A NEW INFLUENCE PARTNERSHIP: “BGR Group, one of Washington’s biggest lobbying firms whose clients include Verizon Communications Inc. and Mass General Brigham, has banded together with seven other shops around the country to form a new umbrella company, Advocus Partners,” Bloomberg’s Kate Ackley reports. — “The firms engage in federal and state lobbying, polling, messaging and public relations, coalition building, and grassroots advocacy and last year had combined revenue of $205 million, said executives with the group.” — “The deal is a sign of shifting strategies for the influence campaigns that frequently go well beyond Capitol Hill. The biggest lobbying enterprises increasingly deploy social media, messaging, and state-focused approaches. Some have pursued private equity investment to fund new business areas; another holding company went public.” — “The other firms now under Advocus Partners are the Herald Group, which does communications for advocacy campaigns; Hilltop Public Solutions, a grassroots organizing firm; state and local lobbying enterprise Stateside Associates; Florida firm Capital City Consulting; the Sacramento-based Capitol Advocacy; the Tarrance Group, which does GOP political polling as well as nonpartisan issue advocacy surveys; and Hicks Partners, a Columbus, Ohio, lobby firm.” — “The firms plan to keep their names and offices, largely operating as before. But partners in each of the firms now have an ownership stake in the holding company, which in turn owns the eight shops.” CREDIT CARD, AIRLINE EXECS SNUB DURBIN: “Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin said Thursday that the CEOs of Visa, Mastercard, United Airlines and American Airlines have rejected his request for them to appear at a hearing on credit card competition, escalating tension around his effort to crack down on swipe fees,” per our Jasper Goodman. — “The Illinois Democrat had issued a request last month for the executives to provide testimony at a Judiciary Committee hearing. He said Thursday that all four CEOs have turned down his request. Asked about the possibility of subpoenas, a spokesperson for Durbin said that ‘all options are on the table.’” ALLEGIANT AIR ADDS ANOTHER: Low-cost carrier Allegiant Air has brought on additional lobbying help as the airline tries to get the Transportation Department to resume its review of a proposed partnership between Allegiant and Mexican budget carrier Viva Aerobus. Noe Garcia, Mike Rubino, Leah Charette, Ana Montanez and Thomas Mathiasen of Forward Global began working for Allegiant earlier this month on competition in commercial aviation and the Viva joint venture, disclosures show. — Weeks earlier, Allegiant and Viva filed a motion with DOT calling for the resumption of the department’s review, which has been paused since last summer amid concerns about Mexico’s compliance with an air transport compact. — Allegiant has shuffled its lobbying footprint in D.C. over the past five months. The airline’s parent company, Allegiant Travel, parted ways with Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld in November after more than a decade of working together. That same month, Allegiant Air retained Neal Patel of Patel Partners. In January, Allegiant Travel, which also owns a resort in Florida, registered its first in-house lobbyists to work on issues related to aviation and resort operators. TWO ROADS DIVERGED: “Prominent Democratic consulting firms have been making bank on the crypto industry’s new super PACs,” reports Rolling Stone’s Andrew Perez, who questions whether those relationships can continue “now that those groups are setting their sights on the Senate races in Ohio and Montana, a scenario that could destroy Democrats’ majority.” — “In an awkward turn of events, one of the crypto super PAC vendors, Impact Research, has been working to help Democrats hold onto their Montana Senate seat. Now, the firm’s clients could try to turn the seat red.” — “To date, the crypto threat to Democrats’ Senate majority is only implicit: A spokesman for Fairshake, one of the crypto super PACs, recently told The New York Times that the super PAC plans to get involved in the general elections for Senate in Ohio and Montana.” Though the super PAC reportedly hasn’t yet decided who it will back in those races, incumbent Democrats Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Jon Tester of Montana “are both critics of cryptocurrencies,” Perez notes. TIKTOK’S RAINMAKER: “The biggest donor in this U.S. election cycle is Jeffrey Yass, a libertarian trading firm owner who started off as a professional poker player and is now a major investor in TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance,” Reuters’ Alexandra Ulmer reports. — “Philadelphia-based Yass has donated more than $46 million to Republican causes so far in the 2024 election cycle, data from political donations tracker OpenSecrets shows. The funds have gone to support former rivals of Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination, as well as a raft of groups supporting school choice, programs that use taxpayer dollars to send students to private and religious schools.” — “Yass, 65, was thrust into the spotlight this month after Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, reversed course on his preference for banning TikTok, saying that a ban would hurt some children and only strengthen Meta Platforms’ Facebook.” Trump’s comments came days after meeting with Yass, though the former president has said the two didn’t discuss TikTok.
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