Dem Senate candidate Harper’s corporate work included credit bureau reviled by left

From: POLITICO Influence - Monday Dec 04,2023 10:47 pm

Dec 04, 2023

Presented by the Merchants Payments Coalition

HARPER’S CORPORATE WORK INCLUDED EXPERIAN: The actor Hill Harper, who is running in the Michigan Democratic Senate primary as a progressive focused on “economic security” for ordinary people, once did endorsement work for the credit bureau Experian, which has been heavily criticized by consumer advocates and top progressives, Daniel reports.

— In 2019, Experian launched a program called Experian Boost, which was an effort to help consumers bump up their credit scores by factoring in positive payment histories, especially for people with little or poor credit history.

— Harper, an actor on ABC’s “The Good Doctor” and a former star of “CSI: NY,” was the face of the campaign, repeatedly promoting the product online and at events. A May 2019 Experian press release said that over the next several months, he would “address credit management via speaking engagements, social media, blog posts, and videos.”

— Harper, who has long worked on personal financial empowerment, said in a Facebook Live video for the Experian campaign: “I’m just very proud to work with Experian. I’m proud of the company. I’m proud of what you all are doing, what you represent. And so, thank you for asking me to be an ambassador. I’m proud to be an ambassador.”

— A case study by the celebrity booking agency The Celebrity Source underlined the success of Harper’s work for Experian, which they said they got more than 180 media placements from a brand marketing campaign around the product in Detroit and more than 20 placements from similar efforts in New York.

— Harper’s work for corporate America has already gotten some attention in recent weeks after he filed a financial disclosure that didn’t list any income or bank accounts even though he has had a number of partnership deals with companies like Wells Fargo and Toyota. His campaign is promising to file an amended report early next year.

— Experian has long been criticized by progressive senators like Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) for practices that often make it hard for low-income borrowers to improve their credit standing to get access to mortgages, credit cards and other loans.

— The senators have particularly criticized Experian and the other major credit bureaus for making it difficult to fix errors on credit reports and resolve past credit issues, and during his 2020 campaign now-President Joe Biden pledged to create a government-managed credit registry.

— A 2022 CFPB report found that over half of complaints the public made from January 2020 to September 2021 were about the three biggest private credit reporting bureaus, which includes Experian.

— Experian has also run into trouble with government agencies over its business practices and had to pay a $3 million fine to the CFPB’s Civil Penalty Fund in 2017 for deceiving consumers about the use of credit scores. It was fined $650,000 by the FTC earlier this year for spamming consumers and not letting them opt out of marketing emails.

— Harper, who owns a small coffee shop in Detroit and has a nonprofit called the Manifest Your Destiny Foundation, seemed to address the apparent incongruity of working for a big company like Experian in the Facebook Live video with an Experian executive, saying: “It’s not mutually exclusive to do grassroots work in the community, boots on the ground and then work with a multibillion dollar company like Experian.”

— “Stretching back even before his role on Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, Hill Harper has been an advocate for comprehensive reforms to our financial system,” Harper campaign spokesperson Karthik Ganapathy told PI. “Until those reforms get fully implemented, Hill is committed to doing everything in his power to empower young people and people of color through financial literacy and education, and these events are a natural extension of his work writing The Wealth Cure.” Spokespeople for Experian didn’t respond to requests for comment.

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A message from the Merchants Payments Coalition:

Big banks and credit card companies are gouging American consumers by charging them the highest swipe fees in the industrialized world – seven times what Europeans are paying and twice as much as in Canada. Wall Street’s swipe fees cost American consumers and small businesses $160 billion each year, and these hidden fees have increased by more than 50% since 2020. The Credit Card Competition Act would help bring swipe fees under control. Learn more: https://merchantspaymentscoalition.com/

ANNALS OF FOREIGN INFLUENCE: PACs connected to foreign companies spent nearly $20 million in last year’s elections, according to a new report from campaign finance watchdog group American Promise examining the breadth of foreign money in U.S. politics.

— While it’s legal for U.S. subsidiaries of foreign companies to spend money on American elections, the report places that spending in the context of other vehicles of foreign influence — much of which is also legal — that American Promise argues was made possible and harder to track by Supreme Court decisions chipping away at campaign finance regulations.

