With Daniel Lippman FARA FRIDAY: The U.S. outpost of the Catholic body charged with overseeing holy sites in the Holy Land is turning to a different kind of higher power for backup in a tax dispute with Israeli municipalities, enlisting former Rep. Bob Livingston and the Livingston Group to urge the Biden administration to intervene. — The firm inked a six-month contract with the Commissariat of the Holy Land for the U.S., a branch of the Custos of the Holy Land, the Franciscan authority with custody of Catholic sites across the Middle East, according to documents filed with the Justice Department earlier this week. — They’re one of five Christian denominations that has accused Israeli municipalities of mounting an “unprecedented, coordinated attack on the Christian presence in the Holy Land” by reneging on what they say is a centuries-old exemption from municipal taxes in exchange for “greater investment in services that are a benefit to society,” including schools, hospitals, churches and nursing homes. — According to an appeal sent to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by church leaders in June, authorities for the municipalities of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Nazareth and Ramla had issued legal threats to churches under their jurisdiction if they did not pay outstanding tax debts. — In disregarding the churches’ special tax status, which the leaders said has been in place since the Ottoman empire, Israeli governments were in “contempt of our customs and that which is dear to us, while trampling the mutual respect, which existed between us until this time,” they argued. The debt collection pushes also coincide with what the patriarchs alleged is growing hostility toward Christians in Israel. — The June letter noted that when a similar tax dispute arose in 2018 with authorities from Jerusalem — prompting church leaders to close what they recognize as the site of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection in protest — Netanyahu stepped in to suspend the tax collection. — As the dispute plays out, the Custos of the Holy Land called on the Biden administration to raise the issue with Israel, and is seeking a meeting with the administration next week when its patriarch, Father Francesco Patton, is in town to mark the 125th anniversary of the Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land in D.C., DOJ filings show. — “The United States and Israel are committed partners. As such, we must engage on issues of mutual and global interest like the enduring Christian presence in the Holy Land,” the commissariat said in a letter distributed by the Livingston Group. “We would be grateful for the opportunity for the Custos to confer with you and your representatives during his visit.” — In addition to brokering a meeting with the Biden administration, the Livingston Group will work to connect the custos to other policymakers and opinion leaders in Congress and the private sector. The contract went into effect last month and is worth $72,000, according to a copy filed with DOJ. The Livingston Group’s Mark Lindsay, Allen Martin and Cathryn Kingsbury will work on the account along with the former lawmaker. TGIF and welcome to PI. Sign any interesting clients? Switching jobs? Let me know: coprysko@politico.com. And be sure to follow me on X: @caitlinoprysko. WHERE HERITAGE WENT WRONG: “Whenever Vice President Kamala Harris mentions Project 2025 — the Heritage Foundation’s now-toxic blueprint for the next Republican administration — blood starts throbbing in the temples of certain conservative Heritage veterans. Like think tank leaders across the spectrum, the professionals are cringing at the tone-deaf naivete of an organization that touted such a polarizing document as an election-year gospel without realizing it might blow up on their own side,” our Michael Schaffer writes in a post-mortem on the project. — “Not long ago, the current Heritage president, Kevin Roberts, was triumphantly promising a ‘second American revolution’ and darkly declaring that it would be bloodless ‘if the left allows it to be.’ Steve Bannon floated him as a possible White House chief of staff. That was before Project 2025 was turned into a campaign issue by Harris — and disavowed by Trump.” — Critics point less to policy shifts during Heritage’s remaking in Trump’s populist image and more to the way it’s been doing business since Roberts took over. Meanwhile Trump naturally bristled at the think tank’s boasts about how close it was with the former president, and Project 2025’s unveiling so early on in the election cycle created a huge opening for opponents to dissect — and trumpet — its contents. — For those reasons, other think tank leaders around town aren’t losing sleep over the fear that they could be next up in the spotlight. “Indeed, in conversations with think tank graybeards, one theme that emerged across the spectrum was a kind of professional amazement that any serious policy organization could put itself in a position of becoming the story,” Michael writes. WHAT ELON’S UP TO: “Elon Musk secretly channeled hundreds of thousands of dollars into a local race in Travis County, Texas, in an unsuccessful effort to unseat a prosecutor who had won the office with the backing of the investor and Democratic donor George Soros,” per The Wall Street Journal’s Joe Palazzolo and Dana Mattioli. — “A group primarily funded by the Tesla and SpaceX chief executive, which called itself Saving Austin, sent out fliers and texts and spent more than $650,000 on television ads attacking District Attorney José Garza in the Democratic primary race earlier this year, according to people familiar with Musk’s involvement, as well as Federal Communications Commission filings and corporate documents.” — “Musk … has used his influence and money to help Donald Trump return to the White House. His support for Trump marks a political shift that could have major ramifications in the presidential race. His covert effort in the local prosecutor’s race in Texas shows that his engagement in politics is broader than previously known.” FIRST IN PI — A FOX IN THE UNION HOUSE: At least nine pro-union Democrats in competitive House races are using the political consulting and public affairs firm Global Strategy Group for political work this cycle even though it recently supported Amazon in its union-busting efforts, Daniel reports. — Reps. