Staub jumps from MPA to Thorsen French

From: POLITICO Influence - Thursday Nov 02,2023 09:37 pm

Nov 02, 2023

With help from Daniel Lippman

FIRST IN PI — STAUB JUMPS TO THORSEN FRENCH: Ben Staub is leaving the Motion Picture Association after more than a decade to join Thorsen French Advocacy as a partner beginning next year. Staub was most recently a senior vice president for government affairs at the trade group, where he did outreach to Democrats and focused on intellectual property, tax, trade and appropriations issues.

— Before joining MPA, Staub spent half a decade as a staffer on the House Judiciary Committee, where Thorsen French has carved out its advocacy niche. “It’s really hard to leave MPA,” Staub said in an interview.

— “I have the most wonderful colleagues and supervisors and I really truly respect everyone there so much, and the member companies that the MPA represents — it really was an opportunity to work with … two of the people that I trust most as they expand, and just an incredible opportunity,” he added, noting that he’s known the firm’s current partners and co-founders Carl Thorsen and Alec French for more than two decades.

ANNALS OF LEONARD LEO: The Leonard Leo-linked nonprofit Concord Fund doled out $20,000 in lobbying fees in less than a month to a lobbying firm whose sister company has received tens of millions of dollars from the campaigns of several Republican senators who will be asked to vote next week on subpoenaing Leo and two GOP megadonors.

— The Concord Fund, which is an alias of the Judicial Crisis Network helmed by a top Leo ally and former clerk to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, retained OnMessage Public Strategies on Sept. 6, as Hailey Fuchs and I reported last month. The firm reported lobbying the House and Senate on “issues related to government oversight, law enforcement, public advocacy and Rule of Law” in its third quarter report, which covers activity from July through the end of September.

— OnMessage Public Strategies is the lobbying arm of the GOP consulting firm OnMessage Inc., whose client roster is a who’s who of Republican politicians and conservative groups. The firm’s clients include several Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which voted along party lines in July to advance legislation imposing more stringent ethics rules on Supreme Court justices.

— The panel could vote as soon as next week to subpoena Leo and two donors whose previously unreported gifts to the court’s conservative justices spurred calls for ethics reforms for the court.

— Meanwhile two members of the committee, Sens. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), have paid OnMessage Inc. more than $30 million since 2014, according to an analysis from Accountable.US. Tillis has paid the firm $21.6 million, while Hawley has paid the firm $9.7 million since 2014. The vast majority of that money went toward media placement or ad buys, in addition to polling, strategy and consulting services, digital fundraising and more. OnMessage declined to comment.

— “It’s ironic that Leonard Leo’s Concord Fund dumped thousands of dollars into ethics lobbying while Leo himself dodges a congressional inquiry and a probe into his misuse of charitable dollars for self-enrichment,” Accountable.US President Caroline Ciccone said in a statement, alleging the connections are “just the latest in Leo’s decades-long ploy to leverage his dark money network to pull the strings of government and personally benefit in the process.”

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DEM PRO-ISRAEL GROUP GOES AFTER TLAIB: AIPAC-aligned super PAC Democratic Majority for Israel has dialed up a six-figure ad blitz targeting Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) back home over her criticism of the Israeli government and calls for a ceasefire in the war with Hamas.

— The 30-second spot attacks Tlaib for voting against a congressional resolution last week to express support for Israel following Hamas’ attacks on Israeli citizens last month, as well as for voting against military support for Israel in 2021. It also calls out Tlaib, the only Palestinian American member of Congress, for co-sponsoring a resolution urging a ceasefire, alleging the measure would “allow the terrorists to re-arm themselves.”

— Tlaib has previously argued that she opposes military aid for Israel that is not conditioned on human rights concerns, and said that while the Israel resolution “resolution rightly mourns the thousands of Israeli civilians killed and wounded in the horrific attacks,” it “explicitly does not mourn the thousands of Palestinian civilians, including over 2,000 children, killed and wounded in the collective punishment of Palestine.”

— DMFI’s ad will air on broadcast and cable TV in the Detroit media market, which encompasses Tlaib’s district, beginning today. “The people in the Detroit area deserve to know the facts about her positions,” DFMI President and CEO Mark Mellman said in a statement. “Our ad clearly shows her wanton disregard for the safety of the citizens of one of the United States’ closest allies, Israel.”

HOFFMAN-FUNDED PAC MULLING PRIMARYING DEMS: Meanwhile Mainstream Democrats PAC, a super PAC bankrolled by LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, has been approached by Hoffman’s longtime political adviser about financing an effort to primary Tlaib and fellow progressive Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) because of their positions on the Israel-Hamas war, CNBC’s Brian Schwartz reports.