— In addition to the millions of dollars in PAC spending by U.S. subsidiaries last year, the report highlights more than $64 million in spending by foreign-owned energy companies to defeat a 2021 ballot measure in Maine; the more than $200 million Uber — whose investors include Japan’s SoftBank and Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund — and its allies spent in a California ballot fight in 2020; and Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss’ donations to liberal dark money groups, which maintain his contributions aren’t used in politics.

— “Although the Court hasn’t explicitly held (yet) that foreign corporations have a constitutional right to spend money in our elections, its other decisions have made it so difficult to trace the sources of political money that prohibitions of foreign money are easily skirted,” the report argues.

— The report is aimed at building support for a constitutional amendment allowing more campaign finance regulation, arguing that there is popular support for such a move because it would pave the way for laws “that could stop foreign actors from abusing the system of Super PACs, dark money, and front groups that make it too easy to sneak foreign money into our elections.”

HALEY PICK FUELS DISCORD AT AFP: “The political branch of the powerful Koch network is facing scrutiny as operatives chafe against a decision to endorse Nikki Haley for president that many see as out of step with their values,” CNBC’s Brian Schwartz and NBC’s Katherine Doyle write.

— “The decision by Americans for Prosperity's super PAC to get behind a candidate with seemingly little chance of prevailing in the GOP primary — and, more critically, one who espouses views contrary to key parts of the Koch network’s well-financed advocacy efforts — has confounded longtime Koch-world operatives alike.”

— One grassroots organizer with AFP in New Hampshire, a key primary state, said he was fired after declaring that he would not help the organization boost Haley, and while AFP has downplayed its differences with Haley on foreign policy, the public criticism from others with ties to the Koch network prompted some damage control from AFP’s Emily Seidel.

— And “some critics believe that if Trump prevails in 2024, AFP’s endorsement risks driving the network’s influence into the ground, with people close to Trump saying they expect it to be a problem for them to have any future influence over his White House.”

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TECH GIANTS FUND AI STAFFERS IN KEY HILL OFFICES: “Top tech companies with major stakes in artificial intelligence are channeling money through a venerable science nonprofit to help fund fellows working on AI policy in key Senate offices, adding to the roster of government staffers across Washington whose salaries are being paid by tech billionaires and others with direct interests in AI regulation,” our Brendan Bordelon reports.

— “The new ‘rapid response cohort’ of congressional AI fellows is run by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Washington-based nonprofit, with substantial support from Microsoft, OpenAI, Google, IBM and Nvidia, according to the AAAS. It comes on top of the network of AI fellows funded by Open Philanthropy, a group financed by billionaire Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz.”

— “Alongside the Open Philanthropy fellows — and hundreds of outside-funded fellows throughout the government, including many with links to the tech industry — the six AI staffers in the industry-funded rapid response cohort are helping shape how key players in Congress approach the debate over when and how to regulate AI, at a time when many Americans are deeply skeptical of the industry.”

— “The companies involved stress that they don’t play roles in hiring; the nonprofits themselves pick the fellows. And some on Capitol Hill say industry-linked fellows are filling the vacuum caused by a precipitous decline in institutional tech knowledge.”

ANNALS OF SCOTUS INFLUENCE: A new investigation by POLITICO’s Heidi Przybyla reviewing tax filings, financial statements and other public documents reveals the extent to which a tight circle of conservative legal activists, including Leonard Leo, have deployed amicus briefs to build “a highly effective thought chamber around” the Supreme Court’s conservative flank, as evidenced by the court’s rulings in some of its most high-profile cases.

— The analysis — which is “the first comprehensive review of amicus briefs that have streamed into the court since Trump nominated Justice Amy Coney Barrett in 2020, solidifying the court’s conservative majority” — found that “Leo and his network of nonprofit groups are either directly or indirectly connected to a majority of amicus briefs filed on behalf of conservative parties in seven of the highest-profile rulings the court has issued over the past two years.”

