The heiress in the Biden administration

From: POLITICO West Wing Playbook - Tuesday May 11,2021 10:39 pm

May 11, 2021

By Theodoric Meyer, Alex Thompson and Michael Stratford

Presented by

With help from Allie Bice and Daniel Payne

Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. Did someone forward this to you? Subscribe here! Have a tip? Email us at transitiontips@politico.com.

While President JOE BIDEN’s Cabinet isn’t as rich as his immediate predecessors’, there are still plenty of one percenters in the top ranks of the Biden administration. JEFF ZIENTS, the White House Covid coordinator; SUSAN RICE , the director of the Domestic Policy Council; ERIC LANDER, Biden’s nominee to head the Office of Science and Technology Policy; and climate envoy JOHN KERRY are each worth tens of millions of dollars.

To that list, we can add Biden’s nominee to be the Education Department’s assistant secretary of legislation and congressional affairs.

Former Rep. GWEN GRAHAM (D-Fla.), whom Biden nominated last month, is worth at least $27.2 million, according to her newly released personal financial disclosure. And that’s the floor, not the ceiling.

Graham is an heiress to the Graham family fortune, built over decades of Florida land and real estate investments. She’s also linked by marriage to the wealthy clan that once owned the Washington Post and other news outlets (yes, it used to be possible to make a fortune in the media industry). Her father is former Sen. BOB GRAHAM (D-Fla), whose brother married KATHARINE GRAHAM, the late Post publisher who famously steered the paper through one of its golden periods. DON GRAHAM , Katharine’s son and successor as Post publisher, is her cousin.

Graham’s wealth is derived from her 5 percent stake in her family company’s vast real estate holdings, which are concentrated in South Florida but also include a dairy farm and a ranch in the state and a pecan orchard, a cattle farm and timberland in Georgia. Graham Group Holdings’ assets are worth at least $537 million, according to her disclosure. (The company is separate from Graham Holdings, which once owned the Post and Newsweek.)

In Florida, Graham is considered political royalty. Her father served alongside Biden in the Senate for 18 years. Two former staffers for the elder Graham recalled Graham and Biden being friendly in the Senate but not especially close. Graham’s first first office when he arrived in Washington in 1987 was in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, across the hall from the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing room. That gave Graham the chance to run into Biden, the committee’s new chairman, one of the former staffers recalled. And Biden once spoke to a group of Graham friends and supporters who came to Washington for a visit in the 1990s.

Gwen Graham herself served in Congress for one term, after ousting a Republican incumbent in Florida’s second district in 2014. But she was effectively forced into retirement two years later after her district was made much more Republican by court-ordered redistricting. She ran for governor of Florida in 2018 but lost in the Democratic primary.

She endorsed Biden and maxed out to his campaign the day he announced in 2019; her father followed suit, endorsing Biden a few months later.

Biden’s selection of Graham as assistant secretary surprised many people who work in education policy, given the job’s relatively low-profile. If confirmed, she will be responsible for working with congressional offices, helping to manage constituent services requests and briefing Hill staffers about what’s happening at the agency. Graham would come to the agency with more Washington experience than her boss, Education Secretary MIGUEL CARDONA.

Graham stepped down from Graham Holdings’ board after winning her House seat, but it didn’t stop the company from becoming a political issue for her when she ran for governor. One of her primary opponents, JEFF GREENE, ran TV ads criticizing the company’s role in a mega-mall project that had been criticized by environmental groups.

Graham narrowly lost the primary to ANDREW GILLUM, but it wasn’t the mega-mall controversy — or any other scandal — that doomed her campaign. Instead, the biggest knock on her was being unexciting. Graham herself asked a POLITICO reporter during the campaign whether he thought she was boring. Maybe a little, he responded, caught off guard.

“I’m not boring!” she replied. “I’m not boring! I’m not boring!”

PSA — We’re going to be experimenting with some new items and sections. Tell us what you like and what you hate.

Do you work in the Biden administration? Are you in touch with the White House? Are you JEN PSAKI?

We want to hear from you — and we’ll keep you anonymous: transitiontips@politico.com. Or if you want to stay really anonymous send us a tip through SecureDrop, Signal, Telegram, or Whatsapp here. You can also reach Alex and Theo individually. Let’s chat off the record with quote approval, Jen!

A message from Comcast:

Over the last 10 years, Comcast’s groundbreaking Internet Essentials program has connected more than 10 million people from low-income families to high-speed internet at home for less than $10 a month.

Now, Comcast is committing $1 billion over the next 10 years, to reach 50 million people with the tools and resources they need to succeed in a digital world.

PRESIDENTIAL TRIVIA

With the Partnership for Public Service

When GEORGE H.W. BUSH became president in 1989, BARBARA BUSH requested she not be compared to which previous first lady?

(Answer is at the bottom.)

Pool Dive

CICADA WATCH — The Washington Post’s MATT VISER wrote today from outside a virtual meeting between Biden and a bipartisan group of governors that, “I can report that your pooler has not yet spotted any cicadas from the edge of the White House lawn.” From NICK NIEDZWIADEK

Agenda Setting

BETTER BUY A BIKE — The Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation are taking steps to ease the fuel crunch created by the ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline, ALEX GUILLÉN and SAM MINTZ report.

The EPA issued a fuel waiver allowing retailers in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and D.C. to sell higher-polluting types of gasoline between now and May 18.

