THE (LOBBYING) BATTLE FOR NAGORNO-KARABAKH: The Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft’s latest look at the advocacy fights unfolding in Washington around a major international conflict focuses on the South Caucasus, where Azerbaijan’s sudden invasion in September of the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh prompted the flight of more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians living there.
— Last month, Senate Foreign Relations Chair Ben Cardin (D-Md.) urged the Biden administration to take a tougher stance against Azerbaijan in the wake of the incursion, which he described as a “brazen campaign of ethnic cleansing,” but Cardin’s push is going up against the more than $7 million Azerbaijan’s government on lobbying and PR firms registered under FARA, the Quincy analysis found. — While that’s a pittance in comparison to other foreign lobbying heavyweights, “Azerbaijan’s agents — like BGR Government Affairs — have conducted vigorous advocacy for Baku’s interests, including continued military assistance to Azerbaijan following the Second Nagorno-Karabakh war in 2020,” the report says. BGR lobbyists working on the account contacted “congressional offices more than a thousand times on Azerbaijan’s behalf in just the first half of 2023,” according to the report. Baku also benefits from close ties to Turkey and Israel. — Armenia, on the other hand, flexes most of its political power in the U.S. by way of its extensive diaspora and groups like the Armenian Assembly and the Armenian National Committee of America. Those groups spearheaded a boycott of K Street firms working for Baku during the last Nagorno-Karabakh war, and have targeted Republicans since this last invasion. — In fact, the report notes, Armenia had no registered foreign agents on its payroll from 2020 until earlier this year, when the National Democratic Alliance of Armenia hired former Rep. Bob Livingston’s firm Livingston Group.
AG LAWMAKERS, LOBBIES SOFTENED CHINA TRADE REPORT: “Congress’ China hawks are meeting rare pushback in their campaign to crack down on Beijing — farm district Republicans and agriculture lobbies increasingly alarmed that Congress might just blow up American farmers’ largest export market,” POLITICO’s Meredith Lee Hill and Gavin Bade report.
— “Lawmakers and influential agriculture lobby groups led a campaign to soften the language in a high-profile new report this week from the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, prompting the panel’s leaders to pull back from an explicit call to revoke normal trade status for China — a move that would likely mean significantly higher tariffs on a wide swath of Chinese products.” — “As word began to circulate that the Select Committee might recommend a repeal of China’s Permanent Normal Trade Relations designation, enacted more than two decades ago to lower American tariffs on China, concerned Republicans quietly joined together with several Democrats who voiced their own reasons to push for revisions. They argued such a drastic step would have catastrophic consequences, especially for U.S. farmers and rural communities.” — And while groups that have complained about China’s trade practices for decades applauded lawmakers’ crackdown, “many agriculture groups and key retail and business groups remained alarmed, even as they reiterated their criticism of China’s trade practices and unfulfilled promises of reform.” THE INFLUENCE(R) GAME: Nothing sets social media algorithms ablaze like interchange fees. That was the arena of the latest chapter in the endless fight between merchant groups and the payments industry over a credit card swipe fee bill led by Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Roger Marshall’s (R-Kan.). — The Merchants Payments Coalition, which represents retailers, published a memo that the Electronic Payments Coalition distributed to influencers with talking points on how the bill would kill credit card reward programs. It also included rules for receiving payment in exchange for their posts. — “I suppose they were also shocked when they found out there was gambling in Casablanca,” said EPC spokesman Nick Simpson, who confirmed the memo had been distributed by an EPC vendor. “It’s no different than the similar memo I am sure MPC sent out to the influencers they are working with.” — The MPC denied that it’s paying influencers to support the legislation, which would force banks to make credit cards usable across at least two networks — one of which can’t be Visa or Mastercard. — “If any influencers are working on our side of this, it’s totally organic,” said Stephanie Martz, chief administrative officer and general counsel at the National Retail Federation (an MPC member). “We are not paying anyone. We work with grassroots organizations, and those are people who have skin in the game. It’s not made-up astroturf.” FOODIE CORNER: The New Republic’s Ken Silverstein dove into embattled Sen. Bob Menendez’s (D-N.J.) campaign spending on lavish food and drinks over the years, writing that “when it comes to the art of living well on political contributions … Menendez operates at masterclass level.” — “During the past two decades, he dished out about $4.3 million from his campaign treasuries and New Millennium Leadership PAC for food, drink, catering, travel, and other lifestyle enhancers.” — “Menendez’s combined career fundraising haul to date comes to almost exactly $100 million,” though he’s needed to spend little of that on tough campaigns. “His top contributors, unsurprisingly, are disproportionately members of the one percent demographic. At the pinnacle are PACs and executives affiliated with Goldman Sachs and Blackstone, the law and lobbying giant Greenberg Traurig, and AIPAC and other pro-Israel groups.” — Some stats: “Menendez has charged his leadership PAC enormous sums for steakhouse meals, including about $200,000 of his historic Morton’s tab of $374,000. The senator’s single-day spending record at Morton’s was $3,387.95 back in 2010, but he’s enjoyed dozens of $1,000-and-up meals there. … New Millennium’s treasury has covered the costs for dozens of Menendez’s outings to other Washington prime beef purveyors as well: The Palm, Capital Grille, and Charlie Palmer to name only a few.”
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