Who wrote checks to Sinema and Manchin last quarter

By Caitlin Oprysko

Presented by HCA Healthcare

With Daniel Lippman

WHO WROTE CHECKS TO SINEMA AND MANCHIN LAST QUARTER: Democratic Sens. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia raked in cash last quarter from a bevy of corporations, executives and lobbyists working to pare back the Democratic reconciliation package that Sinema and Manchin have also been vocal opponents of, according to their latest campaign finance filings.

— Though neither senator is up for reelection for three more years, both reported raising more than $1 million from July through September — a fraction of what the chamber’s biggest fundraisers brought in last quarter but notable nonetheless. Sinema, who has emerged as the leading Democratic opponent in the Senate to her party’s drug pricing proposal, received more than $27,000 from PACs of pharmaceutical companies, including Astellas, Sunovion, Takeda, Horizon, Eli Lilly, Abbvie, Alexion and Lundbeck during that time — which POLITICO’s Hailey Fuchs reports is “up from $5,000 in the three months prior.”

— Sinema also hauled in money from top pharma leaders like Gilead Chief Executive Daniel O’Day, who gave $5,000. Eli Lilly Chief Executive David Ricks, Merck board Chair Kenneth Frazier and Bristol Myers Squibb Chair and Chief Executive Giovanni Caforio all maxed out to Sinema, while Genentech Chief Executive Alexander Hardy gave $2,500. A pair of in-house lobbyists for PhRMA, Jennifer Bryant and Anne Esposito, and Debra DeShong, the drug lobby’s executive vice president for public affairs, all gave $1,000.

— Donors to Manchin, who chairs the Senate’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee and has criticized the reconciliation bill’s climate provisions — including the Clean Electricity Performance Program, which would pay utilities to increase their use of renewables and fine those that don't — include ConocoPhillips’ corporate PAC, which gave $2,500 and Pioneer Natural Resources’ corporate PAC, which gave $5,000. PACs for utility companies Duke Energy and Exelon Corp. both gave Manchin $5,000, while Dominion Energy’s PAC donated $2,500. Energy executives also poured money into Manchin’s coffers, with executives and employees at Valero Energy, Occidental Petroleum, Continental Resources, ConocoPhillips, the Plains All American Pipeline and Rising Star Petroleum giving tens of thousands of dollars.

— For both lawmakers, money also streamed in from K Street’s hired guns and companies’ in-house lobbyists. Steven Elmendorf, partner and co-founder at Subject Matter, gave Sinema $1,000. Arshi Siddiqui, a partner at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld and former aide to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, donated $2,400 to Sinema. Former Democratic senator-turned-lobbyist Thomas Daschle gave $2,900, while his son Nathan, who runs their lobbying firm The Daschle Group, gave her $1,000. David Jones, a partner at Capitol Counsel, also gave Sinema $1,000, as did Ervin Graves Strategies’ Jim Ervin and Joe Kasper. Leo Muñoz and Mitch Rose, in-house lobbyists at Comcast, gave $500 each.

— Meanwhile, Manchin received $1,000 from another former senator-turned-lobbyist, Louisiana Democrat Mary Landrieu. Van Ness Feldman’s Nancy Macan McNally and Richard Agnew each donated $750, while Putala Strategies’ Christopher Putala gave $5,800. Joe Britton, president of Pioneer Public Affairs, gave Manchin $1,000. Manchin also received $1,000 from former Rep. Steve Israel, who is not registered to lobby but is a senior counselor at the lobbying firm Michael Best Strategies.

— Manchin and Sinema also received donations from the tobacco industry, which has set its sights on tobacco and nicotine taxes that House Democrats proposed to help pay for the bill. The PAC for the National Association of Truckstop Operators, a group whose membership includes tobacco companies and which has fought the proposed taxes, gave Sinema $5,000 and Manchin $2,500. James Haslam, the chief executive of truckstop chain Pilot Flying J and secretary of the Truckstop Operators, gave $2,900 to both Manchin and Sinema, despite typically contributing heavily to Republicans. John Hoel, an in-house lobbyist for tobacco giant Altria, gave Sinema $500, while The Cigar Association of America’s PAC donated $1,000.

Happy Monday and welcome to PI. Send lobbying tips: coprysko@politico.com. And be sure to follow me on Twitter: @caitlinoprysko.

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ROKU GROWS ITS D.C. FOOTPRINT: “Roku is expanding its presence in Washington, a sign that the television streaming player is preparing for more scrutiny and advocacy in D.C. following recent policy battles with industry heavyweights including Google,” POLITICO’s John Hendel reports. “Saying it wants to more actively participate in tech policy discussions, the company said it is adding two new vice president positions based in D.C. — a head of government affairs and a senior policy counsel.”

— “Veteran media executive Jared Sher will fill the senior counsel role. He was most recently deputy general counsel for the cable trade group NCTA, where he led the team that represents content companies, and was previously an executive at 21st Century Fox.” Roku is also hiring a government affairs head who will work at “cultivating and maintaining” relationships with lawmakers, Capitol Hill staff and state policymakers, as well as building up a lobbying team, according to an online listing.

