Top Harris adviser heads to K Street — Sanford joins Shumaker — Lot Sixteen adds 3

From: POLITICO Influence - Tuesday Mar 30,2021 08:02 pm
Delivered daily, Influence gives you a comprehensive rundown and analysis of all lobby hires and news on K Street.
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By Caitlin Oprysko

With Daniel Lippman

HARRIS AIDE HEADS TO K STREET: One of Vice President Kamala Harris’ top aides when she was in the Senate is heading to K Street. Yasmin Rigney Nelson will become a partner at the lobbying firm Bracewell LLP, the firm announced, advising clients on energy tax issues, energy policy economic impacts, and environmental justice and equity issues. Before joining Harris’ office in 2017, Nelson also worked for Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and for the Senate Finance Committee under Ron Wyden (D-Ore.). She also served as president of the Senate Black Legislative Staff Caucus.

— As PI reported last summer, Harris doesn’t have quite as many alumni scattered about K Street as her new boss, who’s been in Washington for decades. The veep’s first legislative director, Clint Odom, is the senior vice president of policy and advocacy at the National Urban League. Grant Barbosa is now an in-house lobbyist for Emergent BioSolutions, the pharmaceutical company President Joe Biden scrapped a visit to earlier this month. Lartease Tiffith, a former senior counsel to Harris, is now an in-house lobbyist for Amazon. And Sergio Gonzales, a former immigration adviser, is now the executive director of the immigration advocacy group Immigration Hub.

SANFORD JOINING SHUMAKER: Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford is joining Shumaker Advisors as an executive vice president and principal as the firm looks to strengthen its Florida and Ohio-heavy footprint in the Carolinas. Sanford, who also served twice in Congress and mounted a short-lived presidential primary challenge to then-President Donald Trump, will not register to lobby, he told PI in an interview. He responded that he has a “blank slate” when asked what kinds of clients he’d be working with.

Good afternoon and welcome to PI. Send K Street tips and gossip: coprysko@politico.com. And follow me on Twitter: @caitlinoprysko.

 

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FIRST IN PI — LOT SIXTEEN ADDS 3: The lobbying and public affairs firm Lot Sixteen has hired Brian Hughes as executive vice president and Jennifer Storipan and Ryan Nickel as vice presidents. Hughes was previously the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee’s Republican staff director. Storipan was previously executive director of the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration and is also a former aide to Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio). And Nickel was previously communications director for Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.).

SMALL SELLERS LOOK TO STAND THEIR GROUND AMID AMAZON ANTIPATHY: Nearly half a dozen tech companies engaging in smaller-scale e-commerce than sites like Amazon, which has earned the ire of Washington, launched a new coalition today aimed at ensuring their business models don’t get swept up in any crackdown on their larger rival. The Coalition to Protect America’s Small Sellers — formed by eBay, Etsy, Mercari, OfferUp and Poshmark — will work “to educate policymakers on the benefits of their eCommerce business models while also working collaboratively with policymakers to find thoughtful solutions to consumer protection, competition and economic development issues impacting their industries,” according to a news release.

— The group, which has retained Thorn Run Partners to lobby on its behalf, will first target the INFORM Consumers Act. The bill would direct online platforms that allow third-party sellers to authenticate the identity of high-volume third-party sellers and force platforms to make available contact information for such sellers, and has the backing of a broad coalition of retailers, trade groups, manufacturers and more.

— PASS argues that its requirements could be too burdensome or compromise the privacy of sellers on its members’ marketplaces, whom it wants to protect from “inadvertent harm from otherwise well-intentioned legislation,” said Nathan Garnett, general counsel of OfferUp.

REMEMBER THIS GUY?: P. Brennan Hart III — the senior Trump appointee at the General Services Administration who made headlines after the 2019 publication of an investigation that found he had oral sex with a White House official on the agency’s roof — “is back on the public political scene, having launched a new political action committee called the American Business Federation,” Insider’s Robin Bravender and Dave Levinthal report.

— Hart, who has since been working at the consulting firm Three Rivers Solutions, LLC, “is the only official listed on the fundraising group's paperwork,” which doesn’t make clear what the PAC’s mission is or whom it will support.

THE RIGHT GEARS UP TO FIGHT BIDEN TAX INCREASES: Top Republican operatives, including former Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, Marc Short, are banding together to scramble the White House’s plans to finance a massive infrastructure package through tax hikes, Axios’ Jonathan Swan reports.

— The group, called the Coalition to Protect American Workers, “plans to spend at least $25 million on TV and digital ads and organizing” and will “target members of Congress considering backing Biden's plans, including moderate and vulnerable House Democrats in swing districts. The source also said the group may target Republican members who may be tempted to vote for the tax increases to fund” the plan, which Biden will begin to roll out tomorrow.

FORMER JOURNALISTS LAUNCH PR FIRM: Jeff Goldberg , previously the Northern Virginia bureau chief for WJLA-TV, and Kyle Lanningham, a former photojournalist, have teamed up to launch Emerson Street Media, a firm offering PR services as well as video production, social media and crisis communications. It is named for the many conversations in Lanningham’s backyard, where the idea was hatched.

