Subject: POLITICO Influence: Brenner & Mulhall leave Gephardt to form Rosemont Strategies — Comcast signs Thorn Run, Microsoft signs Wilmer, Cov vs. FTI on Zoomlion vs. Konecranes — Trump's new finance chair is a Dem donor
From: POLITICO Influence <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 6 May 2016 12:03:01 -0600

By Isaac Arnsdorf | 05/06/2016 02:00 PM EDT

With help from Cogan Schneier and Brianna Gurciullo

NEW FIRM: Scott Brenner and Kyle Mulhall, who recently left Gephardt Government Affairs, formed Rosemont Strategies. At Gephardt, they focused on the transportation sector with clients such as Los Angeles International Airport and the Port of Oakland and in the tech sector with Google and McAfee. They're bringing over clients including New York Air Brake, PODS and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and Los Angeles World Airports. Since opening April 1 they signed up the American Trucking Associations.

Brenner, a Republican, worked for the House Committee on Ways and Means and the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. President George W. Bush appointed him to run public affairs at the Federal Aviation Administration, and he also served in the Department of Homeland Security. 

Mulhall, the Democrat, spent most of his congressional career as a top aide to House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt focusing on transportation and the environment. He was also a lawyer in the Department of Transportation, focusing primarily on rail, transit and environmental issues, and for federal contractor Catapult Technology, which was sold six years ago.

NEW BUSINESS:

- Comcast retained Thorn Run Partners to lobby on issues related to telecommunications, program carriage, cybersecurity and intellectual property. The filing names founder Chris Lamond [former staffer for former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) and former adviser to Thompson's 2008 presidential campaign], Andrew Rosenberg [former legislative assistant for former Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), co-founder of Draft Obama and unsuccessful 2004 candidate to represent Virginia's eighth district], Stuart Chapman [former chief of staff for former Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.)] and Jason Rosenstock [former legislative counsel for former Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.)].

- Covington & Burling is lobbying for Chinese manufacturer Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science & Technology Co. on its potential transaction with Terex Corp., with help from Harbinger Strategies and Subject Matter (formerly known as Elmendorf Ryan). A Finnish company called Konecranes also wants to buy Terex and retained the Glover Park Group, FTI Government Affairs and Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom. 

- Microsoft hired Wilmer Hale's Jonathan Yarowsky. The former special counsel to Bill Clinton specializes in antitrust, telecommunications and intellectual property issues. 

- Poblete Tamargo registered to represent nine more families that have property claims against Cuba arising from the 1959 revolution. The seizures were never resolved and resurfaced recently as part of the Obama administration's push to normalize relations. Jason Poblete said the lawyers are working with the State Department, Treasury, House and Senate to win the maximum compensation for lost property including homes, businesses, artwork, debts, farms, sugar mills and factories.

- The Chwat Group is lobbying the the House and Senate Appropriations Committees for the Electronic Security Association, seeking a large state grant program, maybe through DHS, for equip schools with counterterrorism technology and infrastructure upgrades. The Department of Justice/NIJ has funded school security studies for three years, and president John Chwat said that's enough research and it's time to buy.

HAPPY FRIDAY! Is Metro on fire? Send tips to [email-masked].

SCHUMERLAND: Thanks for the audience participation. We've augmented yesterday's list online.

TRUMP TEAM: Steven Mnuchin, Trump's new finance chair, gave $2,000 to Democratic California Attorney General Kamala Harris' Senate campaign in February. He's also contributed to Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, Bill Bradley, John Kerry and John Edwards. The Center for Public Integrity reports more than half of his federal donations since 1995 have benefited Democrats. An investor formerly with Goldman Sachs, Mnuchin used to work for Democratic mega-donor George Soros and currently, at Dune Capital, is co-CEO with Daniel Neidich, who has raised more than $100,000 for Clinton. The New York Times interviewed Mnuchin about his plans.

- Michael Glassner is Trump's convention maestro, POLITICO's Ken Vogel and Alex Isenstadt report. He'll travel next week to Cleveland's Quicken Loans Arena to assess the convention planning and receive a briefing from RNC officials. The implications for the campaign's power struggle aren't clear: Paul Manafort is officially convention manager, but Glassner is seen as loyal to Corey Lewandowski.

JOBS REPORT:

- Deborah Solomon left Finsbury to join Brunswick Group as director. Before Finsbury, Solomon spent 15 years at The Wall Street Journal.

