NextEra adds another outside firm

Presented by the Coalition for Medicare Choices: Delivered daily, Influence gives you a comprehensive rundown and analysis of all lobby hires and news on K Street.

Mar 03, 2023 View in browser   By Caitlin Oprysko Presented by the Coalition for Medicare Choices With Daniel Lippman NEW BUSINESS: Utilities giant NextEra Energy has picked up a new outside firm, expanding its already lengthy roster of outside lobbyists. The Florida-based energy company retained Evan Knisely’s firm Tides Group this week to lobby on energy policy, according to a disclosure. Tides Group joins 16 other firms in the utility’s stable of hired guns, which includes Ballard Partners, Invariant, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, Harbinger Strategies and HLPR Advocacy. — The new hire comes amid a surge of lobbying spending by the company, which dished out $7.5 million on federal lobbying last year. That was its most ever, and represents a 90 percent increase compared with two years earlier. SPOTIFY, ORACLE SHUFFLE OUTSIDE FIRMS: Spotify and Oracle, meanwhile, are reshuffling their lobbying benches. The streaming service parted ways with Tiber Creek Group earlier this year after having worked with the firm since 2015. Spotify also split up with Joseph Gibson’s Gibson Group at the end of last year. — According to disclosures filed earlier this week, Spotify hired a team at H&M Strategies at the beginning of this year to monitor issues related to online music streaming and competition in app marketplaces. Former Yahoo lobbyist Nicole Mortier and former Information Technology Industry Council lobbyist Ralph Hellmann will work on the account. — Oracle has recently added three new firms to its rotation, bringing its total of outside firms on retainer to an even two dozen. According to a tardy disclosure filed this week, the software giant signed with Cormac Group founder Pat Williams back in October to work on data privacy and security and defense IT procurement issues. — Williams previously represented Oracle at Cormac Group, but when he left in the fall to launch his own lobbying shop, Oracle parted ways with the firm. According to another disclosure filed earlier this year, Oracle split up with Navigators Global — with whom it had worked for a decade and a half — at the end of the year, disclosures show. — And as PI has previously noted, Oracle also recently hired two of K Street’s multiple Jeff Millers; one the longtime Kevin McCarthy confidant and founder of Miller Strategies and the other the former California congressman and House Veterans Affairs Committee chair who joined Ballard Partners at the end of the year. TGIF and welcome to PI. What’s going on out there? Fill me in: coprysko@politico.com. And be sure to follow me on Twitter: @caitlinoprysko.   A message from the Coalition for Medicare Choices: Despite strong bipartisan support for Medicare Advantage, the Administration is considering harmful cuts to the program that would result in higher premiums and fewer benefits. 85% of voters with Medicare Advantage believe that President Biden would be breaking his promise to protect Medicare if cuts are made to Medicare Advantage. More than 30 million seniors and people with disabilities depend on Medicare Advantage for high quality, affordable health care. Don’t cut their care.   POLITICAL ADS SLOW TO RETURN TO TWITTER: “Nearly two months after Twitter announced it would resume allowing political advertising, the technology company, in response to a POLITICO inquiry, said this week that it had no paid political advertisers yet,” our Jessica Piper reports. — “Twitter CEO Elon Musk said in early January that Twitter planned to resume allowing political advertising. The decision followed a decline in ad sales after the tech billionaire acquired the platform and came as Musk has courted controversy by personally endorsing Republicans, reinstating former President Donald Trump along with right-wing accounts previously banned by Twitter and significantly cutting back on the tech company’s staff.” — “The resumption of political advertising could provide a new revenue stream for Twitter. When Twitter previously allowed political advertising, it never attracted nearly as much cash as rivals such as Facebook and Google,” which together drew nearly $100 million from presidential candidates at the beginning of the 2020 cycle, compared to $5.2 million for Twitter before it shut down political ads, according to data from OpenSecrets. — “The platform’s new ad verification process and disclosure mechanisms are rudimentary so far, relying on both potential advertisers and members of the public to fill out a form hosted by Google, unusual for a tech company that would typically be expected to build most of its own web features.” — “Both Republican and Democratic digital operatives said they expect Twitter advertising will eventually pick up as campaigns seek to meet voters wherever they are, including on the Musk-owned platform. But the same concerns about Twitter’s ‘brand safety’ driving the platform's overall advertising decline remain. Twitter's rollout of the new ad policy, including the use of Google Forms, is not exactly inspiring confidence.” FACING OFF WITH BIG FISH: When Mary Peltola was elected last year as Alaska’s only member of the House, she did so after campaigning on a platform “that placed … the viability of smaller commercial and subsistence fisheries at the forefront of her legislative agenda,” elevating the prominence of a long-running local issue and putting the new congresswoman at odds with the the powerful trawl fishing industry that she is now looking to rein in, Adam Federman writes for POLITICO Magazine. — Peltola and other advocates argue that the “trawl industry and the council that regulates it have not done enough to reduce bycatch or expand habitat protections for vulnerable species. The council, which sets bycatch quotas and manages commercial fisheries up to 200 miles from shore, has been captured by the largest industry players, Peltola says. Subsistence users and smaller commercial operators have been