Orioles lobby for federal cash for stadium redevelopment

From: POLITICO Influence - Friday Jul 07,2023 09:30 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 Megan R. Wilson, Daniel Lippman

BATTER LOBBY UP: The Baltimore Orioles have hired federal lobbyists for the first time, in a bid to snag federal funding for infrastructure improvements as part of plans to overhaul the franchise’s ballpark and surrounding areas.

Cornerstone Government Affairs’ John Bohanan, a former aide to ex-House Democratic majority leader and current House appropriator Steny Hoyer, and Todd Webster, a former aide to Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Senate Appropriations Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.), began lobbying for the Orioles at the beginning of June to rally Maryland’s congressional delegation in support of federal funding for infrastructure, transportation and homeland security investments around Baltimore, according to a newly filed disclosure.

— Cornerstone’s advocacy will “focus on supporting the revitalization efforts” for the city’s Inner Harbor district and entertainment district, the disclosure notes.

— The hire comes as the Orioles negotiate a new long-term lease with the state, which owns Camden Yards and has set aside up to $1.2 billion in public financing for revitalization efforts for the complex, which includes the home fields of both the Orioles and the NFL Baltimore Ravens.

— Maryland Gov. Wes Moore announced plans in February for a “long-term, multi-decade, public-private partnership” ensuring that the Orioles will play “in a world-class facility at Camden Yards for decades to come.”

The Baltimore Sun reported this spring that among the hold-ups in those talks are discussions about redeveloping the area surrounding Camden Yards into a multi-use commercial and entertainment district.

— The franchise has looked to the 2 million square-foot development known as the Battery that surrounds the Atlanta Braves’ Truist Park for inspiration for the Camden Yards renovations, and Orioles CEO and Chairman John Angelos hosted Moore at Truist Park in April — despite mixed opinion over the economic return on investment for taxpayer-subsidized sports stadiums.

— The Orioles are hardly the first pro sports franchise to tap lobbyists for help in Washington — they’re not even the first franchise in the region to do so. Washington’s embattled NFL franchise has had lobbyists on retainer throughout the past decade amid controversy over the team’s original name, congressional probes into the team’s workplace culture and ongoing rumors that the team might relocate from Maryland to Virginia or D.C. proper.

— The Pittsburgh Steelers also have a lobbying firm on retainer, though its lobbyists haven’t reported any registrable activity since 2020. And the Orioles’ division rival the New York Yankees retained lobbyists from around 2006 to 2008 for work on issues related to the team’s new stadium in the Bronx, though a review of the disclosures does not indicate the Yankees ever lobbied for federal funding.

TGIF and welcome to PI. I hope your relationship with this newsletter is timeless, but in lieu of love letters every single night, you can just send tips: coprysko@politico.com. And be sure to follow me on Twitter: @caitlinoprysko.

 

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THIS BARBIE GOT ON REPUBLICANS’ BAD SIDE: An image shown in the background of the upcoming “Barbie” movie due out later this month is riling up Republican lawmakers and sparking accusations that filmmakers cowed to Chinese censorship to promote the movie, POLITICO’s Daniella Diaz reports.

— “The detail in question is a dashed line drawn on a map off the coast of Asia that critics have identified as the nine-dash line, a contested maritime boundary that Beijing draws more than a thousand miles off its own coast to claim the vast majority of the South China Sea as its territory.”

— “Warner Bros. Film Group, which produced the movie, said Thursday the map is not intended to ‘make any type of statement.’ Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), who leads a select House panel aimed at countering the influence of China, said the map ‘illustrates the pressure that Hollywood is under to please CCP censors.’”

— “‘While it may just be a Barbie map in a Barbie world, the fact that a cartoonish, crayon-scribbled map seems to go out of its way to depict the PRC’s unlawful territorial claims illustrates the pressure that Hollywood is under to please CCP censors,’ Gallagher said in a statement to POLITICO. ‘I hope Warner Brothers clarifies that the map was not intended to endorse any territorial claims and was in fact, the work of a formerly plastic anthropomorphic doll.’”

