BGR snaps up Urban

From: POLITICO Influence - Wednesday Apr 06,2022 08:39 pm

Apr 06, 2022

Presented by U.S. Travel Association

With Daniel Lippman

FIRST IN PI — URBAN HEADING TO BGR: David Urban, the longtime president of the American Continental Group (now ACG Advocacy) who abruptly left in 2020 to become executive vice president of North American corporate affairs for TikTok parent company ByteDance, is returning to the multiclient world, joining BGR Group as managing director.

— Urban was one of the few lobbyists in town with a personal relationship with former President Donald Trump , and is credited with helping Trump win Pennsylvania in the 2016 election. Urban left the firm just weeks before the election in 2020 to become executive vice president for North American corporate affairs at ByteDance, the Chinese company that feuded with the Trump administration over its ownership of TikTok. He left ByteDance earlier this year and had been interviewing at firms around town to determine the best fit, Urban told PI.

— “David Urban will be a tremendous asset to all of BGR’s clients,” BGR founding partner Haley Barbour said in a statement. “His broad experience in both the public and private sectors is unparalleled. His insights into communications, policy, law, and politics make him uniquely suited to the BGR team. We are thrilled to have him on board.”

— Urban represented several high-profile clients at ACG — including Zoom, during the earliest days of the pandemic, 7-Eleven, Blackstone Group, Comcast and Toyota. PI reported at the time that several of the dozen clients that parted ways with American Continental Group following Urban’s departure had retained the firm because of him and left when he did. ByteDance retained ACG through the end of 2020.

— Before ACG, Urban served as chief of staff to Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter, a former chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and remains a force in Pennsylvania politics, advising hedge fund manager David McCormick in his Senate bid there. “When people think of Pennsylvania, they think of David Urban,” Rep. G.T. Thompson (R-Pa.) said in a statement. “Arlen Specter, Rick Santorum , Pat Toomey, and scores of others have turned to David for his insight and assistance. I have appreciated the opportunity to rely on David's Pennsylvania knowledge and public policy experience as well.”

Good afternoon and welcome to PI. Tips: coprysko@politico.com. Twitter: @caitlinoprysko.

A message from U.S. Travel Association:

The travel industry was disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. Domestic business travel spending remains 56% below 2019 levels and international travel spending remains down 78%. This week at the U.S. travel industry’s annual legislative fly-in, we will call on Congress to help rebuild the workforce, reignite in-person meetings and events, and push to restore international inbound travel. The travel industry is critical to the United States’ global competitiveness. When travel thrives, so does America.

FIRST IN PI — TUSK GOES BICOASTAL: New York-based consulting firm Tusk Strategies is expanding westward, opening an office in Los Angeles to be helmed by Executive Vice President Jackie Zupsic . The consultancy, which also has offices in Miami and Chicago, advised a number of California-based startups, including Uber, Bird, Kodiak, Procore and Latch. Now it’s looking to gain a foothold in the state to grow its business with local industries, such as tech and entertainment, and delve into local issues.

— “Establishing a formal presence in California, a state that has birthed some of our most innovative start-up campaigns including Uber and Bird, is a natural next step in our growth as a firm,” co-chief executive Matt Yale said in a statement. “We look forward to taking on and winning more fights out west and doubling down on all California has to offer, from talent to industry breadth.”

FLY-IN SZN: Fly-ins are returning to the nation’s capital in full force as groups such as Autos Drive America throw their first in-person fly-ins since before the pandemic. The group, which represents international automakers operating in the U.S., hosted Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, Majority Whip Jim Clyburn and Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Ala.) to meet with the group’s CEO, Jennifer Safavian, and representatives from BMW, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Mitsubishi Motors, Nissan, Subaru, Toyota, Volkswagen and Volvo.

— Meanwhile, the U.S. Travel Association has meetings scheduled throughout the week with more than 230 offices as the association pushes for the end of Covid-era travel restrictions, visa reforms to ease labor shortages, and an extension and temporary restoration of several key tax breaks to jump-start lackluster business travel.

