Omnicom jumps back into the D.C. market

From: POLITICO Influence - Thursday Sep 07,2023 10:26 pm

Sep 07, 2023

With Ben Leonard, Megan Wilson and Daniel Lippman

OMNICOM SCOOPS UP PLUS, FP1: Republican consulting firm FP1 Strategies and its sister public affairs firm PLUS Communications have been acquired by the public relations arm of advertising behemoth Omnicom, a sign that even amid a global media and marketing slowdown, private equity firms aren’t the only deep-pocketed investors looking to cash in on the boom times for Washington’s advocacy shops, your host reports.

— FP1 was launched in 2011 by GOP operatives Danny Diaz, Jon Downs and Terry Nelson and has helped elect dozens of Republicans to federal and statewide office. In 2019, Diaz, Downs and Nelson, along with FP1 managing partners Rob Jesmer and Dave DenHerder, started PLUS Communications to translate political campaign strategy to corporate and crisis communications and bipartisan grassroots and public affairs campaigns.

— To Chris Foster, the global CEO of Omnicom Public Relations Group, the acquisition is a signal that Omnicom PR is “bullish about our industry,” even in the face of an advertising downturn. “[We] believe in the power of communications,” he added, “but even more so that regardless of the broader macroeconomic climate, public affairs and corporate are growth areas for us.”

— What’s more, argued DenHerder, a managing partner at PLUS, there’s increasingly little daylight between political communications strategy and corporate comms thanks to partisan culture war creep. “Look, we all know corporate is political today, right?” he said.

— The deal hearkens back to a bygone era on K Street — the early aughts and 2010s — when communications conglomerates and international holding companies like Omnicom and WPP snapped up government affairs firms left and right. But those deals have mixed track records, and consolidation among D.C.’s constellation of political and consulting shops has continued in recent years — only now, it’s fueled by a private equity investment bonanza.

— DenHerder said that it was Omnicom’s willingness to buck those dynamics that helped the deal come together. “Omnicom did see the vision to get back in this space, continue to grow what is already a good public affairs offering that they have, when a lot of companies weren’t doing it,” he said.

— But DenHerder pointed to another reason they opted to sell to a communications conglomerate. “I’ve known Chris for a really long time,” said DenHerder, who overlapped with Foster at a WPP-owned firm years ago. “He knows politics. He knows communications. He knows public affairs, and when you’re dealing with private equity, they know one thing: finances.”

— “[I]t was really exciting to have a partner that not only not only understands our business fundamentally, but has been doing it,” he added. “I think that was also a really big motivator for us, is a partner that is in the trenches with us, not sitting in New York, just counting, you know, the pluses and minuses.”

Happy Thursday and welcome back to PI. We hope you had a relaxing recess. Send tips: coprysko@politico.com. And be sure to follow me on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter: @caitlinoprysko.

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ATA TAKING OVER EHI: Executives for Health Innovation, which announced in May it was winding down and giving its assets to others, has picked the American Telemedicine Association to receive its assets.

— The advocacy group that had promoted the adoption of health technology for more than 20 years will transfer its members over to the telemedicine group. EHI’s board members have included executives from Google, UnitedHealth Group, athenahealth, the American Academy of Family Physicians and more.

— ATA CEO Ann Mond Johnson told POLITICO’s Ben Leonard that it’s an important move to keep as many organizations under the same tent as possible to benefit the telehealth policy advocacy community. She said it will offer a “glide path” for assets EHI put together, including reports, recordings and interviews. Seventeen percent of EHI’s leadership council was also a part of ATA, she added.

LOBBYING INTO THE VOID ON BOOK TAX: “At his State of the Union address this year, President Biden celebrated the fact that his new climate and tax law would no longer allow some of America’s largest corporations to pay zero in federal taxes,” The New York Times’ Alan Rappeport reports.

— “The new corporate minimum tax was one of the most significant changes to the U.S. tax code in decades. Its logic rested on the idea that rich companies should not be able to find loopholes and other accounting maneuvers in order to pay lower tax rates than their workers.”

