FIRST IN PI — DEM GROUPS COUNTERPROGRAM ANTI-ESG PUSH: As House Republicans kicked off their first in a monthlong slate of hearings coming down on the rise in sustainable investment considerations, Democratic allied groups are gearing up to push back on the anti-ESG movement at the state and local levels. — Liberal opposition group Congressional Integrity Project is launching a digital ad buy highlighting investments in oil and gas companies and campaign contributions from the industry to the Republican lawmakers championing the ESG crackdown on the Hill. — “MAGA Republicans in the pocket of Big Oil want to control your finances” by “targeting corporations for responsible investing strategies,” the ad’s narrator says, according to a preview shared with PI. — “Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee alone have taken nearly $10 million from special interests that stand to lose if companies continue to prioritize responsible lending,” CIP executive director Kyle Herrig said in a statement, accusing lawmakers of “working overtime for these special interests to try to undermine corporate efforts to make forward-looking decisions about clean energy, climate change, and gun violence.” — The campaign comes on top of a burgeoning six-figure effort involving a dark money group tied to the Democratic Attorneys General Association, POLITICO’s Jordan Wolman reports. Jordan writes that the nonprofit Progressive State Leaders Committee is teaming up with The Horizon Project “to establish a responsible investment working group to highlight the roles of attorneys general, state treasurers, comptrollers and auditors in protecting pensioners’ returns and interests.” — Involved in the push is Abby Wilhelm, who served as chief of staff to former D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine and is now a policy fellow at the DAGA-associated Leadership Center for Attorney General Studies. — “Misguided politicians will be held accountable for their politically self-interested threats and for the harm they are doing to Americans’ retirement,” PSLC President Sean Rankin said in a statement. FLYING IN: The National Retail Federation flew dozens of small retailers into town this week to lobby lawmakers on the industry’s effort to rein in credit card swipe fees. The trade group heard from the co-sponsors of the latest bill to do so, including new Senate sponsor J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), as well as Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) and Reps. Lance Gooden (R-Texas), Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.), Jeff Van Drew (R-N.J.) and Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.). — Over the course of the fly-in they were set to have more than 80 meetings on the Hill with 15 members of Congress and staff. — Leaders of the Angel Capital Association’s policy shop are also in town this week to call for expanding the definition of an accredited investor, as well as the section of the tax code that exempts certain capital gains from angel investments from capital gains taxes. Advocates were set to meet with staff for Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and with Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and House Ways and Means ranking member Richard Neal (D-Mass.). A NEW CRYPTO CAMPAIGN FINANCE SCANDAL: “Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are investigating former FTX executive Ryan Salame and his girlfriend, ex-congressional candidate Michelle Bond, for possible violations of campaign-finance law” — separate from the charges facing the crypto exchange’s founder Sam Bankman-Fried, The Wall Street Journal’s Corinne Ramey and James Fanelli report. — “The probe is examining whether the couple illegally avoided federal limits on contributions to Bond’s 2022 campaign for the Republican primary for New York’s First Congressional District, one of the people said. Investigators are looking at money Salame gave to Bond and loans she made to her campaign, the person said.” — Salame hasn’t faced charges in the case against Bankman-Fried (which Bankman-Fried has denied) but became a prolific conservative donor during the same period of time, including pouring millions of dollars into super PACs that backed Bond’s unsuccessful campaign. The new probe stretches back to at least April, when investigators seized cell phones belonging to Salame and Bond, the former head of the crypto lobbying group Association for Digital Asset Markets and FTX consultant. AVALERE HEAD JUMPS TO PHRMA: “Elizabeth Carpenter, president of consulting firm Avalere Health, will take over as the head of policy at PhRMA,” POLITICO’s Megan Wilson reports. “The role, which is part of the group’s leadership team, manages the legislative, regulatory and political strategies and oversees the research department that works alongside its lobbying team.” — Carpenter has been at Avalere for almost a decade and became president last summer. She’ll succeed Jenny Bryant, who is retiring after serving as the executive vice president of policy and research since 2019 and working at PhRMA for nearly two decades. GEPHARDT TO LAUNCH NO LABELS CHALLENGER: “Former House Democratic leader Richard A. Gephardt is planning to launch a new bipartisan group next week to oppose the No Labels third-party presidential effort,” people familiar with the plans tell The Washington Post’s Michael Scherer. — “The new group has already commissioned private polling showing that a generic ‘moderate, independent third-party candidate’ would pull more votes away from President Biden than former president Donald Trump in a hypothetical three-way race, all but assuring the Republican wins back the White House.” — “‘No Labels equals Trump,’ said Greg Schneiders, a former aide to President Jimmy Carter whose firm Prime Group has conducted the polling for the Gephardt group.” The rival group from Gephardt, who now runs an eponymous lobbying firm, is also expected to involve GOP consultant Stuart Stevens and former Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.). — Gephardt’s group will also aim to distinguish itself from the secretive No Labels in a crucial way: “A person familiar with the plans said the nascent effort is working to sign up more political leaders, will disclose their donors and plans to formally release their polling, which includes samples in seven swing states.” — “No Labels founding chairman Joseph Lieberman, a former U.S. senator from Connecticut who ran for office both as a Democrat and independent, said the effort to stop the No Labels project was an effort to deny Americans options.”
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