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.), Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.), Yadira Caraveo (D-Colo.), Gabe Vasquez (D-N.M.), Sharice Davids (D-Kan.) and Hillary Scholten (D-Mich.), as well as Virginia Democrat Eugene Vindman, New Jersey Democrat Sue Altman and Nebraska Democrat Tony Vargas have paid the firm for a variety of political consulting services this cycle, according to FEC records. — In 2022, CNBC reported that Amazon had used GSG to beat back a unionization push at a Staten Island warehouse, making videos of Amazon leaders to show to workers to persuade them to not sign up for the union, distributing flyers and monitoring the social media accounts of union organizers. While the firm initially denied involvement in the work, the firm later said that “we deeply regret being involved in any way” and stopped working for Amazon. — The controversy sparked by the firm’s work led former GSG clients American Federation of Teachers and the Service Employees International Union to publicly criticize GSG, although they weren’t clients at the time. AFT, whose president Randi Weingarten called the Amazon work “really really disgusting,” had spent $160,000 in polling and consulting work with GSG. A spokesperson for the national office of the SEIU, which had spent almost $2 million on the firm over a number of years, said then that it wouldn’t hire GSG in the future. — Ever since CNBC’s reporting came out in 2022, Horsford, who has said that unions “helped build Nevada” and that he would fight for their “seat at the table,” has spent $388,000 with GSG. Davids, who has said that she grew up in a union household and that she would “always stand with working men, women, and their families,” has paid nearly $525,000 to GSG for polling and PR and research in that time. And Ryan, who has said he “will always stand with and fight on behalf of organized labor,” has paid GSG almost $220,000. — Caraveo, Vindman, Vasquez, Vargas, Scholten and Altman have also made pro-union statements over the years but have used GSG during this campaign cycle: Caraveo has paid GSG $192,000 for polling and political strategy consulting, Vindman $61,000 for polling, Vasquez $372,000 for polling, Vargas $107,000 for research, Scholten $47,000 for research, and Altman $53,000 for research. None of the campaigns responded to PI’s requests for comments. — A GSG spokesperson told PI in a statement that it currently works for several labor unions along with pro-labor Democrats who support the right to organize, and the firm has not worked for Amazon in over two years. “GSG has language in our contracts making it clear we will not do any work that opposes organizing efforts, including participating in campaigns that make it harder for workers to organize or qualify for benefits,” the spokesperson added. SPOTTED last night at the residence of the French Ambassador to the U.S., Laurent Bili, for a Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S. event to celebrate the new cocktail book “The French 75” by Jack Maxwell, per a tipster: Chris Swonger and Lisa Hawkins of DISCUS, Kristin Bodenstedt of Bacardi North America, Kate Coler of Moët Hennessy USA, Tom Farnsworth of Rémy Cointreau, Tony Scott of Hotaling & Co., Daron Pressley of Black Enterprise and Patrick Gleason of Americans for Tax Reform. — And at the National Pork Producers Council’s “food truck from a post-Prop 12 America,” where pork producers handed out maple bacon donuts amid meetings with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.), per a tipster: House Agriculture Chair G.T. Thompson (R-Pa.), Reps. Mark Alford (R-Mo.), Mike Bost (R-Ill.), Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.), John Moolenaar (R-Mich.), Zach Nunn (R-Iowa), Max Miller (R-Ohio), Jen Kiggans (R-Va.) and Boozman. — And on Tuesday at Dauphine’s for FTI Consulting’s fall “Flacks in Finance” happy hour, per a tipster: Taylor Griffin and Bijan Mehryar of Block, Chris Van Es of BlackRock, Andrew Lott of BNY, Wyatt Yankus of Standard Chartered, Mo Vahey of Plaid, Natalee Binkholder of Santander, Sarah Morgan of Mizuho, Miranda Margowsky of the Financial Technology Association, Amanda Russo of the Crypto Council for Innovation, James Sonne of PGIM, Carol Danko of Prudential, Robert Sumner of Wells Fargo, Tom Rosenkoetter of the American Bankers Association, Noah Theran of the Managed Funds Association, Kyle Simpson of the Institute of International Bankers, Cory Claussen and Kaitlyn Kiernan of FINRA, Adam Bromberg of Charles Schwab, Dan Goldstein of the Milken Institute, Cheyenne Hopkins of Visa, Ryann Durant and Ben Watson of the Senate Banking Committee, Colin McLaren of the Cedar Innovation Fund and Josh Drobnyk, Meredith Scialabba, Meghan Milloy, Adam Rice and Mark Yaklofsky of FTI.
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