Israeli protest movement taps PR assist

From: POLITICO Influence - Friday Sep 08,2023 09:23 pm
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By Caitlin Oprysko

With  Daniel Lippman

FARA FRIDAY: Here’s a round-up of interesting FARA filings that caught our eye over the past week. Blue and White Future, a Tel Aviv-based nonprofit that’s helped coordinate crowdfunding and financing for the opposition movement against the Israeli government’s contentious judicial overhaul, retained PR firm Trident DMG to boost its cause.

— According to documents filed with the Justice Department on Thursday, Trident will provide “strategic communications services” for the nonprofit, which appears to be related to Blue White Future, founded in 2009 to fight for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. The three-month contract is worth $75,000, DOJ filings show.

— Mass demonstrations have rocked Israel for the past eight months in protest of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal to curb the powers of Israel’s judiciary, which among other things would limit the Supreme Court’s ability to challenge parliamentary decisions. The Knesset approved a portion of the plan in July after a several-month delay prompted by the protests, and the Israeli Supreme Court is set to hear challenges to the overhaul beginning next week.

— According to DOJ filings, Blue and White Future is led by activist Eran Schwartz, and its board includes Israeli entrepreneur Orni Petruschka and Gilad Sher, a former chief of staff to ex-Prime Minister Ehud Barak — both of whom are also listed as Blue White Future board members. Blue and White Future “centralizes donations, and ‘when one group wants to initiate an activity, they are supported by this organization with public relations, funding, logistics, legal counsel’ and other services,” The Times of Israel reported in May.

— Last month, The New York Times ran a full-page ad paid for by “The Pro-Democracy Struggle’s Central Headquarters led by Blue White Future” that repudiated calls for unity by World Jewish Congress head Ronald Lauder by calling on Israeli leaders to withdraw the “toxic” judicial legislation “in its entirety.” The open letter was signed by former Israeli officials and military leaders.

Another new filing this week, from Ballard Partners, shows that the firm has not been paid in the past six months for its work on behalf of the Guatemalan government. Taiwan has been footing the bills for Ballard's work for Guatemala since it began last January in a rather unusual arrangement, and Ballard said in its filing this week that during the past six months, “the Government of Guatemala has been billed $450,000.00, but the client has not paid, yet.”

— A staffer at the firm downplayed that there is anything amiss, telling PI that it’s not out of the ordinary for there to be a lag time between bills to foreign government clients and payment of those bills and that Guatemala has thus far “been a good payer.”

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

 

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KATKO SIGNS MORE HOMELAND SECURITY, CYBER CLIENTS: Former Rep. John Katko has continued to rack up more clients for cybersecurity and homeland security issues, according to a tranche of newly filed disclosures. Katko was the top Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee before retiring earlier this year and joining the lobbying firm founded by some of his former top aides, Hill East Group.

— He’s since parlayed his policy expertise into advocacy for several big cyber-focused clients, and though he’s barred from lobbying his former colleagues on the Hill for one year, he’s free to lobby the Biden administration right away.

— In July, Katko and his former aides picked up the cybersecurity firm Dragos, for whom they will lobby on the “deployment of Cybersecurity tools at federal agencies and cyber security issues impacting industrial controls,” according to a filing.

— Hill East has also signed Syracuse University, for whom Katko, Brad Gentile, Zach Howell and Erin Elliott will lobby on higher education issues and cybersecurity funding; Fortress Information Security, which focuses on software supply chain security for utilities; and the NHL, for whom the firm will lobby on security at hockey events.

— Since the beginning of the year, Katko has also begun lobbying for Idemia, the company that currently conducts TSA PreCheck screenings and builds ID machines for checkpoints, the counter-drone company Fortem Technologies, cyber firm SentinelOne and the cyber monitoring service Security Scorecard, according to lobbying disclosures.

KEEPING THE LIGHTS ON: Eli Clifton writes for Responsible Statecraft that “some of the candidates in the Republican presidential primary field appear to have few if any concerns about collecting six- or seven-figure paydays from foreign sources, according to a review of the candidates’ financial disclosures.”

