Subject: POLITICO Influence: O'Malley's 'Irish wake' — More chips down on RAWA — Bono's Moore to McBee
From: POLITICO Influence <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 25 Apr 2016 12:02:55 -0600

By Isaac Arnsdorf | 04/25/2016 02:00 PM EDT

With help from Cogan Schneier and Brianna Gurciullo

'IRISH WAKE': Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley's defunct presidential bid is hosting an "Irish wake" at an Irish pub on Wednesday to help pay off campaign debt. The announcement mistakenly said it was "Paid for and authorized by Bill Nelson for Senate," according to an O'Malley spokeswomen.

RAWA WATCH: The Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling has added Capitol Counsel to its roster of firms. Principals Aaron Cohen (former chief of staff to former Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.)) and Drew Goesl (former chief of staff to former Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.) and former communications director for former Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.)) will follow the Restoration of America's Wire Act. The Sheldon Adelson-backed coalition, which spent $85,000 on lobbying last quarter, also recently signed up The Keelen Group and terminated Squire Patton Boggs. Keelen and Capitol Counsel also lobby on RAWA for Adelson's Las Vegas Sands.

DRIVER'S SEAT: Venable's Chan Lieu, the former director of government affairs, policy and strategic planning at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, worked for Google last fall on the big highway funding bill that passed in December, H.R. 22. The registration, effective Nov. 1, was posted last week. Lieu told PI he never went to the Hill but monitored the bill's implications for some of Google's projects, such as self-driving cars.

- Speaking of Google, the company's representatives met at the White House more than once a week on average from the beginning of Obama's presidency through October 2015, The Intercept's David Dayen reported, drawing on data from the Campaign for Accountability. Almost 250 people have shifted from working in government service to working at Google or vice versa. Google's lobbyist, Johanna Shelton, visited the White House 128 times, more than twice Microsoft's Fred Humphries or Comcast's David Cohen. Todd Park, the U.S. chief technology officer, was the most-visited White House official, taking meetings with Google representatives 22 times at the White House. The company, which spent almost
 nothing on lobbying before 2007, spent $16.7 million in 2015. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=da6070f6727235acbaac9c553ce4cccf2b9b9693beffff20cf53217ff72547b3

DIGITS: McBee Strategic Consulting hired Garth Moore, who managed North American digital operations for Bono's ONE Campaign for five years. He'll run McBee's digital offerings, filling a hole at the firm that's been there since its ownership shake-up a year and a half ago. Washington caught a glimpse of Moore's work earlier this month when the Bono presented multimedia refugee diaries alongside his testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee. Though today digital is part of the communications practice, Managing Director Eric Bovim envisions the possibility of having full-fledged digital clients in three years. Moore is McBee's second recent hire (following Andrew Deerin, who made
 videos for Shakira and Paul McCartney) who leans more toward Hollywood than the Beltway. As Bovim put it, "it's a content game now more than a messaging game."

HAPPY MONDAY! Hope you caught Colin WIlhelm's and my Puerto Rico story on last night's "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver"! Self-promoting isn't just for tipsters. ... Keep 'em coming to [email-masked].

MORE JOBS NEWS: 

- Heather Podesta + Partners hired Anne MacMillan from the Washington office of farming and consumer packaged goods company The Wonderful Company. She used to be deputy chief of staff for Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and a senior policy adviser to then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

- The International Franchise Association hired Ryan Kennedy from the Direct Selling Association as manager of public affairs & grassroots advocacy.

- D. Joe Smith rejoined Jenner & Block as chair of the government contracts practice from Smith Pachter McWhorter. The practice also added Gregory Petkoff, a former Air Force attorney, and Matthew Haws, a government contracts lawyer.

- SKDKnickerbocker launched the Women's Leadership and Advocacy Practice, led by Nell Callahan, offering strategic communications, research insights, partnerships and community-building support. The firm also started an event series called "Books & Breakfast" and tomorrow will host EMILY's List Founder Ellen Malcolm ("When Women Win"). "This is the year of the woman; we could have the first woman president, many of the issues women care about are before the Supreme Court, and corporate America is grappling with how to add women leaders to their ranks and connect with women consumers," said Anita Dunn, managing director in SKDK's D.C. public affairs practice. SKDK's team includes Amy
 Brundage, Kerri Lyon, Kelley McCormick, Julie Norton, Natalie Munoz, Karen Olick, Bianca Prade, Cecelia Prewett, Marcela Salazar, Maureen Shanahan, and Jill Zuckman. Current and former clients include Planned Parenthood, Center for Reproductive Rights, Indra Nooyi and PepsiCo, Suze Orman, Katie McGinty, Kathleen Rice, Kathleen Matthews, Debbie Dingell, Angie's List, Bustle, National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, National Women's Law Center, NoVo Foundation, Ambassador Colleen Bell, Girls Who Code, Vital Voices, Women in Need and Women in the World.

- The National Geographic Society named Emma Carrasco from NPR as its new chief marketing officer and SVP of global strategy. 

