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Delivered daily, Influence gives you a comprehensive rundown and analysis of all lobby hires and news on K Street. | | | | | |  | | By Caitlin Oprysko | With Daniel Lippman HOW DO YOU PUT ON A VIRTUAL FLY-IN?: When the world shut down a year ago this week due to the mushrooming coronavirus outbreak, K Street and many of the nation’s trade organizations were forced to make adjustments on the fly like every other industry, and that included making changes to a springtime Washington mainstay, the fly-in, which was forced from the halls of Congress onto Zoom (or Teams, or Webex). — A year later fly-ins are still taking place virtually, but K Street has learned from the growing pains of last spring. The demand for advice about putting on a successful virtual fly-in rose to the point that JTR Strategies along with Liberty Plain Consulting, put together a one-sheeter for clients with tips for putting on a virtual fly-in without a hitch. — “It's not rocket science,” said Suzi Emmerling, who helped compile the tipsheet along with JTR founder Jenny Rosenberg . “But it's also like, if everybody did it, it would be a better meeting.” Their tips include being organized and doing your homework ahead of meetings, as well as doing a test run of tech platforms and ensuring good sound quality and lighting. They also recommend having a back-up plan in place in case of tech failures, making the most of your time with succinct messaging and making presentations and meetings interactive and visually stimulating. — “It's really important for our clients to be prepared with concise materials, concise messaging, so that they can get their point across virtually,” Rosenberg said in an interview this week, noting that although the lack of travel time from meeting to meeting allows lobbyists to fit more in, “you, unfortunately, have lost the face-to-face contact that is such an essential part of lobbying.” — Meetings have also become more choreographed, said Tori Barnes , the chief lobbyist for the U.S. Travel Association. Lobbyists, she said, “kind of had to help guide a little bit more of the transition than we would normally do during a client meeting.” She added that clear, well-articulated asks keep meetings from feeling like an information overload. — But while lobbyists are itching to get back to face-to-face meetings, with Rosenberg emphasizing the importance of fly-ins to industries hit hard by the pandemic, Barnes, who said that there are a record number of participants signed up for her trade group’s fly-in later this month, noted that one upside to the shift online is that it’s created opportunities for trade associations with smaller budgets. FORMER CHAIR CHECK: Former House Ag Chair Collin Peterson has formed a strategic consulting partnership with agriculture lobbying firm Combest, Sell & Associates. The longtime Minnesota Democrat, who lost reelection last fall, “will not lobby in the near term,” the firm said, but will advise Combest Sell clients, which include groups like the South Carolina Peach Council, the American Sugar Alliance, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association and National Sorghum Producers. — Meanwhile former House Armed Services Chair Mac Thornberry, who retired earlier this year, has been appointed to the advisory board of the space imaging company Hawkeye 360 along with several other former senior national security officials, Morning Defense reports. Peterson and Thornberry are the latest former committee chairs to go into the private sector out of this year’s class of departing lawmakers, joining Peterson’s GOP counterpart Mike Conaway and former Energy & Commerce Chair Greg Walden, who started their own lobbying and consultancy shops respectively. Good afternoon and welcome to PI. Got lobbying tips? My inbox is open: coprysko@politico.com. As are my DMs: @caitlinoprysko. | | | | SUBSCRIBE TO “THE RECAST” TO JOIN AN IMPORTANT CONVERSATION: Power dynamics are changing. “Influence” is changing. More people are demanding a seat at the table, insisting that all politics is personal and not all policy is equitable. “The Recast” is our new twice-weekly newsletter that breaks down how race and identity are recasting politics, policy and power in America. And POLITICO is recasting how we report on this crucial intersection, bringing you fresh insights, scoops, dispatches from across the country and new voices that challenge “business as usual.” Don’t miss out on this important new newsletter, SUBSCRIBE NOW. Thank you to our sponsor, Intel. | | | | | CLARK LAYS OUT HER VISION FOR CHAMBER: Suzanne Clark has officially taken over as president and chief executive of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and laid out her vision and immediate priorities in an address to the business group’s board of directors today, according to the group, as well as in a blog post. — Clark announced several new initiatives: One aimed at bolstering the Chamber’s influence on the local level and fighting back “a rash of new challenges emerging in the states” from tech to energy policy, and another aimed at addressing short-term issues like the millions of unemployed workers as a result of the pandemic, but also longer-term challenges like worker shortages, and vowed to defeat the PRO Act, a sweeping labor overhaul, in the Senate. — But Clark takes over the powerful business lobby as Republicans, previously its key constituency, fume at the trade group over its relatively warm early embrace of the Biden administration and decision last year to back some House Democrats. Just yesterday, referring to Democrats the Chamber endorsed voting in totality for the PRO Act, conservative radio star Hugh Hewitt declared the Chamber’s “collapse … complete,” writing in a tweet that “members should either force a wholesale change of leadership or flee” and that the group had betrayed its members and its legacy. — Meanwhile a recent poll of about 1,200 Republican voters nationwide conducted by Tony Fabrizio, former President