— “The line, nine-dash or not, has made waves far beyond U.S. political circles,” resulting in a ban on screenings of the movie in Vietnam, with the Philippines potentially following suit over the detail. “The nine-dash line, which was rejected by an international tribunal in 2016, comes within hundreds of miles of both nations’ coasts and the two countries, along with others in the region, say the Chinese maritime border threatens their sovereignty.”

— Though Warner Bros. denies that the Barbie doodle is meant to have any significance, the episode is just the latest fodder fueling China hawks’ contention that Hollywood, like other major global corporate entities, is too conciliatory to Beijing in order to maintain access to Chinese markets.

— That criticism isn’t coming solely from Republicans, with the Pentagon issuing new rules last month aimed at curbing Chinese influence on films that use resources from the U.S. military.

HAPPY ESG MONTH: “A trio of Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee sent letters to three top U.S. asset managers on Thursday saying their efforts to combat climate change with sustainable investing may violate U.S. antitrust laws,” our Jasper Goodman reports.

— Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and antitrust subcommittee Chair Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), along with Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.), “asked the leaders of BlackRock Inc., Vanguard Group Inc. and State Street to turn over documents related to their sustainable investment commitments,” contending that the firms’ pledges to reach net zero carbon emissions could amount to illegal "collusive agreements" that may have “harmful effects on Americans’ freedom and economic well-being” by limiting investment in fossil fuels.

— The lawmakers also fired similar letters off to the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero and the Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative. The inquiry comes as Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee are set to kick off a slate of hearings deriding the rise of ESG-conscious investing and the Biden administration’s support for such practices.

ACROSS THE POND: “Nearly 500 days into the Russian invasion, Western businesses are less spooked by the violence and increasingly intrigued by the money-making prospects in Ukraine, especially now that it’s officially a candidate to join the EU,” my POLITICO Europe colleague Sarah Wheaton reports. “And a growing supply of lobbyists is ready to meet demand from a range of deep-pocketed sectors, from defense and infrastructure to energy and pharma.”

— “The formulation is clear: Forge government connections and solidify your reputation with pro bono work now, then use that to show the prowess of your network when potential paying clients come along later.”

— “In some ways, Kyiv is a lobbyist’s dreamland. Politicians are eager to woo businesses, offering them the chance to influence regulations from the ground floor that could help future clients. ‘We need hundreds and thousands of companies to come to us,’ President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told corporate representatives last week as he backed a platform to ‘constantly talk’ with business interests.”

— The increased interest doesn’t negate the fact that “the country is still a war zone,” but influence peddlers aren’t letting that deter them. “A lot of the bomb shelters have WiFi,” Myron Wasylyk, who just opened a Ukraine office for his firm, told Sarah. “Initially skeptical that anyone would want to hire a lobbyist with the invasion still raging, Wasylyk said he’s now confident that the operation will be in the black by 2024.”

FREQUENT FLIER: “Air DeSantis keeps flying — and questions keep mounting about who is paying for it,” our Sally Goldenberg and Gary Fineout report, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis flying to New Hampshire for a campaign swing this week “that coincided nearly exactly with the path of a private plane connected to a wealthy supporter.”

— “Daniel Doyle, Jr., who runs a printing company in Central Florida, owns a plane whose flight path lines up with DeSantis’ July 4 trip to the Granite State, according to public records. Neither DeSantis’ presidential campaign nor representatives for Doyle would say if DeSantis was aboard. It’s a recurring pattern where DeSantis and the organizations assisting him remain quiet about who is bankrolling his travels and his frequent use of private charter jets.”

— “DeSantis jumped into the race for president in late May and has kept a steady stream of appearances in early-voting states, including Iowa and South Carolina. Flight records show that the same chartered jet flew from Tallahassee to Nevada to California and back that mirrored DeSantis’ travel to those destinations in June, while that chartered jet was used to fly from the Florida state capital to Eagle Pass, Texas, where DeSantis rolled out his immigration proposal.”

