Ballard signs Dominican Republic By THEODORIC MEYER

Ballard signs Dominican Republic

By THEODORIC MEYER

 

04/07/17 02:20 PM EDT 
With David Beavers, Aubree Eliza Weaver and Daniel Lippman
BALLARD PARTNERS LANDS DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: Brian Ballard, a Florida lobbyist who served as a top fundraising lieutenant for Donald Trump’s campaign and opened a Washington office after Trump won, has signed his first foreign client. Ballard’s firm, Ballard Partners, will lobby for the Dominican Republic, providing “advocacy services relative to U.S.-Dominican bilateral relations,” according to the filing, which was first spotted by The Hill’s Megan Wilson. “Activities will include advising, counseling, and assisting the foreign principal in communications with US government officials,” the filing continues. In return, the Dominican Republic will pay Ballard Partners $900,000 in monthly installments of $75,000.
 Ballard is the latest lobbying firm with Trump connections to jump into the foreign government lobbying game. SPG, another lobbying firm with Trump campaign veterans on its payroll, has signed the Czech Republic and New Zealand, and other firms with Trump connections — including Corey Lewandowski's Avenue Strategies and Gotham Government Relations & Communications, the New York firm that helped run Trump's campaign announcement — are hunting for foreign clients. Ballard was also tapped this week as one of the RNC finance team’s regional vice chairmen.
AHEAD OF THE FILINGS — THORN RUN SIGNS TWO: Thorn Run Partners has signed two signed new clients, according to the firm: GlaxoSmithKline and the National Football League. That brings the firm’s total new clients for the first quarter to seven. Thorn Run also signed the American Seniors Housing Association, InterDigital, Oregon & Health Science University, the Ounce of Prevention Fund and Villanova University. The firm also brought on three clients that don’t require registration under the Lobbying Disclosure Act, including the Medicare Advocacy Recovery Coalition (for which Thorn Run is doing communications work) and Caring.com (for which Thorn Run is working in Oregon).
— Forbes Tate Partners, meanwhile, signed six new lobbying clients in the first quarter: Cellebrite, Horizon Global, Iron Mountain, Kensho Technologies, New Venture Fund and the National Marine Manufacturers Association.
— How many clients did your firm sign in the first quarter? How much business did you do? Let me know, and I’ll get it in PI: tmeyer@politico.com.
LEWANDOWSKI’S AVENUE STRATEGIES ADDS ANOTHER: “Carlos Gimenez Jr., former consultant for Donald Trump and the son and namesake of Miami-Dade’s mayor, is joining the lobbying shop run by the president’s former campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, as it drums up business in one of the nation’s most dynamic metropolitan areas,” POLITICO Florida’s Marc Caputo reports. “Gimenez said he joined the newly founded firm, Avenue Strategies, to focus less on lobbying and more on strategic consulting and business development for clients in Florida and Latin America. ‘We’re not just representing any client,’ Gimenez, a 40-year-old attorney from the Miami-area, said. ‘We represent those who would further the interests of the Trump Administration and the American people.’”
— “For more than three years, Gimenez served as the top consultant for the Trump Organization’s redevelopment of the Trump National Doral Miami Resort, the PGA’s World Golf Championship and the Miss Universe Pageant. Over the years, he said, he got to personally know the president, who ultimately signed his paychecks.” He’ll work alongside a number of Trump campaign veterans who have joined Avenue, including Jason Osborne, Ed Brookover and Mike Rubino, as well as Barry Bennett, who co-founded the firm with Lewandowksi. “Though Gimenez has had good relations with Trump, his father, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, has been far more critical of the president and made the extraordinary announcement during the presidential campaign that he wouldn’t vote for his fellow Republican,” who won Florida but lost badly in Miami-Dade County. Full story.
Good afternoon, and welcome to PI. This newsletter thrives on your tips. Switching jobs? Sign a new client? Get in touch: tmeyer@politico.com. You can also follow me on Twitter: @theodoricmeyer.
VITTER LOBBYING FOR CHEMICAL INDUSTRY: Former Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), who joined Mercury earlier this year, has signed his first clients, The Hill’s Megan Wilson reports, including two in the chemical industry. That matters because “Vitter took a leading role in negotiations with Democrats [while he was in Congress] to reform the Toxic Substances Control Act, which had not been updated in decades. Now, he’s advocating on behalf of the American Chemistry Council, an industry group, and one of its members, Cabot Corporation. The council aggressively lobbied Congress on TSCA reform, successfully pushing for provisions to restrict states' abilities to regulate chemicals, in favor of federal standards.” Full story.