WHERE CORPORATE MONEY *IS* FLOWING: “As House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) prepares for an intense primary election, business PACs are giving her an early fundraising boost,” OpenSecretsKarl Evers-Hillstrom reports. “Through the first two months of the year, Cheney is the No. 2 recipient of donations from PACs associated with corporations and trade associations, trailing only Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer for the top spot among all members of Congress.”

BUSINESS LEADERS PRESS SCHUMER, WHITE HOUSE TO REPEAL SALT CAP: “Leaders of the finance industry and other businesses in New York are pushing President Joe Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who represents the state, to bring back the full state and local tax deduction,” CNBC’s Brian Schwartz reports. Schumer “signaled as recently as Friday that he plans to bring up the return of the full deduction when negotiations begin over reforming the tax code as a means to pay for Biden’s next initiatives, including rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure.”

IF YOU MISSED IT MONDAY: The New Yorker’s Jane Meyer obtained audio of a conference call between a senior adviser to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and leaders of conservative groups like the Koch-backed Stand Together in which a research director for the group discussed polling for congressional Democrats’ voting rights and ethics reform bill, conceding that it “was so popular that it wasn’t worth trying to mount a public-advocacy campaign to shift opinion,” and that the best route for killing the bill would be “‘under-the-dome-type strategies’—meaning legislative maneuvers beneath Congress’s roof, such as the filibuster.”

 

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Jobs Report

Sean Memon has joined the D. E. Shaw group as a senior vice president in the firm’s legal & compliance department, where he will serve as chief of staff. He was most recently chief of staff at the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Chris Pernie is now an executive director of state and federal government affairs at Novo Nordisk. He was most recently executive director of federal government affairs at Bristol Myers Squibb.

Adrienne Harris is now a senior adviser at the Brunswick Group , Playbook reports. She most recently worked at a San Francisco-based insurtech start-up, and is an Obama NEC alum.

— Ambassador Andrew Bremberg is joining the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation as president and CEO. He previously served as ambassador and permanent representative of the United States to the Office of the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva.

Izzy Olive is joining Trident DMG as an account manager, Huddle reports. She previously worked in Rep. Eric Swalwell’s (D-Calif.) office.

Katie Ott will be senior director of government affairs at Breakthrough Energy , per Playbook. She previously was director of federal government affairs at Exelon.

— Former Rep. Francis Rooney (R-Fla.) has joined the advisory board of the Partnership for Responsible Growth, Morning Energy reports.

New Joint Fundraisers

None.

New PACs

ALASKA FIRST (Super PAC)
American Business Federation (PAC)
MISSION FIRST PEOPLE ALWAYS PAC (PAC)
Trenton Crossing Fund (Super PAC)

New Lobbying Registrations

Banner Public Affairs, LLC: St. Louis Symphony Orchestra
Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP: Invest In Education Coalition
Capitol City Group, Ltd.: Byd North America
Capitol City Group, Ltd.: Sk Innovation Co., Ltd.
Capitol Counsel, LLC: The Advertising Coalition
Capitol Integration: Hypergiant
Dunham Law & Policy Pllc: Green Chemistry & Commerce Council, Inc.
Empire Consulting Group: Hannegan Landau Poersch & Rosenbaum Advocacy LLC (For Palantir Technologies Inc)
Hogan Lovells US LLP: Digital Diagnostics Inc (Fka: Idx Technologies Inc.)
Hogan Lovells US LLP: National Association Of Acos
Hogan Lovells US LLP: Soleo Health
Khoury Johnson Leavitt: Insight
Lot Sixteen LLC: Baker Hughes Company
Lot Sixteen LLC: Broad Reach Power
Lot Sixteen LLC: Zero Emissions Transportation Association (Zeta)
Mccarter & English, LLP: Ed Farm
Mccarter & English, LLP: Science In Donation
Mclarty Inbound LLC: Pt Bukalapak.Com
Mclarty Inbound LLC: Pt Tokopedia
Mirsonia Group: Puerto Rico Statehood Council
Phoenix Global Organization Incorporated: Swiss Centurion Financial Guarantor Services LLC
Phoenix Global Organization Incorporated: Swiss Centurion Global Underwriting Group Inc.
Phoenix Global Organization Incorporated: Swiss Centurion Underwriting Services Inc.
The Ferguson Group, LLC: Brookhaven, Ga - City Of
Theodore Sitther: Alliance For Peacebuilding
Thorn Run Partners: Amplifon USA
Thorn Run Partners: Institutional Limited Partners Association
Thorn Run Partners: Protect America's Small Sellers Coalition (Loosely Formed Coalition)
Thorn Run Partners: PTC Therapeutics, Inc.
Thorn Run Partners: Reading Is Fundamental, Inc
Tides Group, LLC: Proctoru Inc.
Van Scoyoc Associates: Interstate Council On Water Policy

New Lobbying Terminations

10-Square Solutions: Triwest Healthcare Alliance
Capitol Hill Consulting Group: Waste Management, Inc.
Capitol Integration: Davinci In Flight Training
Capitol Integration: Nammo Perry, Inc
Ms. Barbara Burchett: Concrete Reinforcing Steel Institute

 

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