— The American Bar Association is keeping its annual fly-in virtual for the third year in a row, but will feature guests such as Angelina Jolie , who will discuss the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. Other speakers will include Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa).

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CONSERVATIVES’ NEW BIG MONEY PLAY: “A new coalition of wealthy conservative benefactors that says it aims to ‘disrupt but advance the Republican agenda’ gathered this week for a private summit in South Florida that included closed-door addresses from former President Donald J. Trump and an allied Senate candidate at Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club,” The New York Times’ Ken Vogel, Shane Goldmacher and Ryan Mac report.

— “The coalition, called the Rockbridge Network, includes some of Mr. Trump’s biggest donors, such as Peter Thiel and Rebekah Mercer, and has laid out an ambitious goal — to reshape the American right by spending more than $30 million on conservative media, legal, policy and voter registration projects, among other initiatives.”

— “The emergence of Rockbridge, the existence of which has not previously been reported, comes amid escalating jockeying among conservative megadonors to shape the 2022 midterms and the future of the Republican Party from outside the formal party machinery, and often with little disclosure. In February, another previously unreported coalition of donors, the Chestnut Street Council, organized by the Trump-allied lobbyist Matt Schlapp , held a meeting to hear a pitch for new models for funding the conservative movement.”

— “The jockeying highlights frustration on the right with the political infrastructure that surrounds the Republican Party, and, in some cases, with its politicians, as well as disagreements about its direction as Mr. Trump teases another presidential run.”

WHAT’S NEXT FOR NEXTGEN, STEYER: Times are a-changin’ at billionaire climate philanthropist Tom Steyer’s NextGen America, per Puck’s Theodore Schleifer, as new president Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez takes over at the group and Steyer nudges it “to become a more self-sustaining organization and not so dependent on the largesse of its founder.”

— “In the aftermath of Biden’s election, Steyer has been thinking more seriously about how he should spend his time, according to people close to him. The politics of climate, his true passion, look a lot different now from when he started this work at the dawn of the Obama administration. ‘His mindshare for the last ten years has been: how do we get the politics of climate right in the first place? His mindshare now is: how do we fund the next generation of companies to solve for this?’” a person in Steyer’s orbit told Schleifer, arguing the group has “‘gotten politics where it needs to be on the Democratic side.’”

— “And so last year, Steyer launched a new climate-focused investment shop called Galvanize, partnering with Katie Hall, a top Silicon Valley wealth manager and longtime Steyer friend. To some extent, the move connoted a new theory of change: Political advocacy is important, but so is private-sector innovation.”

— “Steyer’s new lease on life is not just ‘different vibes’ for NextGen as one person put it — there’s real structural change afoot,” with an expansion of the group’s board and the creation of a 501(c)3 spinoff “that broadens the pool of possible supporters by allowing NextGen to raise money from private foundations for less overtly political programming.”

GAMBLING TRADE GROUP ADDS 3: The American Gaming Association has announced a slate of new hires and promotions. Tres York is joining the trade group as senior director for government relations from the National Conference of State Legislatures, while Christopher Browne is joining from the Washington Nationals as director of media relations. Annabelle Goese is joining AGA as senior manager of member services from Resources for the Future.

— The association promoted Alex Costello to vice president of government relations, David Forman to vice president of research, Gabrielle Voorhees to vice president of finance and operations and Brandon Leggiero to senior director of member and partner relations.

SPOTTED at a Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy reception at the Council on Foreign Relations, per a PI tipster: Nobel Peace Prize nominee and former Undersecretary of State Keith Krach , Krach Institute Director Bonnie Glick, Estonian Ambassador to the U.S. Kristjan Prikk, Japanese Ambassador to the U.S. Tamaki Tsukada, deputy head of Mission of Israel to the U.S. Benjamin Krasna, former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues Kelley Currie, Robert Kimmitt of WilmerHale, Brazilian Ambassador to the U.S. Nestor Forster Jr., Mung Chiang of the Purdue College of Engineering, Naofa Noll, Amy Greenan and Kennedy Lee of the Krach Institute, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Len Khodorkovsky and Ron Bonjean of ROKK Solutions.