— Vitter will also be lobbying for the Atlantic Development Group on “Disabilities Issues” and for Morris & Dickson on “IT Help Re improper Prescriptions,” according to disclosure filings. (One interesting wrinkle: Morris & Dickson, a Louisiana pharmaceutical distributor, was the largest funder of Better Louisiana PAC, a super PAC that spent $150,000 on TV ads backing John Kennedy, the Republican who replaced Vitter in the Senate.) Vitter is banned from lobbying his former congressional colleagues for two years, but he’s free to lobby the administration immediately. Vitter told POLITICO earlier this year that he’d met with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt several times when Vitter was a senator and Pruitt was Oklahoma’s attorney general, and again during the transition. The EPA, of course, regulates toxic chemicals under the law that Vitter helped rewrite.
SIX WHITE HOUSE STAFFERS HOLD UP TO $12 MILLION IN ENERGY STOCKS: “Six high-ranking officials in the Trump White House hold a total of $3.7 million to $12.3 million in energy company stocks, according to financial disclosure forms the administration issued last week,” POLITICO’s Ben Lefebvre reports. “The holdings are in energy giants Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Kinder Morgan and a host of other companies and could create major conflicts of interest for a White House that has pledged to grow the nation's fossil fuel production, according to governance watchdogs. Although six staffers hold the vast majority of those shares, about a dozen White House officials have some stake in energy companies overall, according to POLITICO and Center for American Progress analyses of the data.” Full story.
COAL PRODUCER SENDS LETTER TO TRUMP: “Cloud Peak Energy, the third largest U.S. coal producer, is asking President Donald Trump to stay in the Paris climate deal while also dialing down U.S. carbon reduction commitments,” POLITICO’s Eric Wolff reports. “The letter says the company endorses a policy advanced by some White House aides and laid out in a letter being circulated by Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) in which U.S. carbon dioxide emissions would only be reduced if there was no harm to the U.S. economy. POLITICO reported last week that Cloud Peak was among the coal producers who advocated remaining a party to the deal.” Full story.
NEW MEMBERS: Third Way, the centrist think tank, is adding a dozen Democrats as honorary co-chairs: Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) and Reps. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), Jim Himes (D-Conn.), Terri Sewell (D-Ala.), Derek Kilmer (D-Wash.), Tony Cardenas (D-Calif.), Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.), Kathleen Rice (D-N.Y.), Brad Schneider(D-Ill.), Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.) and Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.).
JOB MOVES:
— Advoc8 has hired Joe Greeley as director of production. He previously helped lead video production and graphic design at CRAFT Media/Digital.
— Quorum has added Ashton Barry to its business development team. She previously worked in business development and communications for the Cook Political Report.
— Jon Kevin Gossett has joined the National Trust for Historic Preservation as chief advancement officer, leading marketing, communications, public affairs, membership and philanthropy. He was previously senior vice president of external relations at the Bipartisan Policy Center.
— “Iram Ali, the White House liaison to the Department of Defense under President Barack Obama, has joined Amazon as the senior lead for” Defense Department public policy, per Morning Tech.
— Eliot Fishman, a senior official at the CMS, “will join consumer advocacy group Families USA as a senior director of health policy,” per POLITICO Pulse.
— Michael Kingsley is joining Forefront Communications Group as a senior vice president. He was previously a senior account supervisor at Intermarket Communications.
— Signal Group had a round of promotions. Mark Duffy, a senior manager, has been promoted to vice president. Clare Şahin and Alicia Elkin, both managers, are now senior managers. Abel Vandegrift and Leighton Huch, both senior associates, are now managers. Diana Muggeridge and Tim Bialecki, both associates, are now senior associates. And Emily Winchatz, an executive assistant, is now office administrator.
SPOTTED: At the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation’s spring happy hour at Stanton & Greene last night, according to a PI tipster: Ashok Pinto of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee; Kelley Hudak of House Republican Whip Steve Scalise’s office; Scarlet Doyle of Sen. Dean Heller’s office; Kevin Casey of Rep. Joe Crowley’s office; Aruna Kalyanam of the House Ways and Means Committee; Troy Stock of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee; Shannon Sorensen of Rep. Jason Chaffetz’s office; Tyler Grimm of Rep. Darrell Issa’s office, Jonathan Smith of Rep. Derek Kilmer’s office; Austin Carson of TechFreedom; Alex Wirth of Quorum; Andrew Mills of the Niskanen Center; Norberto Salinas of Intel; Franck Journoud of Oracle; Mike Castellano of Disney; Erica Fox of Apple; Patty Koch and Kyle Victor of VMware.
NEW PACs:
Arkansas Revolution: Super PAC, Unauthorized
Citizens For A Strong America Inc: Super PAC, Unauthorized
Fund For A Working Congress: Super PAC, Unauthorized
Govern Or Go Home: Super PAC, Unauthorized
Patriotic Americans PAC: Super PAC, Unauthorized
The Committee To Elect A Responsible Candidate: Super PAC, Unauthorized
NEW LOBBYING REGISTRATIONS:
American Capitol Group: City of Rancho Palos Verdes