WORKDAY TAPS MICROSOFT VET FOR D.C. OFFICE: Workday, the software giant that provides cloud and automated tools for federal agencies, has hired John Sampson as head of U.S. policy advocacy, focused on AI, privacy, workforce and cybersecurity issues at the federal and state and local level. Sampson was most recently in Microsoft’s D.C. office, which he left this summer after more than 25 years — including most recently as an “AI ambassador” for the company.

SPOTTED at the Pennsylvania Manufacturers’ Association's 42nd annual bipartisan policy seminar and luncheon at the Metropolitan Club in New York City on Saturday hosted by David Taylor and Gregory Bentley and moderated by G. Terry Madonna, per a tipster: Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), GOP Senate candidate Dave McCormick, Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-Pa.), Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Austin Davis, state Reps. Jordan Harris and Joshua Kail, Philadelphia Mayor-elect Cherelle Parker and state Treasurer Stacy Garrity.

JOIN WOMEN RULE ON 12/12: For centuries, women were left out of the rooms that shaped policy, built companies and led countries. Now, society needs the creativity and entrepreneurship of women more than ever. How can we make sure that women are given the space and opportunity to shape the world’s future for the better? Join POLITICO's Women Rule on Dec. 12 for Leading with Purpose: How Women Are Reinventing the World to explore this and more. REGISTER HERE.

Jobs Report

— Ray Quiñones has joined the National Association of Broadcasters as director of government relations. He was most recently a legislative assistant for Rep. Darren Soto (D-Fla.).

— James Sauls, Kelly Riddle, Hawley Stanton and Molly O’Scannell have joined Cassidy & Associates in recent months as senior vice president, vice presidents and legislative assistant, respectively. Sauls was most recently chief of staff to the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.); Riddle was most recently deputy legislative director for Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.); Stanton was previously senior director of government affairs at USTelecom and O’Scannell was most recently with Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska).

— Marisa Calderon has been named president and CEO of Prosperity Now. She most recently served as the executive director at the NCRC Community Development Fund and as chief of community finance and mobility at the NCRC CDF’s parent company, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition.

— Lauren Gray is joining the Human Rights Campaign as senior vice president of communications and brand. She most recently was corporate and crisis lead for Out Front at Edelman.

— Marjorie Connolly is joining the Tech Oversight Project as a communications director. She’s a Capitol Hill, HHS and Protect Our Care alum.

— Katerina Hojgrova Neme is joining the Façade Tectonics Institute as executive director. She was previously U.S. West Coast correspondent for Built Environment Media.

— Rick Limardo has been promoted to senior vice president for government affairs at MGM Resorts.

A message from the Merchants Payments Coalition:

New Joint Fundraisers

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New PACs

The District PAC Inc. (Super PAC)

Eagles Roar PAC LLC (Super PAC)

NRRC (Super PAC)

Ohio Conservatives For A Change (Super PAC)

We Deserve Better, Inc. (Super PAC)

New Lobbying REGISTRATIONS

Squire Patton Boggs: Abb Asea Brown Boveri Ltd

Squire Patton Boggs: Central American Bank For Economic Integration (Cabei)

Squire Patton Boggs: Paradigm Operations Lp

Watkins & Eager Pllc: Innova Prep School

Zarrelli Strategies, Inc.: Sunray, LLC

New Lobbying Terminations

Css Partners, LLC: Hilliary Communications LLC

Jean Marie Consulting, LLC: Freedom Foundation

Phoenix Global Organization Incorporated: Mercer Park Brand Acquisition LLC.

Phoenix Global Organization Incorporated: Tesa Global Holdings Corporation

A message from the Merchants Payments Coalition:

Congress: Stop Wall Street from gouging American consumers and small businesses and pass the Credit Card Competition Act. America was built on competition. But because Visa and Mastercard dominate more than 80% of the credit card market and set the Wall Street megabanks’ prices, they have the power to inflate credit card fees at any time. And they’ve certainly taken advantage, with swipe fees increasing by more than 50% since 2020. Credit card swipe fees now cost American consumers and small businesses $160 billion each year at a rate that is seven times as much as Europe and double what consumers pay in Canada.

By allowing competition and promoting innovation, the Credit Card Competition Act would reduce the cost of fees now averaging over $1,000 a year for each U.S. household. Make Wall Street compete and pass the Credit Card Competition Act.