DOT, meanwhile, announced it is considering a "temporary and targeted" waiver of the Jones Act, a much-debated law that forbids foreign-owned, operated or built ships from carrying goods between U.S. ports.

WAR ON (DOMESTIC) TERROR: The Department of Homeland Security’s intelligence arm is setting up a dedicated team to focus on domestic terrorism, BETSY WOODRUFF SWAN reports.

TUCKER CARLSON’S NEXT MONOLOGUE? Biden is reversing a Trump-era policy that barred undocumented college students and others from receiving federal relief grants meant to help pay for expenses like food, housing and child care during the coronavirus pandemic, MICHAEL STRATFORD reports.

Advise and Consent

DEPUTIZED — The Senate confirmed the No. 2’s at the Health and Human Services and Education Departments today. ANDREA PALM, a former policy adviser in the Obama administration and an adviser in HILLARY CLINTON ’s Senate office, was confirmed to be HHS deputy secretary by a vote of 61-37.

The Senate also voted 54-44 to confirm San Diego Unified School District Superintendent CYNTHIA MARTEN to be deputy secretary of Education.

The Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, meanwhile, advanced JEWEL HAIRSTON BRONAUGH ’s nomination to be deputy secretary of Agriculture on Monday night.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS — The Senate has a bunch more confirmation action scheduled for tomorrow:

The Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee will vote on the nominations of LESLIE KIERNAN to be general counsel of the Department of Commerce and LINA KHAN — a noted antitrust crusader — to be a Federal Trade Commissioner.

The Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee is planning to vote on the nominations of JOCELYN SAMUELS to be a member of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, JENNIFER ANN ABRUZZO to be general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board and SEEMA NANDA to be solicitor for the Department of Labor.

The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing with DEBORAH BOARDMAN and LYDIA KAY GRIGGSBY , nominees to be Maryland district court judges. The committee will also consider RONALD DAVIS’ nomination to be director of the U.S. Marshals Service.

The Environment and Public Works Committee will hold a hearing on three nominees: SHANNON ESTENOZ to be assistant secretary of the Interior for fish and wildlife, RADHIKA FOX to be an EPA assistant administrator and MICHAL ILANA FREEDHOFF to be EPA assistant administrator for toxic substances.

What We're Reading

Maduro and Washington are sending signals of tentative detente (Bloomberg’s Patricia Laya, Alex Vasquez and Jennifer Jacobs)

White House confirms President Biden will visit Michigan on Tuesday (Detroit Free Press’ Todd Spangler)

Biden tax proposal would squeeze apartment building owners (The Wall Street Journal’s Will Parker)

Samantha Power wants to restore U.S. prestige by getting American-made vaccines ‘into arms’ around the world (The Post’s Karen DeYoung)

Where's Joe

He met with Sen. KYRSTEN SINEMA (D-Ariz.) to discuss the American Jobs Act. He also met virtually with a bipartisan group of governors in the South Court Auditorium.

Where's Kamala

She met with members of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus in the vice president’s Ceremonial Office. Reps. JUDY CHU (D-Calif.), AMI BERA (D-Calif.), STEPHANIE MURPHY (D-Fla.), ANDY KIM (D-N.J.) and Del. MICHAEL SAN NICOLAS (D-Guam) were among the attendees.

The Oppo Book

While attending Harvard University, SARAH BIANCHI—who is now Biden’s nominee to be the U.S. deputy trade representative—was roommates with KARENNA GORE, AL GORE’s oldest daughter.

And through their friendship, Bianchi got to know the whole Gore family.

According to a New York Times profile on Bianchi from 2000, she would play basketball at the Gore’s home and go water skiing with them in Tennessee.

And just a few years out of college, Bianchi joined Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign as his deputy issues director, though Gore’s aides said the hiring was based on merit.

Gore said Bianchi was “scary smart,” and told the Times it made him nervous to give a 20-something such an important role, but only for a bit.

“It did. For about a week,” he said. “After that I lost any apprehension at all. She handles herself like a seasoned pro.''

The Times piece went on to note that Bianchi, then 27, subsisted on a diet of “candy bars and Diet Cokes,” while on the trail.

HELP US OUT — It's been interesting digging through memoirs and college newspaper clips about Biden administration officials. But we want your help too. Do you have a story — that’s potentially embarrassing but not too mean or serious — that we should use for an "Oppo Book" item? Email us transitiontips@politico.com.

Trivia Answer

Bush told reporters in January 1989 that she didn’t want to be compared to ELEANOR ROOSEVELT because her mother “really didn’t like her.”

“I grew up in a household that really detested her,” she told The Washington Post then.

We want your tips, but we also want your feedback as we transition to West Wing Playbook. What should be covering in this newsletter that we’re not? What are we getting wrong? Please let us know.

Edited by Emily Cadei

A message from Comcast:

For the last decade, Comcast has been helping students get ready. Since 2011, we’ve connected over 5 million students from low income families to affordable internet at home for less than $10 a month – and while speeds of Internet Essentials service have increased, the price never has.

Now, we’re working with hundreds of school districts across the country to sponsor free internet and have provided more than 150,000 laptops. And we’re launching 1,000 WiFi-connected Lift Zones in community centers nationwide to create safe spaces where students can get online and connect to the resources they need.