American Capitol Group: MD Save
Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP (formerly Arnold & Porter LLP): POSCO America Corporation
Cameron Krier Massey, Inc. DBA Scout GR: LIVESTRONG Foundation
Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP: College of Psychiatric and Neurologic Pharmacists
Hogan Lovells US LLP: Insulet Corporation
Holland & Knight LLP: Pursuit Response
RR&G, LLC: Corporate Climate Alliance
Van Scoyoc Associates: Fabiani & Company (Roger Williams University)

NEW LOBBYING TERMINATIONS:
Cassidy & Associates, Inc.: Geos Institute
Ed Flynn Consulting: Valente & Associates
Peck Madigan Jones: Broward County Florida
The LIVESTRONG Foundation: The LIVESTRONG Foundation http://www.politico.com/tipsheets/politico-influence/2017/04/ballard-signs-dominican-republic-219665

TRADUCCION DE GOOGLE
Ballard firma República Dominicana
Por THEODORIC MEYER

04/07/17 14:20 PM EDT
Con David Beavers, Aubree Eliza Weaver y Daniel Lippman
BALLARD PARTNERS LANDS REPÚBLICA DOMINICANA: Brian Ballard, un cabildero de la Florida que sirvió como teniente principal de recaudación de fondos para la campaña de Donald Trump y abrió una oficina en Washington después de que Trump ganara, ha firmado su primer cliente extranjero. La firma de Ballard, Ballard Partners, hará lobby para la República Dominicana, proporcionando "servicios de promoción en relación con las relaciones bilaterales entre los Estados Unidos y la República Dominicana", según la presentación, que fue descubierta por Megan Wilson. "Las actividades incluirán asesoramiento, consejería y asistencia al director extranjero en las comunicaciones con funcionarios del gobierno de Estados Unidos", continúa la presentación. A cambio, República Dominicana pagará a Ballard Partners $ 900,000 en cuotas mensuales de $ 75,000.
 Ballard es la última firma de cabildeo con conexiones Trump para saltar al juego de cabildeo de gobiernos extranjeros. SPG, otra firma de cabildeo con veteranos de campaña de Trump en su nómina, ha firmado la República Checa y Nueva Zelanda, y otras firmas con conexiones de Trump, incluyendo Avenue Strategies de Corey Lewandowski y Gotham Government Relations & Communications, la firma de Nueva York que ayudó a administrar la campaña de Trump Anuncio - están buscando a clientes extranjeros. Ballard también fue aprovechado esta semana como uno de los vicepresidentes regionales del equipo financiero de RNC.
Thorn Run Partners ha firmado dos nuevos clientes firmados, según la firma: GlaxoSmithKline y la Liga Nacional de Fútbol. Eso trae el total de nuevos clientes de la firma para el primer trimestre a siete. Thorn Run también firmó la American Seniors Housing Association, InterDigital, Oregon & Health Science University, el Fondo Onza de Prevención y la Universidad de Villanova. La firma también trajo a tres clientes que no requieren registro bajo la Ley de Divulgación de Lobbying, incluyendo la Coalición de Recuperación de Defensa de Medicare (por la cual Thorn Run está haciendo el trabajo de comunicaciones) y Caring.com (para lo cual Thorn Run está trabajando en Oregon).