Donald Trump ’s pollster, showed the Chamber with -1 percent net favorability (though nearly 4 in 10 Republicans had no opinion), compared to 63 percent favorability for the National Rifle Association. INSIDE THE WAR OVER RUSSIA AT THE ATLANTIC COUNCIL: “In a very rare public battle at a prominent Washington, D.C., think tank, almost two dozen employees and fellows at the Atlantic Council have issued a statement slamming two of their colleagues for writing what they see as a pro-Russia article on the think tank’s website,” POLITICO’s Daniel Lippman reports, with some staffers expressing worry that “the article was, or might be viewed as, a shoddy work product influenced by a $4.5 million donation over five years to the Atlantic Council from Charles Koch , who advocates for less American intervention abroad.” — Fred Kempe, the think tank’s chief executive, told Daniel that such fears are “an outrageous charge” and emphasized the Atlantic Council doesn’t take funding “that doesn’t include intellectual independence for the Atlantic Council.” BAUCUS JOINS CRYPTO EXCHANGE: Max Baucus , a former Senate Finance chair and ambassador to China, has joined the cryptocurrency exchange Binance Holdings. Baucus will serve as a policy and government relations adviser to Binance, a role that will include meeting with U.S. officials “on best practice and policies affecting the industry,” according to a spokesperson. He will not lobby for the company, but his hiring comes as U.S. policymakers weigh new regulations for the sector. NEW CANNABIS COALITION VIEWS LEGALIZATION AS A WHEN, NOT AN IF: “A new cannabis coalition made up of a wide variety of national corporations, including tobacco and alcohol firms, launched today with the purpose of influencing policy and potentially shaping the first federal cannabis regulations,” POLITICO’s Natalie Fertig writes, noting that the group “is operating under the premise that federal legalization is inevitable and is enlisting a group of cannabis policy experts to help guide their efforts.” — The group, called the Coalition for Cannabis Policy, Education, and Regulation, includes members like Altria, the tobacco giant, Constellation Brands, the parent company behind beers like Modelo and Corona, Molson Coors Beverage Company, the Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers, the Brink’s Company, the Convenience Distribution Association and the National Association of Convenience Stores. REDDITORS TAKE THE ‘MEME STOCK’ FIGHT OFFLINE: “A pair of part-time stock traders has launched a Super PAC to ‘amplify the voice of the retail investor’ as the rise of Reddit-fueled ‘meme stocks’ like GameStop has rattled big hedge funds and caught the attention of regulators and politicians in Washington,” the New York Post’s Thornton McEnery reports. Day traders Chad Minnis and Christian Freed filed paperwork to register the PAC, called “WeLikeTheStock.wtf,” with the FEC last month. — “According to Minnis, WeLikeTheStock’s first goal is to raise enough money to purchase a full-page ad in The New York Times to debunk hostile media coverage of retail traders that have used Reddit and the Robinhood trading app to pump stocks at the expense of big hedge funds long accustomed to controlling the market.” | | | | FIND OUT THE LATEST WHISPERS FROM THE WEST WING: Add Transition Playbook to your daily reads to find out what's really happening inside the West Wing, who really has the president's ear, and get the latest scoop from inside cabinet departments and agencies. Track the people, policies and emerging power centers of the Biden administration. Don’t miss out. Subscribe today. | | | | | | | | — Sarah Shive is now partner at Capitol Tax Partners. She was previously vice president and counsel at the Information Technology Industry Council and is a Debbie Stabenow alum. — Andrew Smith will be the executive director of the Association of Dental Support Organizations. Smith was previously executive vice president of government relations and external affairs for Parallel (formerly Surterra Wellness) and is a Terry McAuliffe alum. — Adriana McLamb has joined Independent Women’s Forum as digital marketing manager. She was previously a digital strategist at Stand Together. — Randell Gartin is now a Managing Director at EY. He was previously subcommittee staff director for select revenue measures for House Ways and Means Republicans. — Billy Easley is joining Reddit as U.S. policy manager. He previously worked on tech and criminal justice policy at Americans for Prosperity. | | | FRANKLIN VICTORY FUND (Rep. Scott Franklin (R-Fla.), NRCC, Ceiling and Visibility Unlimited PAC) | | | Defend the American Dream PAC (Super PAC)
Elect Principled Veterans Fund (EPV Fund) (Super PAC)
PA Voices PAC (Super PAC)
Progressive Waves PAC (Super PAC) | | New Lobbying Registrations | | Akerman LLP: Liberty Latin America Ltd.
Carmen Guzman, LLC: Capital One Financial Corporation
Clark Street Associates: Bright Machines
Hammer Associates, LLC: Clean Energy Enterprises, Inc.
Holland & Knight LLP: T-Mobile US
K&L Gates LLP: Clark Street Associates On Behalf Of Bright Machines
K&L Gates LLP: Clark Street Associates On Behalf Of Trucklabs
K&L Gates LLP: Conservation International Foundation
K&L Gates LLP: Hyundai Motor Company, Ltd.
Peck Madigan Jones: Finseca
Peck Madigan Jones: Morphosys US Inc.
Peck Madigan Jones: Sb Group US Dba Softbank Group US, Inc.
Portsonic Communications, LLC: Portsonic Communications, LLC
Squire Patton Boggs: Musicfirst
Squire Patton Boggs: Study Edge
Ten Government Strategies, LLC: Dci Career Institute
Ten Government Strategies, LLC: Lancaster School Of Cosmetology & Therapeutic Bodywork
Van Scoyoc Associates: Atruity Federal, LLC
Venable LLP: Eagle Lng Partners
Venable LLP: Sea Machines Robotics, Inc.
Waneta Strategies, LLC: Lynk
Wiley Rein LLP: Coalition Of American Chassis Manufacturers | | New Lobbying Terminations | | Bluebird Bio, Inc.: Bluebird Bio Inc
K&L Gates LLP: The Business Roundtable, Inc.
K&L Gates LLP: Williams & Lake LLC | | | | Follow us | | | | |  |