pushed to the margins. Economic interests rather than sustainability have come to dominate the decision-making process.” — “She is a member of the House Natural Resources Committee and has supported an overhaul of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, legislation passed in 1976 that governs how federal fisheries are managed and that has only been updated twice before. If it passes, the bill could alter the balance of power between the trawl industry and the smaller commercial operators and subsistence fishermen in Alaska.” — “The bill would add two tribal seats to the council, which would give subsistence users greater influence over council decisions and policy making. It would also enable the federal government to further reduce bycatch quotas — a move the trawl industry says would have catastrophic effects on Alaska’s economy.” FLYING IN: Leaders from American Weed Co., are heading to D.C. next week to rally Republican support for increasing veterans’ access to legal medical marijuana. The effort by American Weed Co., which is part of the industry trade group National Cannabis Roundtable, has the backing of former House Speaker John Boehner and will include meetings with the office of House Veteran Affairs Chair Mike Bost (R-Ill.) and Reps. Jack Bergman (R-Mich.), Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), Jason Crow (D-Colo.), Greg Steube (R-Fla.), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. — Career Education Colleges and Universities, which represents for-profit schools, kicks off its annual fly-in next week as well to fight against the exclusion of students at for-profit colleges from short-term Pell Grant proposals. — The association has more than 100 meetings scheduled on the Hill, including with Sens. Mike Braun (R-Ind.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), Reps. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), Greg Stanton (D-Ariz.), Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), Aaron Bean (R-Fla.), Bill Johnson (R-Ohio), Mike Kelly (R-Pa.), Scott Peters (D-Calif.), and Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas).   A message from the Coalition for Medicare Choices:   Jobs Report — National Association of Theatre Owners named Michael O’Leary its next president and CEO. He was most recently senior vice president government affairs at the Entertainment Software Association and is a 21st Century Fox, Motion Picture Association and DOJ alum. — Squire Patton Boggs has promoted Mara Sheldon to principal in the Denver office and Austin Harrison to senior associate in the Atlanta office. — Brian McGuigan is joining Bully Pulpit Interactive as a managing director based in the agency’s San Francisco office. He was previously head of communications at Pacaso and is a Lyft and Whole Foods alum. — Julie McClain Downey is now assistant secretary of public affairs at the Labor Department. She previously was vice president of strategic communications at American Bridge 21st Century. — Ylan Mui and Ashley Rippey are joining Penta as managing directors within the company’s strategy practice. Mui previously was a senior congressional correspondent for CNBC and is a WaPo alum. Rippey previously was lead finance officer to the general counsel at Citi. — Eliot Fishman is now policy and programs group director at CMS’ Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation. He previously was senior director of health policy at Families USA.   STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president’s ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today.     New Joint Fundraisers IOWA VICTORY FUND (Reps. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, Ashley Hinson, Zach Nunn, Randy Feenstra) Julia Victory Fund (Julia Hashemieh For Congress Committee, Julia PAC) New PACs BUILDING UP DEMOCRACY'S DREAM (Leadership PAC: Ted Budd) JULIA PAC (Leadership PAC: Julia Hashemieh) PAC a Punch (Leadership PAC: Rep. Gabe Vasquez)   DOWNLOAD THE POLITICO MOBILE APP: Stay up to speed with the newly updated POLITICO mobile app, featuring timely political news, insights and analysis from the best journalists in the business. The sleek and navigable design offers a convenient way to access POLITICO's scoops and groundbreaking reporting. Don’t miss out on the app you can rely on for the news you need, reimagined. DOWNLOAD FOR iOS– DOWNLOAD FOR ANDROID.     New Lobbying Registrations Cornerstone Government Affairs, Inc.: Bdr Solutions, LLC Cornerstone Government Affairs, Inc.: Gingko Bioworks, Inc. Cornerstone Government Affairs, Inc.: Sciperio Inc. Cornerstone Government Affairs, Inc.: The Geneva Foundation Cornerstone Government Affairs, Inc.: United Natural Foods, Inc. Keller Partners & Company: Divine Mercy University Keller Partners & Company: Fairfield Medical Center Mcguirewoods Consulting (A Subsidiary Of Mcguirewoods LLP): Valir Health, LLC Rtk Consulting Group: Walt Alfred Vision Americas LLC: Brownsville Self-Storage Owner, LLC New Lobbying Terminations Bond & Norman Law, Pc: Jenny Lovblom Keller Partners & Company: City Of Deming Olive Ai: Olive Ai United Strategies: Kda Homes   A message from the Coalition for Medicare Choices: Medicare Advantage is facing billions in cuts that would hurt the more than 30 million Americans who depend on Medicare Advantage for high-quality, affordable health care. The consequences of cutting funding to Medicare Advantage are dire. A majority of senior voters with Medicare Advantage believe that cuts would impact their ability to afford health care. Funding Medicare Advantage is an extremely important issue for senior voters. Voters with Medicare Advantage overwhelmingly believe that it is important for the federal government and the Administration to fully fund Medicare Advantage to cover increasing health care costs. Medicare Advantage provides affordable health care to more than 30 million seniors and people with disabilities. 32% of Medicare Advantage enrollees are racial and ethnic minorities – compared to 21% of original Medicare enrollees. Don’t cut their care.     Follow us

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