— “Unsurprisingly, Donald Trump tops both the polls and as recipient of foreign money, taking between $2 million and $10 million from his companies in the United Arab Emirates, over $5 million from his company in Oman, among other foreign payments totaling well in excess of $25 million and potentially exceeding $50 million.”

— “He also received at least $2 million in speaking fees at events connected to the Unification Church, a South Korean evangelical congregation with politically far-right leanings that also owns the conservative Washington Times. Former Vice President Mike Pence also collected $550,000 in speaking fees from a group founded by the late Rev. Sun Myung Moon — who founded the Unification Church.”

— “Pence’s biggest foreign payments came from groups associated with Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK). This Iranian militant group spent time on the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations from 1997 to 2012 due to its role in the killing of six Americans in Iran in the 1970s and an attempted attack against the Iranian mission to the UN in 1992. … Pence has received $430,000 from three groups affiliated with the MEK,” which has doled out hefty speaking fees to politicians on both sides of the aisle.

— “Former South Carolina governor and former U.S. ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley reported between $50,000 and $100,000 from United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), a New York-based pressure group that opposed the legal sale of medical supplies to Iran early in the COVID-19 pandemic and regularly calls for heightened sanctions against Iran and against diplomatic efforts to constrain Iran’s nuclear program.” She “also collected between $100,000 and $1,000,000 each from Canadian Friends of the Jerusalem College of Technology, Barclays Capital Asia, and the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs.”

ORGANIC LOBBYING: "Organic trade associations, animal welfare advocates and the other farm groups are ramping up their lobbying on a USDA regulatory proposal to strengthen the animal welfare standards for foods displaying USDA’s organic label, in hopes of influencing how quickly it goes into effect," POLITICO's Marcia Brown reports.

— "In August, lobbyists for groups including the Humane Society Legislative Fund, the National Organic Coalition, the Organic Farmers Association and the American Farm Bureau Association attended three different meetings with officials in the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs — where regulations undergo a final review before being published in the Federal Register. A fourth meeting, requested by the Organic Trade Association, is scheduled for Sept. 11, according to the publicly available OIRA calendar."

— "The rule, proposed by USDA in August 2022 and expected to be finalized this year, would require hens producing eggs that use the label 'USDA organic' to have access to the outdoors. Specifically, a screened 'porch' attached to a poultry house — a practice used by some producers who label their products 'free-range' — would not be enough. The rule also clarifies transportation standards and the number of animals allowed in a certain amount of space."

— "Though many farmers and producers that sell organic products support the effort to tighten standards, some organic producers, particularly larger organic farming operations, oppose the rule on the grounds that it would make their current production model more expensive."

ROE ON THE ROCKS?: “Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has privately complained about a powerful operative at the center of his 2024 presidential effort,” three people familiar with the comments tell The Washington Post’s Hannah Knowles.

— “DeSantis has expressed regrets over Jeff Roe’s hiring as a lead strategist at the super PAC Never Back Down, an outside group that has assumed many responsibilities in the race traditionally handled by campaigns, two of the people said. One, a DeSantis donor, heard the comments directly from the governor, this person said.”

— The DeSantis campaign’s communications director Andrew Romeo denied the accounts of DeSantis’ comments, and offered high praise for Never Back Down’s work. The head of the PAC also pushed back forcefully on the Post’s account.

— And though DeSantis has continued to appear with Never Back Down at campaign stops, “top DeSantis aides have said they regret the extent of Roe’s influence over DeSantis’s 2024 operation, according to a person familiar with the comments, and several other people echoed that some campaign staff and donors have been upset with Roe, particularly after the debate memo and leaked recordings of a donor briefing by Roe and other super PAC officials held the day of the debate in Milwaukee.”

