FLYING IN: The Children's Hospital Association is hosting roughly 100 lobbyists from children's hospitals in Washington for its annual policy gathering. They had meetings on the Hill today to talk to lawmakers about their top priorities, including support for the pediatric health care workforce, bolstering Medicaid and working to address the mental health crisis. — The Health Equity in Transplantation Coalition is also in town this week with patients and physician advocates from both HETC and Honor The Gift to discuss their concerns about a recent CMS decision that they say would limit coverage of diagnostic blood tests to detect early signs of organ rejection for transplant patients and disproportionally affect people of color and patients in rural areas. — America's Newspapers, which represents local newspapers, hosted its fly-in Tuesday and hosted an event to rally support for local newspapers and advocate for the Community News and Small Business Support Act. The association met with Reps. Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.), Blake Moore (R-Utah), Mike Carey (R-Ohio), Juan Ciscomani (R-Ariz.), Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.) and Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) and Sens. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) and Mike Braun (R-Ind.). MONEY CAN’T BUY THEM LOVE: “The Republican presidential primary isn’t over, but the super PACs with the biggest ambitions may have already lost it,” Semafor’s David Weigel writes in a look at why presidential candidates backed by the most deep-pocketed super PACs so often flop. — “Never Back Down, the pro-Ron DeSantis super PAC that launched with an $82.5 million transfer from the Florida governor’s state reelection PAC, has lost key staff and apparently its candidate’s faith since November. DeSantis allies launched a new PAC, Fight Right, where ‘100% of contributions go direct to TV ads,’ according to a memo from DeSantis campaign manager James Uthmeier.” — “The assessment: NBD’s messaging, on air in Iowa all year, hadn’t worked. That leaves the governor’s ground game still run by an organization that top DeSantis strategists don’t trust and that they can’t directly influence.” — “‘The first rule of super PAC strategy is the Clint Eastwood rule: Know your limitations,’ said Mike Murphy, who was lead strategist for the pro-Jeb Bush Right to Rise super PAC eight years ago. ‘It looks like Never Back Down thought it had no limitations, so of course it got crosswise with the candidate.’ — After the 2010 Supreme Court decision that cleared the way for super PACs, “it wasn’t surprising that some candidates jumped at the chance to effectively outsource their campaign to a handful of big donors, once that became a clear possibility, rather than relying on fickle small donors and exhausting grip-and-grins with bundlers and their friends. In doing so, though, they surrender crucial control and lose the flexibility to course-correct that they have on their actual campaign.” ONE FESTIVAL THAT WON’T BREAK TICKETMASTER: “More than 84,000 people have swarmed this year’s climate talks in Dubai, which feature a dizzying array of panel discussions, corporate-sponsored happy hours and flashy pavilions handing out coffee and chocolate,” The Washington Post’s Maxine Joselow reports, including droves of influence peddlers. — “Once quick to dismiss the summits, many business lobbyists and C-suite executives now see the gatherings as imperative to attend, whether to meet with government officials, broker business deals or tout their climate credentials to a global audience.” — “‘The negotiations, we’re not really part of that,’ said Marty Durbin, senior vice president for policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. ‘But we do have the opportunity to meet with officials and other companies and dig into these critical issues.’” — “The chamber this year led the largest-ever U.S. business delegation to a global climate summit. Durbin said the group and member companies met Tuesday in Dubai with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan, pressing him on the need to accelerate the permitting process for wells that store carbon dioxide deep underground. Not everyone has welcomed the business heavyweights with open arms.” — “‘Over the last decade, the climate talks have become a complete lobby fest,’ said Pascoe Sabido, a researcher at the Corporate Europe Observatory, a nonprofit group that seeks to expose corporate influence on policymaking. ‘It doesn’t feel like climate talks. It feels like a trade fair.’” RETAILERS WALK BACK CLAIM ABOUT RETAIL CRIME: “The main lobbying group for U.S. retailers retracted its claim that ‘organized retail crime’ accounted for nearly half of all inventory losses in 2021 after finding that incorrect data was used for its analysis,” Reuters’ Katherine Masters reports. — “A spokesperson for the National Retail Federation said Tuesday that the organization had removed the sentence from its report on organized retail crime published in April. It produced the report in collaboration with private security firm K2 Integrity.” — “The research — which was edited in late November, according to NRF’s website — previously stated that ‘nearly half’ of the $94.5 billion in inventory losses reported by retailers in a 2021 survey ‘was attributable’ to organized retail crime.” — “The NRF's claim that organized retail crime accounted for ‘nearly half’ of inventory losses was repeated in multiple media reports on the issue” and helped bolster the group’s calls for help from Congress through “proposed legislation that would broaden