NO SHOWS: POLITICO's Nick Gass reports Charles and David Koch's political network Freedom Partners won't have a presence the GOP Convention in Cleveland this summer. Charles Koch told ABC News he saw no reason to go, as his organization is interested in policies, not politics. Koch remarked that his group would support Democrats if they thought the party would do a better job passing favorable policies. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Arizona Sen. John McCain have also said they will not attend. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=da6070f6727235ac05f7c56d50ed94ef0eb531f72ce14f1cbad783421f5c3b37

STATE SPOTLIGHT: The pharmaceutical industry is fighting against a California ballot initiative that would lower drug prices in many cases, Pro Health Care's Nancy Cook and Sarah Karlin-Smith report. The measure, which one Republican lobbyist called a "grenade," would require the state to pay no more than the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for prescription drugs. Drug companies are planning to spend $100 million to kill the referendum, and brands like Johnson & Johnson, Bristol-Meyers Squibb, Pfizer and Bayer have already raised about $67 million. The organization sponsoring the measure, the AIDS Health Care Foundation, has raised only $4.3 million in comparison. The drug industry has
 also been recruiting allies - roughly 30 groups, such as veterans' organizations, the California NAACP, The Bonnie J. Addario Lung Cancer Foundation, The Lupus Foundation of Southern California and the California Chamber of Commerce, have signed on to oppose the measure on the grounds it could harm consumers. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=da6070f6727235ac8f8d38523955895e107b125b0d66c1e7311942d7dd5121ca

'IF YOU HIT YOUR MAX': The Texas Democratic Party asked the Federal Election Commission to investigate the Cruz campaign for allegedly soliciting unlimited corporate donations, citing my story about a recording from a December fundraiser in Dallas.

YOUTH VOTE: The Young Leadership Network created the Government Affairs Industry Network to provide networking opportunities and continuing education to professionals in advocacy and government. Spotted at the YLN's event last week: Shawn Affolter with Sen. John Hoeven; Madison Case and Jennifer Tong of LEVICK; Ginny Badanes, Microsoft; Anne DarConte, Beyond K St.; Alison Whitten, American Wood Council; Emil Pitkin, GovPredict; Bud DeFlaviis, Fuel Cell & Hydrogen Energy Association; Mark Lenker, Shire; Melissa Graeff, Rep. Scott Tipton; Sen. Wayne Allard, American Motorcyclist Association; Shane Greer, Campaigns & Elections Magazine; Cory Brown, Cygnal; Tim Teehan, L2; Brittany Carter,
 Columbia Books; Henri Makembe, Beekeeper Group; Sam Natthews, FAAR; Stefan Gochev, Booz Allen Hamilton; Katarina Hamelin, APCO Worldwide; Eric Storey, American Academy of Family Physicians; Joshua Habursky, American Diabetes Association; John Bayer, SpeakEasy Spirits; Andrew Fullerton, National Kidney Foundation; Blake Major, AIG; Shannon Patrick, Centurion Group; David Martin, Tyco; Brian Horn, U.S. Business Leadership Network; Ben Russell, SOFTEDGE.

FRIEND REQUEST: ICYMI - Sen. Lisa Murkowski has turned to Facebook for ultra-specific ad targeting, Fusion reports. The Alaska senator has been working for years to convince the Interior Department to allow her state to build an 11-mile road to connect two rural towns, but DOI opposes the idea, citing environmental concerns. To change department officials' minds, Murkowski launched a video add on Facebook that was geo-targeted at the Interior building during lunch hours. The smallest distance an ad can be geo-targeted for is a 1-kilometer radius, and DOI takes up a single city block, meaning Murkowski's ad would have reached everyone in that half-mile span - likely 2,000 people. 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=da6070f6727235ac1c1d8c3096f5ad74d62653f6f2f0f22e9335c386277bbcfb

NEW PAC REGISTRATIONS:
Battleground PAC (Non-Qualified Non-Party, Leadership PAC)

NEW LOBBYING REGISTRATIONS:
Alston & Bird LLP: Ricoh Americas
Command Policy Group LLC: Perceptics, LLC
David L. Horne, LLC: Sorenson Engineering, Inc.
Hall, Render, Killian, Heath & Lyman, P.C.: NineStar Connect
Health Policy Source, Inc.: Wisconsin Hospital Association
Mehlman Castagnetti Rosen & Thomas, Inc.: Generic Pharmaceutical Association
Thorsen French Advocacy LLC: Cardinal Health, Inc.
Wiley Rein LLP: Aveiro LP
Winn Strategies, LLC: Twin Logic Strategies (on behalf of Porter and Korvick P.A.)

NEW LOBBYING TERMINATIONS:
Andrews & Andrews, PLLC: Real Estate Services Providers Council
Cyrrus Analytics LLC: National Telecommunications Institute
Goddard Gunster, Inc.: Brazos Higher Education Services Corporation, Inc.
Goddard Gunster, Inc.: SB Capitol Solutions (formerly known as McCann) (on behalf of Oregon Department of Transportation)
Goddard Gunster, Inc.: Texas Guaranteed Student Loan Corporation
John Dudinsky & Associates: National Football League

TERMINATIONS - NO ACTIVITY:
Environmental Integrity Project: Environmental Integrity Project
Park Strategies, LLC: The Haitian Diaspora Federation
Simon and Company: Elkhart, Indiana
The Mathis Group: Express Scripts, Inc

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