MORE NEW BUSINESS: Direct-to-consumer clothing and home brand Quince hired its first lobbyists after the Biden administration said it would move to crack down on a so-called trade loophole that allows companies to avoid paying import duties on small shipments. — The Smith-Free Group registered to lobby on import duties on behalf of Quince at the beginning of October, according to a disclosure filing. Weeks earlier, the White House announced plans to strip certain imports qualifying for the de minimis exemption, which waives tariffs and certain customs scrutiny on shipments valued below $800, and which critics have blamed for an influx of fast fashion products and synthetic drugs from China. — Some of the main targets of efforts to crack down on the de minimis exemption have been e-commerce giants Shein and Temu, but The Information reported in September that Quince has taken advantage of the supposed loophole as well. — TheGROUP D.C. signed a pair of new blue-chip clients just before the election, in an indication that the firm’s ties to top Democratic leaders hasn’t hurt business prospects just yet, despite Republicans readying to resume control of Washington. — Credit card company Discover retained Joseph Kwabena Nsiah, a former Cedric Richmond chief of staff, and Jorge Aguilar, a former aide to Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, at the beginning of October, according to a disclosure. — Just days before the election, rideshare giant Uber retained Aguilar and Sudafi Henry, a former vice presidential aide to President Joe Biden, to work on issues related to the gig economy, surface transportation and international tax, according to a disclosure. — Meanwhile, Surescripts and several other health companies have followed one of their former lobbyists to a new firm. The health data and e-prescribing company hired Van Scoyoc Associates’ Emily Katz last month to work on interoperability and tech issues, per a disclosure. Katz left Prime Policy Group, where she led the health care practice, in October, and Surescripts and Prime Policy parted ways shortly after. — Katz has signed two other former clients, Perspectum and the National Association of Chain Drug Stores. Prime Policy continues to work for both clients as well, according to filings. ANNALS OF DARK MONEY: The Washington Post’s Michael Scherer and Josh Dawsey have the details on a secret $45 million “false-flag” campaign led by political advisers to Elon Musk that aimed to dampen support for Vice President Kamala Harris in crucial swing states just before the election. — The effort included promoting ads to Muslim voters in Michigan about Harris’ marriage to a Jewish man, ads about ending arms shipments to Israel that were received by Jewish voters in Pennsylvania, and so on. — “With digital spots, direct mail, text messages, influencer marketing and mobile billboards, the overall project was a high-tech experiment in misdirection — an old political tactic that has been sharpened in recent decades with increasingly precise targeting techniques,” according to the Post. — “The entire effort grew out of research by Building America’s Future, a conservative political nonprofit that was founded during the first Trump administration by Republican consultants Generra Peck and Phil Cox. With others at P2 Public Affairs, Peck and Cox, former advisers to [Florida Gov. Ron] DeSantis, were top strategists for a separate effort, America PAC, the super PAC funded by Musk to support Trump. Musk donated to Building America’s Future in 2022, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. The group’s leaders have declined to comment on their donors.” WHAT SLF IS READING: “Donald Trump’s team — convinced that the Senate GOP campaign arm and its top allied super PAC are hiring ‘Never Trumpers’ for key roles — is preparing to launch its own super PAC to compete in the next round of Senate races in 2026,” two close allies of the president-elect tell our Natalie Allison, Ally Mutnick and Adam Wren. — “The plan, if carried out, would upend the party’s traditional method of competing in Senate races and could cause major discord among powerful GOP financial players — pitting Trump and his new regime against longtime GOP donors seeking to influence competitive Senate races. The move could disperse money across multiple entities and hinder the Senate Leadership Fund, a group that was created to be a centralized GOP clearinghouse for Senate spending.” — “There’s a ‘brewing war on the verge of breaking out’ between Trump’s team and the traditional institutions that play in Senate races, said one person close to Trump, explaining that the heads of the National Republican Senatorial Committee and SLF ‘should reflect current leadership and the future, not the past.’” — “The person, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Trump allies ‘will set up our own SLF and compete’ with the longtime top super PAC aligned with former Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell” that combined with its dark money affiliate One Nation spent $420 million this cycle. “If they don’t change how they approach SLF, we will do it for them,” the ally said.
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