the scope of offenses considered ‘organized’ crime and increase potential penalties.” — “According to NRF spokesperson Danielle Inman, the claim that organized crime accounted for nearly half of all inventory losses was based on two-year-old testimony from Ben Dugan, former president of the advocacy group Coalition of Law Enforcement and Retail.” — “In 2021, he told a U.S. Senate committee that organized retail crime accounted for $45 billion in annual losses for retailers, according to estimates by the coalition. The inclusion of the claim in NRF’s report was ‘taken directly from Ben’s testimony’ and ‘was an inference made by the K2 analyst linking the results of the NRF survey from 2021 and Ben Dugan’s statement made that same year,’ Inman said.” WHO’S WINNING THE ISRAEL AD WARS: “Advocacy organizations supporting Israel in its war with Hamas have spent roughly 100 times more on advertising via Meta’s social media platforms in the last month compared to groups aligned with Palestinians and Arabs,” POLITICO’s Mark Scott reports. — “The combined spending of more than $2 million on Facebook and Instagram, though not coordinated, shows how pro-Israel groups are trying to shape public opinion among Americans, especially younger generations who are increasingly skeptical of Israel.” — “The digital full court press — including one group that spent nearly half a million dollars on Meta’s platforms during that period — comes as U.S. and international lawmakers weigh adding conditions to additional support for Israel as its military campaign has killed at least 15,000 Palestinians, according to health authorities in Hamas-run Gaza. Israel launched its aerial bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza in response to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack in which militants killed roughly 1,200 people and took about 240 hostages, according to Israel.” — “On Meta’s platforms, which, collectively, are the world’s largest social media sites based on users, the groups buying ads in support of Israel include well-known names like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee as well as the Foundation to Combat Anti-Semitism, a group founded by billionaire Robert Kraft.” — “Their combined spending of $2.2 million exceeded almost any other entity over that period, except for the conservative news outlet Daily Wire and its affiliate Meta accounts that spent almost $3 million, POLITICO found. By comparison, groups supporting Palestinians, Muslims and Arabs spent less than $20,000 in that same period on Meta ads, POLITICO found.” SPOTTED at Chamber of Progress’ holiday happy hour last night, per a tipster: Casey Aden-Wansbury and Belinda Garza of Instacart, Adam Kovacevich of Chamber of Progress, K.J. Bagchi of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Tizzy Brown and Ryan Thornton of Uber, Robin Cook of Coinbase, Sam Dreiman and Susan Hendrick of Ripple, Billy Easley of Reddit, Carlos Gutierrez of LGBT Tech, Chris Massey of Craft Ventures, Brian Roehrkasse of Meta and Mbessin Sonko of Intuit. — And at a celebration at the Riggs hotel marking the fifth anniversary of the First Step Act hosted by Arnold Ventures, per a PI tipster: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, former Rep. Doug Collins, Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.), Kelli Rhee, James Williams and Kevin Ring of Arnold Ventures, Alice Marie Johnson, Families Against Mandatory Minimums’ Matthew Charles, Americans For Tax Reform's Grover Norquist, Holly Harris and Carrie Glenn of The Network, Ja'Ron Smith of Dentons Global Advisors, Aaron Cummings of Crowell & Moring, Joe Zogby of Sen. Dick Durbin’s (D-Ill.) office, Justice Action Network's Inimai Chettiar, Van Jones and REFORM Alliance’s Jessica Jackson. — And at the National Association of Broadcasters’ holiday party, per a tipster: Reps. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.), Ben Cline (R-Va.), Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), Randy Feenstra (R-Iowa), Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa), John Joyce (R-Pa.), Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa), Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.), John Rose (R-Tenn.), Brad Schneider (D-Ill.), Beth Van Duyne (R-Texas) and Steve Womack (R-Ark.) and Sens. John Boozman (R-Ark.) and Jon Tester (D-Mont.). — And at a Christmas party at The Hamilton Live hosted by House Majority Whip Tom Emmer: House Speaker Mike Johnson, Shannon McGahn of the National Association of Realtors, Bob Wood and Steve Pfrang of BGR Group, Eva Bandola of CGCN Group, Frank McCarthy of McCarthy Advanced Consulting, Matt Bravo and John Scofield of S-3 Group, Chris Giblin and Dee Buchanan of Ogilvy, Jonathan Nabavi of the NFL, Sage Eastman of Mehlman Consulting, Dawn Sears of Porterfield, Fettig & Sears, Carol Danko of Prudential, James Farrell of Microsoft, Ryan Eaton of Rocket Companies, John Hand of Wells Fargo, Raaed Haddad of the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America, Blaire Bartlett of The Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers, Brooks Brunson of Verizon, Adam Buckalew of alb solutions, Nickie Currie of Amgen, Marco Giamberardino of National Electrical Contractors Association, Eric Zulkosky of Fierce Government Relations, Blair Larkins of Stumptown Strategies, Len Wolfson of Fed Hall Policy Advisors, Nick Uehlecke of Todd Strategy Group, Warren Tryon of Capitol Counsel, Dennis Stephens of K&L Gates, Dennis Potter and Sean McGlynn of Holland & Knight and Jeff MacKinnon of Farragut Partners.
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