PELOSI HEALTH AIDE JUMPS TO BROOKINGS: Wendell Primus, who served as senior health policy and budget advisor to Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, has left the Hill to join Brookings Institution’s Schaeffer Initiative on Health Policy. He’ll spearhead a project that explores what types of policies could "improve social insurance and safety net programs for the elderly and individuals with disabilities while also lowering the nation’s federal budget deficit," the organization said in a statement.

— Primus worked for Pelosi for two decades and played a role in crafting the Affordable Care Act, the pandemic relief packages and the Inflation Reduction Act. Prior to that, spent time at the Joint Economic Committee, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Department of Health and Human Services.

 

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Jobs Report

Madeline Broas is now press secretary for CHIPS for America at the Commerce Department. She most recently was director for public affairs at SKDK.

Ryan Hughes has been named assistant vice president at communications and marketing agency JConnelly. He most recently was senior manager at Hiltzik Strategies.

— The Organic Trade Association elected new board members and a new president, Tracy Favre.

Roberta Wagner is joining the International Dairy Foods Association as senior vice president for regulatory and scientific affairs. She previously was vice president of regulatory and technical affairs at Consumer Brands Association.

Kevin Pujanauski is joining Movement Labs as vice president of digital organizing services. He previously was U.S. movement support lead for Social Movement Technologies.

Sara Neagu-Reed will be director of production and environmental policy at the International Fresh Produce Association. She previously was director of advocacy and government affairs at AmericanHort.

New Joint Fundraisers

Casar-Lee Committee (Reps. Greg Casar, Summer Lee)

New PACs

Defend Democracy Now PAC (PAC)
Democratic Majority Fund (Leadership PAC: Suzan DelBene)
Good Party PAC (Hybrid PAC)
International Salon Spa Business Network Inc PAC (ISBN PAC) (PAC)
Weakest Gazelle (PAC)

New Lobbying REGISTRATIONS

Adams And Reese, LLP: Manufacture Francaise Des Pneumatiques Michelin
Alpine Group Partners, LLC.: Tenable, Inc.
Bell & Lindsay, Inc. (Formerly White House Consulting Inc.): Pal Health/Digital 360 Healthcare
Bockorny Group, Inc.: National Business Aviation Association
Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP: National Association Of Children's Hospitals (N.A.C.H.)-Cha
Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP: Northern Compass Group LLC Obo Petersburg Medical Center
Capitol Decisions, Inc.: Caring Hands Health Center, Inc.
Capitol Decisions, Inc.: Central Oklahoma Family Medical Center
Chesapeake Enterprises: American Innovation: The Ai Project
Desimone Consulting, LLC: Port Of Lewiston
E2 Strategies, LLC: Defense Metals
Geoffrey P. Gray: Relx Inc.
Health And Medicine Counsel, LLC: University Of St Augustine For Health Sciences
Holland & Knight LLP: Blue Origin LLC
Husch Blackwell Strategies: Westway Enterprises LLC
Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP: Spartan Medical, Inc.
Republic Consulting, LLC: Nine Line Apparel
Stonington Global: Ignite Medical Resorts
Torrey Advisory Group (Formerly Michael Torrey Associates, LLC): American Wood Council
Torrey Advisory Group (Formerly Michael Torrey Associates, LLC): Southeastern Lumber Manufacturers Association
Wiley Rein LLP: Fiber Broadband Association
Williams And Jensen, Pllc: Trane Technologies Company LLC

New Lobbying Terminations

Crossroads Strategies, LLC: American Association Of Nurse Anesthesiology
Crossroads Strategies, LLC: Lhc Group
Crossroads Strategies, LLC: United Site Services, Inc.
Hodgkins Consulting, LLC: American Psychological Association Services, Inc.
In Defense Of Christians: In Defense Of Christians
Jocelyn Hong & Associates: Manatee County (Fl), Board Of County Commissioners
Perry Bayliss Government Relations, LLC: Fiber Broadband Association
Robert Gerber: Icewind USa
Strategic Federal Affairs: County Of St. Clair, Michigan
Strategic Federal Affairs: Michigan Research Initative
The Spectrum Group: Haas Automation Inc.

 

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