— “But making the tax operational has become a mammoth challenge for the Biden administration, which has faced intense lobbying from industries that could be on the hook for billions of dollars in new taxes. Those groups have been flooding the Treasury Department with letters asking for lenient interpretations of the law and trying to create new loopholes before their tax bills come due next year.”

— “The Treasury Department is expected to release the final rules for the tax before the end of the year. It already made concessions to the insurance industry, which raised concerns that the tax could upend its business model and told companies that they would not be responsible for making quarterly tax payments related to the new minimum until all the regulations were clarified.”

— Meanwhile, “businesses that might face the new tax have been spending heavily to shape its scope and minimize their exposure,” with the film industry, energy and financial companies expressing particular concern over the potential rules.

OUSTED HISPANIC CAUCUS STAFFER LANDS AT THORN RUN: Thorn Run Partners has hired Jacky Usyk, whose sudden dismissal as executive director of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus set off alarms about the caucus’ new leader Rep. Nanette Barragán (D-Calif.) earlier this year. Usyk had been in the role for only a month when she was fired, leaving the caucus with no staff on payroll and briefly throwing Barragán’s future as its chair into doubt.

— Usyk’s brief tenure at CHC capped off a nearly dozen-year stint on the Hill, including the past three years working for Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who at the time was the No. 3 Senate Democrat overseeing passage of bills like the Inflation Reduction Act, Covid relief packages and more, and chaired the Senate HELP Committee. She also served as deputy chief of staff to Rep. Tony Cárdenas (D-Calif.) and worked on ag issues for Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) during the last farm bill.

KOMENDANT LANDS BACK ON K STREET: Erik Komendant, the former top lobbyist at a generic drug industry group, has joined lobbying and consulting firm Whitmer & Worrall, where he’ll be charged with helping to expand the firm's health care practice. Its clients in the space include health provider TridentCare, the Indiana Regional Medical Center and Rotech Healthcare, which provides sleep apnea treatments and other home medical equipment.

— Komendant was laid off from the Association for Accessible Medicines in March amid cuts and turmoil at the beleaguered trade association. Prior to that, he worked at America's Health Insurance Plans, which represents health insurers.

DISCUS CHEERS TO 50 YEARS: Break out the gold accessories — the traditional gift for a 50th anniversary — the Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S. is turning 50. And, as part of the celebration, they've treated themselves to a new office on Capitol Hill, Megan writes in.

— The booze lobby is relocating from downtown Washington to 101 Constitution Ave. with views of the Capitol Dome, a relocation that's been years in the making. Chris Swonger, who leads DISCUS, says the new space "will greatly support our mission to be effective and strong advocates for the spirits sector and its consumers well into the future.”

— "The new headquarters pays homage to the rich history of the spirits industry and takes guests on a journey into the world of spirits with design elements highlighting the heritage, craftmanship and agricultural foundations of spirits products," the group said in a release about the new office. For example, there's a letter written by George Washington, talking about his successful distillery at Mount Vernon, his Virginia home.

— And yes, there's a place to imbibe — the office comes complete with a 30-foot bar and a space for 200 guests to party. Responsibly, of course.

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SPOTTED on Wednesday at a welcome back from recess reception hosted by Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld at their Capitol Hill office, per a tipster: Hunter Bates, Brian Pomper, Sean D'Arcy, Brendan Dunn, Justin McCarthy, Sam Olswanger, Ed Pagano, Zach Rudisill, Arshi Siddiqui, Ryan Thompson, Jamie Tucker, Filemon Vela and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Akin Gump; Carrianna Kuruvilla of DoorDash, Hap Rigby of the Motion Picture Association, Brendon Plack of the NFL, Teresa Skala of Anheuser-Busch, Emily Henn of Rep. Carol Miller’s (R-W.Va.) office, Lydia Denis of Rep. Dave Joyce’s (R-Ohio) office, Jason Rodriguez of Rep. Jasmine Crockett’s (D-Texas) office, Jesse von Stein of Rep. Jim Baird’s (R-Ind.) office, Sam Kuebler of Rep. María Salazar’s (R-Fla.) office and Molly Carpenter of Sen. Mike Crapo’s (R-Idaho) office.