— “I have been asking them [Mainstream Democrats PAC] if there is any possibility of ousting the most extreme members of Congress, and I have been asking about Cori Bush and Rashida Tlaib,” the adviser, Dmitri Mehlhorn, told CNBC, adding that he was encouraged by the response.

— “Hoffman has given over $1.5 million to the Mainstream Democrats PAC since it launched during the 2022 congressional midterms, according to Federal Election Commission records. His latest $1 million donation is the top registered donation to the group so far this cycle, as it’s raised just over $1.4 million since the start of the year, according to FEC records. Other top donors to the PAC include Deborah Simon, the daughter of Simon Property Group co-founder, Mel Simon,” and DMFI, which gave the PAC $500,000 last year.

TRANSPARENCY ISSUES IN DRUG PRICE NEGOTIATIONS: “Lax conflict-of-interest disclosure policies may be allowing pharma talking points to seep in at virtual public meetings held to hear from those who take the first 10 drugs the government is negotiating,” our David Lim writes.

— “There are concerns over whether a significant number of people speaking at the patient listening sessions that started this week are disclosing ties to the industry. Drug manufacturers, which are fighting the negotiations on several fronts, are in a high-stakes battle with the Biden administration that could result in millions in lower revenues and that the industry claims will stifle innovation for new drugs.”

— “‘Pharma tried to hijack the first meeting with its paid front groups,’ said David Mitchell, president and founder of advocacy group Patients For Affordable Drugs. He claims that optional conflict-of-interest disclosure requirements are allowing pharmaceutical companies to influence the listening sessions.”

— “But PhRMA, the trade group that represents brand-name drugmakers, believes the same could be said about advocacy groups hoping to influence CMS negotiation tactics with patient input.”

— “CMS said speaker registration for the meetings asked for individuals’ names, applicable organizations, information on intended remarks and a voluntary solicitation for potential conflicts of interest,” but while disclosure rules may change for future rounds of negotiation, “rules for the first year of negotiations are already finalized.”

— “At the first three sessions this week, POLITICO identified a number of speakers at each session who appear to have conflicts of interest that were not disclosed, though several voluntarily disclosed conflicts of interest out of more than a dozen speakers at each session.”

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Jobs Report

— Jose Torres is joining TechNet as deputy executive director for California and the Southwest. He was previously a policy and legislative advocate with Health Access California.

— Julia Massimino is joining the Information Technology Industry Council as executive vice president of government affairs. She was previously a principal at Critical Mass Strategies and is a SoundExchange alum.

— Mary Thornton has joined the Semiconductor Industry Association as vice president of global policy. She was previously head of trade and export controls policy at Amazon Web Services and is a Texas Instruments alum.

— John Major is joining SMI as a senior director. He was the vice president for manufacturing and programs at Carbon Robotics and is co-founder of Comprehensive Carbon Impact.

— Nomi Health has hired Ethan Jorgensen-Earp as director of federal government affairs. He was most recently a senior policy adviser at Holland & Knight.

— Mindset has promoted Doug Lee, Zach Ostro, Charlie Schreiber, Scott Shewcraft and Anna Yanker from senior directors to principals. They also promoted Alex Barcham and Lauri Ng from directors to senior directors and Jackson Chasen-Buckley and Zorin Venkani from analysts to associates.

— Forbes Tate Partners has added Colin Tooze as a senior vice president in the state government relations practice and promoted Andrew Freedman to public affairs partner. Tooze was most recently a senior adviser and principal at Skytree Advisory and is a Pacaso, Uber and Expedia alum.

— Boyden Gray is adding Laura Ruppalt and Andrew Smith as associates and James Conde as counsel. Ruppalt most recently clerked for Justice Samuel Alito. Smith and Conde most recently clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

— Kiara Pesante Haughton is now vice president for campaigns and comms at the National Women’s Law Center. She previously was chief of communications and advancement at Demos.

New Joint Fundraisers

None.

New PACs

AMERICA’S PROMISE (Super PAC)

Fuel for the Future PAC (PAC)

New Lobbying REGISTRATIONS

Ascend Consulting: Christian Camp And Conference Association

Banner Public Affairs, LLC: Switch, Inc.

Continental Strategy, LLC: Si Group Client Services

Fti Government Affairs: Animal Wellness Action

Fti Government Affairs: Firefly Headquarters

Fti Government Affairs: Veon Ltd.