- Prue Fitzpatrick is leaving Blue Cross Blue Shield Association to become the new vice president of government affairs at National Association for Home Care and Hospice.

- Natalie Ravitz, a former chief of staff to News Corp. and 21st Century Fox Chairman Rupert Murdoch, will join the National Football League as its senior vice president of communications, POLITICO Media's Joe Pompeo reports. Ravitz, who worked for Murdoch from 2012 to mid-2015, also previously worked as a press secretary and senior adviser to Sen. Barbara Boxer and in former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's education department. Ravitz will report to Joe Lockhart, former White House press secretary for Bill Clinton. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=92b80150422f6929a9007f8fa85173b6bc9c4ea41293b5361c6fe6f3c6ad823e

- Ashley Bailey, formerly chief of staff at the American Apparel and Footwear Association, joined the National Federation of Independent Business this week as vice president of strategic planning. Bailey also worked as chief of staff at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck.

- Rabbi Steve Gutow, former President and CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, has joined J Street for the 2016 election cycle. Gutow will work with congressional candidates endorsed by JStreetPAC. Gutow was the founding executive director of the National Jewish Democratic Council.

- Global Strategy Group won the SABRE Award for Public Affairs Campaign of the Year for its work to renew the 9/11 health bill.

KURDS ON K STREET: The New York Times' Eric Lipton reports that as the war against ISIL rages on, cash-strapped Kurdistan has built a small but effective lobbying delegation seeking funds for the fight. The push, which began last summer and is led in part by Qubad Talabani, the deputy prime minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government, has won support from a varied audience in Congress - military hawks, conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats - and secured $415 million last month in additional aid to support Kurdish peshmerga military force. The Kurds have tapped Dentons, BGR Group founder Ed Rogers, and former undersecretary of the Army Joe Reeder at Greenberg Traurig. Department
 of Justice disclosure records show more than 2,300 emails, telephone calls, meetings and other events with members of Congress in the last half of 2015, as well as private conversations with at least six senators. Still, Kurdistan's financial challenges have complicated some of its contracts - for example, Dentons collected just $5,000 a month for a few months last year, instead of the $20,000 in its contract. This hasn't deterred the Kurds. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=92b80150422f6929acbabb3aac301b7a661e7e88ee3ddbb1e1ad1086fe1a0440

REGULATION ROAD: The Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets, the driverless car lobbying group made up of tech and auto giants including Google, Uber and Ford, is gearing up a two-pronged lobbying effort to work on regulations both on a federal level and in the states, reports Buzzfeed News' Hamza Shaban. David Strickland, a former administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and partner at Venable, said the group will lobby the NHTSA in hopes of flexibility on driverless car vehicle standards, which could regulate fail-safe measures, emergency procedures and features, such as the cars' lack of steering wheels. Strickland said the group will need to preempt state
 laws that could make it difficult for driverless vehicles to cross state lines. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=92b80150422f692963add9563711eaca9c59bb5ee9d78f8d829860330926755c

DOESN'T GROW ON TREES: The food and agriculture industry has thrown its weight behind Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), chairman of the Appropriations agriculture subcommittee, as he faces a difficult election this year, likely against Democratic Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander. Pro Agriculture's Helena Bottemiller Evich, Catherine Boudreau and Ian Kullgren report Blunt has raised $5.7 million this cycle, with nearly $205,000 coming from ag-related PACs, including those of General Mills, Tyson Foods, John Deere and Cargill. The Bunge North America Inc. PAC and the National Cattlemen's Beef Association PAC each gave Blunt $10,000, and the Food Marketing Institute PAC gave more than $7,500 in
 donations and event support. The campaign funding arm of the trade group backing the Renewable Fuel Standard, the Growth Energy PAC, gave $7,000. More from the first-ever Agriculture Influence.

FRIEND REQUEST: Facebook confirmed to Pro Technology's Tony Romm Thursday that the social media giant will provide "financial and other support" at both the Democratic and Republican conventions this summer, despite CEO Mark Zuckerberg's confrontations with the presumptive GOP nominee, Donald Trump. Liberal groups like ColorOfChange, Free Press Action Fund and CREDO have called on tech companies to opt out of the GOP convention, citing Trump's controversial statements and positions on women, minorities and immigrants. Google and Microsoft have both confirmed they will provide services to the GOP convention, though Microsoft has said it will not donate funds and Google has yet to confirm any
 plans to contribute financially. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=92b80150422f692980f72383af0671903560c965f666742c832ebe17aff46d7c