— And at a launch party for the Center for News, Technology & Innovation last night in New York, per a tipster: CNTI’s Marty Baron, Paula Miraglia, Sangu Delle, Richard Gingras, Craig Forman and Amy Mitchell; Peter Lattman of Emerson Collective, Joanne Lipman of Yale University, Melissa Fleming of the U.N. global communications department, Bruna Gagliardi of Brazil’s Mission to the U.N., Estelle Zadra of the U.N., Gordon Crovitz of NewsGuard, Michael Dimock of Pew Research Center, Eileen O’Reilly of Axios and the National Press Club and Steven Waldman of the Rebuild Local News coalition.

Jobs Report

— Rob Shrum has launched Nexus Public Affairs, a consulting firm specializing in coalition management, external affairs counsel and government affairs strategy. He most recently was assistant vice president at MultiState.

— Vectis DC has added Emily Crawford as director of federal advocacy. She was previously at the National Council for Community and Education Partnerships and will continue to serve as vice president for the Committee for Education Funding.

— Lauren Colicelli has joined the American Council of Life Insurers as director of strategic political engagement after nine years with the National Association of Realtors and the trade group’s PAC, most recently as managing director of political fundraising. ACLI has also promoted Michelle Carroll Foster to the newly created role of chief inclusion officer; Kathleen Coulombe to senior vice president of federal relations; Paul Kangas to principal deputy for federal relations and Vytas Aukstuolis to manager of international relations.

— Thomas Jensen has joined Holcim to lead advocacy efforts related to the company's building envelope manufacturing operations and broader Holcim Group issues. He most recently was vice president of government affairs at truck autonomous vehicles developer TuSimple, which followed a 32-year career at UPS.

— Michael Moroney has been promoted to be senior vice president and senior partner and group head for corporate reputation at FleishmanHillard.

— Julie Green Bataille is now senior vice president of communications at the independent primary care practice network Aledade. She was previously managing director at GMMB and communications director at CMS.

— Joe Householder is now a partner at Longacre Square. He most recently was executive vice president at Burson Cohn & Wolfe and is a Hillary Clinton alum.

— Jill Dickerson is now an associate at Stones River Group. She most recently was deputy comms director for the House Budget Committee.

— Ben Purser is now vice president for geopolitical risk at the Institute for Security and Technology. He previously was a public policy program manager at Meta.

— Leidos promoted Amy Smith to senior vice president of government affairs from vice president of government affairs.

— Richard Newell is stepping down as president and CEO of Resources for the Future within the next year after seven years leading the organization.

— Kirsten D'Souza is joining Chamber of Progress as coalitions director. D'Souza was previously a senior associate at Dewey Square Group and is a former policy analyst in the Florida House of Representatives. Morgan Wilsmann is also joining Chamber of Progress as a public policy fellow. She previously worked as a fellow at the Glen Echo Group and the Palladium.

— Beth Burke will be the next CEO of the Canadian American Business Council, succeeding Maryscott Greenwood, who will retire after more than two decades in the role. Burke has overseen U.S. advocacy for the group for three years and is an Ex-Im Bank and Patty Murray alum.

New Joint Fundraisers

None.

New PACs

Ashford Inc. Political Action Committee (Ashford Fed PAC) (PAC)

Defend Them PAC Inc. (Leadership PAC: Perry Johnson)

Derek Marshall Queer Trans America PAC (PAC)

EARLY CARE & EDUCATION CONSORTIUM POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE (PAC)

UNIFY COLORADO (Super PAC)

United for Change (Super PAC)

New Lobbying REGISTRATIONS

501 Consultants, Inc.: Columbia Basin Development League

501 Consultants, Inc.: Washington Winegrowers Association