Vahey has joined Invariant’s government relations team to focus on defense and appropriations clients. She was previously a public policy specialist at Squire Patton Boggs.

Be a Policy Pro. POLITICO Pro has a free policy resource center filled with our best practices on building relationships with state and federal representatives, demonstrating ROI, and influencing policy through digital storytelling. Read our free guides today .

New Joint Fundraisers

None.

New PACs

Anne Arundel Forward (Hybrid PAC)
Be True Blue PAC (Hybrid PAC)
Buckeye Leadership Fund, Inc. (Super PAC)
CITIZENS FOR CLEVELAND'S FUTURE (Super PAC)
HEAL PAC (PAC)
Matthew J Agee (Super PAC)

New Lobbying Registrations

Allegiance Consulting, LLC: Safe House Project
Avenue Solutions: The Metrohealth System
Blank Rome Government Relations: Jansy Packaging
Capitol City Group, Ltd.: Selo Investments, LLC
Capitol Counsel LLC: Food Fix Campaign Action, Inc.
Cfm Strategic Communications (Conkling Fiskum & Mccormick): Columbia River Mental Health
Cfm Strategic Communications (Conkling Fiskum & Mccormick): Skamania County Economic Development Council
Dla Piper LLP (US): Genentech USa, Inc.
Ecmc Shared Services Company, LLC (Obo Ecmc And Ecmc Education): Ecmc Shared Services Company, LLC (Obo Ecmc And Ecmc Education)
Invariant LLC: Scs Global
Key Bridge Advisors: Vaultlink
K&L Gates LLP: Coursera Inc.
Law Offices Of Scott J. Bloch, Pa: Ali Azemi F/B/O Union Association Of Imk Ex-Steel Pipe Factory Employees
Mcdermott+Consulting LLC: Outset Medical
Mercury Public Affairs, LLC: Academy Bus LLC
North South Government Strategies F/K/A Jdm Public Strategies, LLC: Visa, Inc.
Nvg, LLC: (Isc)2
Prime Policy Group: Romark
Reston Strategy Group, LLC: 535 Group, LLC On Behalf Of United Launch Alliance
Squire Patton Boggs: Danaher Corporation
Squire Patton Boggs: Percy Rockdale LLC
Squire Patton Boggs: Securities Industry And Financial Markets Association (Sifma)
Squire Patton Boggs: The Proof Of Trust
Summit Strategies Government Affairs LLC: Willamette Technical Fabricators
The Kpm Group Dc LLC: Rare Disease Company Coalition
The Normandy Group, LLC: Advanced Management Strategies Group, Inc.
The Raben Group: United States Cannabis Council
Venn Strategies: Aarp

New Lobbying Terminations

Colyandro + Frank Public Affairs: American Federation For Children, Inc.
Keefe Singiser Partners: Subject Matter
Mr. J. Keith Kennedy: Nuclear Energy Institute
Mr. J. Keith Kennedy: Palantir
Norton Rose Fulbright US LLP: Canadian National Railway
Skladany Consulting LLC: Akin Gump On Behalf Of Workhorse Group
Vicki J Hicks: Bird Shippers Of America

A message from the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network:

For every person who has cervical cancer detected early through the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program (NBCCEDP), nine others don’t have the chance. We must end this divide.

The NBCCEDP provides lifesaving cancer screenings in low-income communities and to uninsured and underinsured Americans, but fewer than 2 in 10 eligible people received breast or cervical cancer screenings through this critical safety net program. Increased funding for the NBCCEDP can help ensure more people get the care they need from the program and may even save states money on treatment costs when cancer is detected at earlier stages.

Tell Congress to take action and prioritize health. Tell Congress to increase funding for the NBCCEDP.