TEAMSTER TURMOIL: The Teamsters are resisting a law that could allow cuts to its endangered pension fund - and that they helped write in the first place, Pro Labor & Employment's Marianne LeVine reports. The Kline-Miller Multiemployer Pension Reform Act empowers the Treasury Department to make cuts to multi-employer pensions, like the Teamsters' Central States pension, in order to help preserve benefits in the long term. Trustees of the Central States pension have proposed such cuts, and Treasury is deciding whether to approve them, a decision Teamsters President James Hoffa, up for reelection this year, bemoaned in an op-ed Wednesday. But, LeVine writes the Teamsters participated in talks
 that laid the groundwork for the Kline-Miller - the union is listed in a report upon which the law is based. Sources say members were on both sides of the law, and Teamsters aren't the only union with second thoughts; the Machinists were at the discussions as well, though a spokesperson said they later pulled out. Other labor groups continued to support the legislation, such as the SEIU, UFCW, the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America and the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=92b80150422f69291e8648ee4a8fdbfff042b0f94154f38a0d3213c2df1feb17

#ICEBUCKETCHALLENGE: Last night Pete Frate, co-founder of the "ALS Ice Bucket Challenge," was at Hawk 'n' Dove to raise money for ALS research. Chris Burgoyne of the American Hotel & Lodging Association hosted.

- Last night, FiscalNote, a government relations management system, co-sponsored a Cinco de Mayo-themed happy hour with HillVets at Bearnaise. Spotted: Sergio Rodriguera Jr. (The Credit Junction), Bob Carey (RNC), Javaneh Nekoomaram (American Coatings Association), Scott Rutter (Valor Networks), Bud Albright (Ogilvy), Lt. Col. Michael Motley (DARPA), David Molina (Molina Healthcare), Carlos Gutierrez (Minority Business Development Agency), Matt Manville (Military Order of the Purple Heart), Ken Wiseman (VFW) and Andy Hackman (Serlin Haley).

- Burson-Marsteller's grassroots arm, Direct Impact, held its annual field team reception at Jack Rose last night, with specialty drinks Impacto Directo (tequila) and Libation without Representation (bourbon). Notable guests: Michael Law, Nicole Cornish, Jon Wentzel, Connie Partoyan, Ralph Posner, Michael Fleischer, Steven Soper, Ray Glendening, Nic Breeding, Robert Coon, Chuck Larson, Karen Slifka, Scott Dunaway, Darrin Klinger, David Cunningham, Travis Thomas, Russ Keene and Carson Chandler.

NEW JOINT FUNDRAISING COMMITTEES:
Blunt Burr McCain Joint Victory Committee (Non-Qualified Non-Party, Joint Fundraiser)

NEW PAC REGISTRATIONS:
Upgrade Congress PAC 
Congress Is Not A Career (Non-Qualified Non-Party, Unauthorized)
League of Evolving and Futurist Thinkers (Independent Expenditure-Only Committee, Unauthorized)
Committee Against Sanctimonious House Members (C.A.S.H) (Non-Qualified Non-Party With Non-Contribution Account, Unauthorized)

NEW LOBBYING REGISTRATIONS:
Capitol Decisions, Inc.: Residential Eating Disorders Consortium
Covington & Burling LLP: Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science and Technology Co., Ltd.
Emmer Consulting, Inc. (formerly known as Emmer Consulting, P.C.): Weather Group Television, LLC (doing business as The Weather Channel)
English, Lucas, Priest & Owsley: Trojan Technologies
Harbinger Strategies, LLC: Covington & Burling LLP (on behalf of Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science and Techn)
Harbinger Strategies, LLC: Ryan, Inc.
Jim Adams: Offshore Marine Service Association
Mehlman Castagnetti Rosen & Thomas, Inc.: Anbang Group Holdings, Ltd.
Mr. Mark Kopec: I P Video
Mr. Mark Kopec: Powermers Inc.
Mr. Mark Micali: Direct Marketing Association, Inc.
Prime Policy Group: Kansas City Area Transit Authority
Subject Matter (formerly known as Elmendorf Ryan): Covington (on behalf of Zoomlion)
Thorn Run Partners: Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Venable LLP: Monticello Asset Management, LLC

NEW LOBBYING TERMINATIONS:
Armory Hill Advocates (formerly known as Rawlson Policy Group): Trident USA Health Services
Provident Strategies LLC: City of Marion

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