— The hires “are an expansion of lobbying begun during the Trump era. Roku brought on outside lobbyists at Hogan Lovells to advocate on net neutrality in the spring of 2017, when the FCC was gearing up to roll back the Obama-era regulations. The company has brought on other lobbying firms last year and this year, including last month revealing registrations of the Petrizzo Group and Tiber Creek Group to lobby on competition in the digital and streaming marketplaces,” paying the latter $40,000 last quarter, according to a disclosure.

— “As Roku’s popularity has grown, so have its protracted battles with other media companies over contract terms. Charter Communications and Roku tussled over how the cable company’s content would be available on Roku earlier this year, for instance. And Roku negotiated for months with AT&T last year before striking a deal for distributing its HBO Max content.”

HOW INTEL IS PITCHING THE CHIP FUNDING TO THE U.S.: “Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger is putting the pressure on the U.S. government to help subsidize chip manufacturing , insisting the current reliance on plants in Taiwan and Korea as ‘geopolitically unstable,’” Axios’ Ina Fried reports.

— "If the world becomes dependent on one location, that's not politically stable, right," Gelsinger told “Axios on HBO” on Sunday. “It also isn't practical. God decided where the oil reserves are. We can decide where the fabs are," he added. Though he “stopped short of saying that Intel can't afford its manufacturing effort without U.S. government money, but did say it can go bigger and faster with that funding."

— "‘We're investing $20 billion in capital this year. So we are gonna be spending our cash flows to build labs and fabs,’ Gelsinger said. ‘But we also — are looking for and — seeking subsidies — and support from governments.’ Gelsinger positioned it as a matter of the U.S. controlling its digital future. ‘Name anything that's more important than that to our nation.’”

MEET WASHINGTON’S CRYPTO LOBBYISTS: Insider’s Camila DeChalus took a look at the voices trying to shape the debate in Washington around the burgeoning crypto industry, including the Blockchain Association’s Kristin Smith, Scott Graves, founding principal of Conaway Graves Group, Klein/Johnson Group’s Matthew Johnson and Izzy Klein and more. “We are asking policymakers to take the time to learn about the technology first," Smith told Insider of the industry’s challenges in Washington. "There's a lot of nuances. It's a very sort of new way to structure a network to exchange value, and the old rules don't necessarily easily fit into this space."

A LOOK AT RUSSIA’S (DISCLOSED) INFLUENCE EFFORTS IN THE U.S.: “Russian media outlets reported spending more than $146 million on foreign influence operations and propaganda in the U.S. since 2016, with over $16 million on propaganda targeting the U.S. in 2021,” OpenSecrets’ Anna Massoglia reports.

— “And that’s just the spending that Russian foreign agents have disclosed to the Justice Department under FARA. The U.S. government has identified multiple online media sites that are directed by Russian intelligence services and not disclosed through FARA, spreading disinformation to undermine COVID-19 vaccines produced outside Russia. Social media platforms have also become a breeding ground for even more Russian propaganda campaigns that are often not disclosed in FARA filings.”

— “Faced with rising concerns about Russian interference in U.S. elections and foreign influence more generally, the Justice Department has compelled multiple broadcasters and other middlemen helping Russian propaganda efforts targeting the U.S. to register as foreign agents.” Moscow’s “top media spenders include RIA Novosti and Rossiya Segodnya, government entities that administer global broadcasts of Russian state-funded networks RT and Sputnik. In August 2020, Rossiya Segodnya contracted with Ghebi LLC, a Washington, D.C.-based production company incorporated by the editor-in-chief of a U.S. production company working for the Russian media entity called RIA Global. Since then, the LLC has reported more than $2.7 million in payments from the Russian government’s media entity that administers Sputnik.”

A message from HCA Healthcare:

At HCA Healthcare , we understand the healthcare insurance and billing processes can be confusing and stressful for patients. We provide assistance when people need it most, helping patients understand and access comprehensive programs designed to significantly reduce financial burden. We care for more Medicaid inpatients than any other U.S. health system, and we offer patients with no insurance, or exhausted insurance benefits, a discount (averaging 90% of the total bill) for emergency services.

— Kunal Khosla is joining Locust Street Group as a senior director. He was previously a vice president in BCW’s Direct Impact grassroots practice.

— Former U.S. Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott joined the Texas Public Policy Foundation as a senior distinguished fellow for border security.

— Phase 2 Consulting has named Cyd McKenna as president of the firm starting next month. She was most recently chief of staff at The Collective PAC.

— Julie McClure will be director of government affairs at Michael Torrey Associates. She was most recently science policy manager with the Agronomy, Crop, and Soil Science Societies.

— Pam Walker is joining VMware as director of U.S. federal government relations and lead for public sector and procurement policies. She previously spearheaded policy at Splunk and led public sector and procurement policy at the Information Technology Industry Council.

— Mike Schmuhl is joining Langley Cyber as principal and Eric Goldwater is joining as CFO. Schmuhl previously was national campaign manager of Pete Buttigieg’s presidential campaign, and Goldwater was CFO at SKDK.

— Tim McBride will become president of ST Engineering North America. He was most recently senior vice president of global government relations at Raytheon and is a United Technologies and George H.W. Bush alum.

— Lorraine Riffle Hawley is now vice president for global government relations at Kimberly-Clark. She most recently was senior director for international government relations at ADM and is a Chevron alum.

— PJ Newcomb will be head of environmental sustainability at Gap Inc. Newcomb most recently directed the North American World Without Waste program and managed carbon footprint and reduction initiatives at Coca-Cola.

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