With help from Daniel Lippman CONSUMER BRANDS TAPS NEW CEO: The Consumer Brands Association has hired Melissa Hockstad — currently president and CEO of the American Cleaning Institute — to be the next head of the trade group. — Hockstad has been with the American Cleaning Institute for almost eight years, and before that she was an executive with the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers and Plastics Industry Association. She’ll be the third new leader for the Consumer Brands Association in two years, after former chief Geoff Freeman decamped for the U.S. Travel Association in 2022 and David Chavern departed in August to lead the American Council of Life Insurers. — The recent leadership shuffle at CBA, which represents the packaged goods industry, comes on the heels of Freeman’s 2019 overhaul of the organization that saw a rebranding of what was then known as the Grocery Manufacturers Association to broaden the trade group’s remit beyond major food companies. NEW BUSINESS: ConocoPhillips has hired Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck ahead of next year’s tax debate. Russ Sullivan — a former Senate Finance staffer and the head of the firm’s tax policy practice — is lobbying on energy, corporate and international tax matters as well as other international energy issues for the oil company, along with fellow Senate Finance alum Mark Warren, House Ways and Means alum Harold Hancock, Samantha Carl-Yoder and Lauren Dickman. — The Washington Spirit, D.C.’s professional women’s soccer team, has enlisted the Daschle Group to lobby on a bill that would transfer ownership of D.C.’s languishing Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium from the National Park Service to the D.C. government. Niki Carelli began lobbying last month on the bill, which passed the House in February and would allow the city to redevelop the site — potentially as a new stadium. This summer, the Washington Commanders retained Brownstein to lobby on the bill as well. Happy Thursday and welcome to PI. Send lobbying tips: coprysko@politico.com. And be sure to follow me on X: @caitlinoprysko. MORE SWIPE FEE REGISTRATIONS: There’s been a few more hires in the fight to defeat the swipe fees bill led by Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Roger Marshall (R-Kan.). Mastercard, which PI noted yesterday retained an outside firm started by a former aide to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, has also signed back on with Holland & Knight, according to a disclosure filing. — Holland & Knight worked for the card giant from 2021 until earlier this year, when they parted ways after six quarters without any reportable lobbying activity. The Electronic Payments Coalition, the industry group leading the opposition campaign against the bill, has retained veteran banking lobbyist James Ballentine of Ballentine Strategies. ACTBLUE BOOTS PRO-HARRIS SCAM PACS: ActBlue “has taken the extraordinary step of throwing a number of so-called scam PAC groups off of its platform, limiting their ability to raise money from unsuspecting donors in the final weeks of the election,” per The Bulwark’s Sam Stein. — “Earlier this month, ActBlue quietly stopped allowing the political action committees Democratic Power Inc., Democratic Victory Inc., and Democrats United to fundraise through its site. The decision came after the platform determined that the PACs had been misusing its tools—and right as Kamala Harris’s campaign began publicly warning donors that these groups were scams (an official at ActBlue said those warnings did not play a role in their decision).” — “After Harris’s entrance into the campaign in mid-July, these PACs began peppering donors with a flood of fundraising solicitations asking for money to help support her candidacy, often with emails or texts pledging ‘700% Match’ for the donations made. … In the months following, the groups have spent virtually nothing directly on Harris’s election.” DEMS’ BIG MONEYBALL: “The biggest super PAC in American politics is in the middle of an unparalleled spending spree, unleashing more money on television advertising in the closing weeks of the 2024 race than the campaigns of Donald J. Trump and Kamala Harris combined,” The New York Times’ Teddy Schleifer and Shane Goldmacher write of Future Forward, which “has ascended to the pinnacle of the Democratic political universe with remarkable speed.” — “The group is, in some ways, an ad-making laboratory masquerading as a super PAC, testing thousands of messages, social media posts and ads in the 2024 race, ranking them in order of effectiveness and approving only those that resonate with voters. Ad makers produce roughly 20 potential commercials for every spot that ever airs. And Future Forward has conducted nearly four million voter surveys since Ms. Harris entered the race — and more than 10 million since January.” — Still, the PAC’s “insular approach to spending the staggering $700 million it has raised in combination with its affiliated nonprofit group has led to suspicion and second-guessing” — including among Harris’ team. “In September, the Harris campaign made an unusual public statement suggesting donors back other groups devoted to get-out-the-vote operations.” ANNALS OF CAMPAIGN FINANCE: After the FEC deadlocked last week in a vote concerning a loophole cash-strapped Republicans have been using to save money on TV ads — effectively allowing the practice to continue — watchdogs are petitioning the FCC to weigh in, our Madison Fernandez writes. — “ End Citizens United Action Fund, the Campaign Legal Center, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and Public Citizen are asking the Federal Communications Commission to clarify its rules regarding the cost of television ads, specifically ones run through joint fundraising committees — a novel practice that some Republican candidates began to employ earlier this year to run ads at a lower cost.” HOLTZMAN VOGEL LAUNCHES AI PRACTICE: Well-known political law firm Holtzman Vogel Baran Torchinsky and Josefiak has launched a new practice group focused on artificial intelligence as the technology begins rippling through the campaign and advocacy worlds. — The practice group will be led by veteran political attorney Jason Torchinsky and Oliver Roberts, an associate with experience building AI tools and the founder of a legal AI startup. Steve Roberts, Ed Wenger and Jared Bauman will also work with the new practice. — The team will serve a variety of clients including campaigns, advocacy groups, tech firms, startups, government contractors, corporations and nonprofits trying to navigate AI issues related to the politics and advocacy world in particular — in terms of the regulatory landscape and the deployment of the technology. DARK MONEY DIARIES: The Washington Post’s Michael Scherer reports this morning on how swing states are being overrun by get-out-the-vote efforts organized not by either of the presidential campaigns or their political parties, but by “a vast, shadow machinery built by partisans often under nonpartisan banners to provide the final nudge that delivers the White House by mobilizing unlikely voters in seven swing states.” — “Funded largely without public disclosure, through local outfits and national networks, most of the operations have been lying in wait for years in preparation for this moment. … There is no centralized way to know how much money they will spend or just how many people they will reach,” though those involved project the outside efforts will “easily be measured in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Given the razor thin margins dividing Trump and Harris in the target states, they could easily prove decisive in one or more states.” DINERS, DRIVE-INS AND DIVES: Ahead of a deeply divisive election and America’s 250th birthday next year, a group of trade associations have set up shop at the Circleville Pumpkin Show in Ohio in an effort to spark some optimism about the state of the country. The initiative, which is spearheaded by the National Association of Manufacturers and funded through a grant from the Koch-backed Stand Together Trust, is anchored by the pop-up Route 250 Diner the organizations set up this week as a proof of concept. — The idea is that visitors to the pumpkin show will be lured into the diner by a local baker’s famous pumpkin donuts. There, they’ll also be treated to stories highlighting local creators and “hometown heroes” and given the chance to commit to performing an act of service on behalf of their community, said Jay Timmons , NAM’s president and chief executive and a Circleville native. — The group aims to scale up with additional pop-up experiences and structured volunteer groups, but Timmons told PI it was “really important” to get a head start on the initiative before the election takes place. “We want to remind them about what’s really right about America and how they can come together and make a really positive difference,” he said. — In addition to NAM, the proof of concept is supported by the Bill of Rights Institute, the International Franchise Association, the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association, the Ohio Restaurant & Hospitality Alliance, America 250-Ohio, Advoc8 and LSG.
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