SPOTTED at an event Thursday celebrating clean energy innovation hosted by American Clean Power and 16 other trade groups, per a tipster: Jigar Shah and Avi Zevin of the Energy Department, Mary Landrieu of Van Ness Feldman, Kelly Speakes-Backman of Invenergy, former Maryland Public Service Commission Chair Jason Stanek, Rick Kessler, Frank Maisano of Bracewell, Leah Stokes of Rewiring America, Jason Grumet of American Clean Power, Lisa Jacobson of the Business Council for Sustainable Energy, Frank Wolak of the Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy Association, Amy Andryszak of the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America, Jay Timmons of the National Association of Manufacturers, Lane Wilson of Natural Allies for a Clean Energy Future, Malcolm Woolf of the National Hydropower Association and Marty Durbin of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

 

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Jobs Report

— The AFL-CIO has added Lauren Miller as deputy director of public affairs and Isabel Aldunate as director of media relations. Miller was previously communications director of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics and is an Elizabeth Warren alum, and Aldunate was most recently deputy associate director of communications at OMB and is a Biden inauguration and campaign and Chuck Schumer alum.

Andrew Reinsdorf has been named head of global public policy and external affairs at Sony Pictures Entertainment, where he will oversee the studio’s government affairs strategy worldwide. Reinsdorf has spent the better part of the past two decades at AT&T, where he served as senior vice president of government relations for WarnerMedia while AT&T owned the company.

Todd Dupler has been promoted to chief advocacy and public policy officer at the Recording Academy, the organization that puts on the Grammy Awards. Dupler has held the title on an acting basis since the end of 2021 and has been with the Academy since 2012.

David Patton is joining Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP as a partner. He’s served as executive director and attorney in chief at Federal Defenders of New York since 2011.

Joe Coniglio has joined the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation as director of antitrust and innovation policy, where he’ll lead the Schumpeter Project on Competition Policy, Morning Tech reports. He was most recently a managing associate at Sidley Austin and is an FTC and DOJ Antitrust Division alum.

Julie Simon Miller has been named interim CEO at AHIP, the main trade association for health insurers, per Morning Pulse. Miller, the group’s general counsel, takes the mantle from Matt Eyles, who will retire in October.

Audrey Beck is now a staff assistant for Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.). She previously was a legislative assistant with Bipartisan Policy Center Action.

Julie Green Bataille is now senior vice president of communications at Aledade. She previously was a managing director at GMMB and is an Obama CMS alum.

Jozmond Black is now the PAC administrator and senior manager of federal government relations at Ecolab. He previously was a political appointee in congressional affairs at DHS.

New Joint Fundraisers

None.

New PACs

Brand New Day SPAC (Hybrid PAC)
Deprogram America (Super PAC)
Free and Fair PAC, Inc. (Super PAC)
Houstonians for Clean Water (Super PAC)
My Committee (PAC)
Patriot Legal Defense Fund (Super PAC)
Quality of Life Osceola Foundation (PAC)

New Lobbying REGISTRATIONS

Anna Hansen: Sullivan Strategies Obo Aeye, Inc

Anna Hansen: Sullivan Strategies Obo Glass Aviation Holdings

Anna Hansen: Sullivan Strategies Obo Jobsohio

Anna Hansen: Sullivan Strategies Obo Kongsberg Gruppen

Anna Hansen: Sullivan Strategies Obo Northern Technologies International

Anna Hansen: Sullivan Strategies Obo Oregon Department Of Transportation

Anna Hansen: Sullivan Strategies Obo Skysafe

Anna Hansen: Sullivan Strategies Obo U.S. Travel Association

Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP: Sidecar Health, Inc

Greenmet Consulting: Greentech Minerals Holdings, Inc

Hill East Group, LLC: Dragos Inc.

Hill East Group, LLC: Fortress Information Security, LLC

Hill East Group, LLC: National Hockey League

Hill East Group, LLC: Syracuse University

Mercury Public Affairs, LLC: Congra Brands Inc.

Mercury Public Affairs, LLC: Kellog's Company

New Century Government Affairs (F/K/A Terrence C. Wolfe): Miami Regional University

Van Scoyoc Associates: Savox Communications Inc

New Lobbying Terminations

Whitmer & Worrall, LLC: National Asphalt Pavement Association

 

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