A message from U.S. Travel Association:

Jobs Report

— Kristina Schake has been named executive vice president for global comms at the Walt Disney Co. She most recently led Biden’s Covid vaccine education campaign at HHS, and is an Instagram, Hillary for America and Obama White House alum.

— Ruben Gonzales is joining the White House’s Presidential Personnel Office as special assistant to the president for domestic agency personnel. He’s currently at the LGBTQ Victory Institute, where he leads its personnel work, and is a CHC Institute alum.

— Jason Yen has joined EY as a principal with its international tax and transaction services team. He was previously associate international tax counsel at Treasury.

— Former Sen. Tom Daschle was appointed chair of the National Democratic Institute following the death of its previous chair, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

— James Steinberg is joining Dentons Global Advisors-Albright Stonebridge Group as a senior counselor, per Playbook. He currently is dean of Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, and is an Obama State Department and Clinton White House alum.

— Leslie Riegle has joined Boom Supersonic, a company designing supersonic passenger planes, as senior director, U.S. policy, Morning Transportation reports. Prior to Boom, Riegle spent more than 11 years at AIA in various senior roles.

— Mark Paustenbach has joined Assemble as a partner and head of strategic advisory and communications services, per Playbook. He previously was senior vice president at Rokk Solutions, and is a Biden and Treasury alum.

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New Joint Fundraisers

NewDem Spring Victory Fund (Reps. Mikie Sherrill, Angie Craig, New Democrat Coalition Action Fund)
Quartey Gordon Chen Fund (Quartey for Congress, Jackie Gordon for Congress, Jay Chen for Congress)
Representation Matters: Build the House (Jackie Gordon for Congress, Emilia Sykes for Congress, One Voice)

New PACs

Americans for Human Values Political Action Committee (PAC)
Black Women Run Political Action Committee (PAC)
Common Sense Kentucky PAC (Super PAC)
DAO for America (Hybrid PAC)
Opportunity for Tomorrow (Super PAC)
Protect Our School Boards PAC (PAC)
SAAB, INC. EMPLOYEES POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE (SAAB PAC) (PAC)
Voters for West Virginia Values (Super PAC)

New Lobbying Registrations

Acg Advocacy: Korean Air Co., Ltd
Adams And Reese, LLP: Radiance Technologies, Inc.
Bridge Public Affairs, LLC: Empire Communities
Capitol Venture LLC: Amazon Web Services, Inc.
Chartwell Strategy Group LLC: Sk Hynix America, Inc.
Fulcrum Public Affairs LLC: Association Of Young Americans
Fulcrum Public Affairs LLC: Scott's Miracle-Gro
Fulcrum Public Affairs LLC: US Against Alzheimers
Hbw Resources: Spotter Rf
Holland & Knight LLP: USa Strong, Inc.
Invariant LLC: Charter Communications Inc.
K&L Gates, LLP: Wateraid America, Inc.
Park Government Relations, LLC: Medicom Technologies, Inc
Putalastrategies: Acg Advocacy (On Behalf Of Korean Air Co., Ltd.)
Rolka Loube Saltzer LLC, Dba Rolka Loube: Rolka Loube Saltzer LLC, Dba Rolka Loube
Washington2 Advocates: Unison Software, Inc.

New Lobbying Terminations

Agm Consulting Services, Inc.: Willbrook Solutions Inc.
Bernstein Strategy Group: National Education Association
Hbw Resources: The Miccosukee Tribe Of Indians Of Florida
Putalastrategies: Temptime Corporation
The Petrizzo Group, Inc.: Magnolia Medical Technologies
Venable LLP: Agility Public Warehousing Company Kscp
Venable LLP: Edison Electric Institute

A message from U.S. Travel Association:

Restore international inbound travel. NOW is the time for the Biden administration to remove the pre-departure testing requirement and the federal mask mandate for transportation, given the improved public health landscape. After months of border closures, international inbound travel is still down 78% from pre-pandemic levels, hurting communities around the country. With pandemic-era restrictions still in effect—and with visitor visa processing delays at consulates around the world—international inbound travel cannot fully recover from pandemic-era losses.