- Forbes Tate Partners, por su parte, firmó seis nuevos clientes de cabildeo en el primer trimestre: Cellebrite, Horizon Global, Iron Mountain, Kensho Technologies, New Venture Fund y la National Marine Manufacturers Association.
- ¿Cuántos clientes firmó su firma en el primer trimestre? ¿Cuánto negocio hiciste? Déjame saber, y lo tendré en PI: tmeyer@politico.com.
"Carlos Giménez Jr., ex consultor de Donald Trump y el hijo y homónimo del alcalde de Miami-Dade, se une a la tienda de cabildeo dirigida por el ex director de campaña del presidente Corey Lewandowski, Una de las áreas metropolitanas más dinámicas del país ", informa Marc Caputo, de POLITICO Florida. "Gimenez dijo que se unió a la recién fundada empresa, Avenue Strategies, para concentrarse menos en el cabildeo y más en consultoría estratégica y desarrollo de negocios para clientes en Florida y Latinoamérica. "No estamos representando a ningún cliente", dijo Giménez, un abogado de 40 años de la zona de Miami. "Representamos a aquellos que promoverían los intereses de la Administración Trump y el pueblo estadounidense".
- "Durante más de tres años, Gimenez se desempeñó como el principal consultor para la reconstrucción del Trump National Doral Miami Resort, el Campeonato Mundial de Golf de la PGA y el concurso Miss Universo. "Trabajará junto a varios veteranos de la campaña Trump que se han unido a Avenue, incluyendo a Jason Osborne, Ed Brookover y Mike Rubino, así como Como Barry Bennett, que co-fundó la firma con Lewandowksi. "Aunque Giménez ha tenido buenas relaciones con Trump, su padre, el alcalde de Miami-Dade, Carlos Giménez, ha sido mucho más crítico con el presidente e hizo el extraordinario anuncio durante la campaña presidencial de que no votaría por su compañero republicano" Ganó la Florida pero perdió gravemente en el condado de Miami-Dade. Historia completa.
Buenas tardes, y bienvenido a PI. Este boletín de noticias prospera en sus extremidades. Cambiar de trabajo? ¿Firmar un nuevo cliente? Póngase en contacto: tmeyer@politico.com. También puedes seguirme en Twitter: @theodoricmeyer.
El ex senador David Vitter (R-La), quien se unió a Mercury a principios de este año, ha firmado sus primeros clientes, los informes Megan Wilson de la colina, incluyendo dos en la industria química. Eso importa porque "Vitter tomó un papel de liderazgo en las negociaciones con los demócratas [mientras estaba en el Congreso] para reformar la Ley de Control de Sustancias Tóxicas, que no se había actualizado en décadas. Ahora, él está abogando en nombre del Consejo de Química Americano, un grupo industrial, y uno de sus miembros, Corporación Cabot. El consejo agresivamente presionó al Congreso sobre la reforma de la TSCA, impulsando exitosamente las provisiones para restringir las capacidades de los estados de regular los productos químicos, a favor de los estándares federales ".