Senior GOP staffers took a plunge into the lobbying world
K Street veterans also started top lobbying shops in 2019
By Megan R. Wilson | January 30, 2020 12:17PM ET
Two years ago, Hazen Marshall and Monica Popp were helping guide policy in Senate leadership offices. Today, they’re building Marshall & Popp, one of the most successful lobbying firms to set up shop in 2019.
“Having a small firm, having what I would classify as a D.C. startup — it’s exciting, it’s exhilarating,” said Popp, the former chief of staff to Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas).
The two-person firm brought in $1.8 million by the end of the year, including from biotechnology company Genentech Inc., Altria Client Services Inc., and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA).
Marshall & Popp ranked second among the top 10 new firms in terms of revenue that filed their first lobbying registration forms last year. While most of those starting new ventures left other lobbying jobs to hang a shingle of their own, two were founded by high-profile staffers fresh from Capitol Hill.
Marshall, a former policy adviser to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) had been through the revolving door once before — spending 10 years at the Nickles Group, a firm founded by his former boss ex-Sen. Don Nickles (R-Okla.) — before joining McConnell’s office in 2015. This was his first independent venture.
Start-Up Fears
“There’s a lot of anxiety of starting a new business, even if you’re confident,” he said.
Although they had confidence they’d succeed, there’s still that nagging voice saying, “Oh my God, you’re going to be living in a van down by the river,” said Marshall, channeling a Saturday Night Live character played by the late Chris Farley.
Bridge Public Affairs was founded by former senior aides to Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) after their boss retired at the end of 2018, and established offices in Washington, D.C., and Tennessee.
Todd Womack, the firm’s president and CEO, was Corker’s chief of staff and staff director on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He said the firm’s work so far “really has been an extension of our public service.”
In its first year, it earned just more than $1 million to lobby the federal government on behalf of IT software company Ivanti Inc., Volkswagen Group of America Inc. and a number of Tennessee-based clients.
“We trusted each other and we know we all shared the same values,” said Micah Johnson, Corker’s former senior adviser and communications director. She’s now chief operating officer and senior vice president at the firm.
Former senior Senate staffers are barred from lobbying the Senate for a year after they leave, but are free to advocate in the House and before the administration.
Jessica Beeson Tocco formed A10 Associates after leaving the Boston-based public affairs firm Rasky Partners Inc., naming her firm after the A-10 military jet that’s nicknamed the “Warthog.”
“It flies low to the ground and gives the soldiers cover in combat situations,” she says. “It’s not fancy, but it always protects and gets the job done.”
The only registered federal lobbyist at her firm, Tocco still pulled in $1.7 million from her Washington advocacy last year.
“We’ve cracked the code in being able to secure money in the federal government for clients,” she said, and is actively looking to expand her team.
A10 Associates has offices in Boston, Indianapolis and D.C. and two lobbyists doing work on the state level, and specializes in infrastructure, defense and high tech issues like quantum computing. More than half of its revenue comes from its state and local advocacy, which is not disclosed in federal filings.
Keeping Control
The owners of small firms say they enjoy being able to control who they hire, which clients they take, and the more personalized service they’re able to give, which overshadows the risk involved.
Fulcrum Public Affairs, the top-earning new firm, netted $2.1 million in lobbying revenue, working for clients such as Airbnb Inc., vaping company JUUL Labs Inc., and the trade association of for-profit colleges, Career Education Colleges and Universities.
“We understand that for our clients, we are progressive validators for them,” said Oscar Ramirez, one of the firm’s co-founders. “In the progressive world we have credibility, and that’s something we think about when choosing what clients we want to represent.”
He and business partner Dana Thompson worked together at the now-shuttered Podesta Group, which was founded by top Democratic fundraiser Tony Podesta. They later worked at another outfit led by a Podesta alumnus. They have cultivated a team consisting entirely of people of color. ”We reflect the Tri-Caucus,” the umbrella term for the Hill’s Asian Pacific American, Black and Hispanic caucuses, said Thompson, who is black. “It’s one of the things we’re pretty intentional about.”
Thompson said the firm aims to work for smaller think tanks or nonprofits that may not typically be able to afford a presence in Washington. They’re also involved with political and coalition work, in addition to state and local advocacy.
Fulcrum lobbied Congress on Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which allows people from certain countries affected by war or natural disasters to stay in the U.S., on behalf of Alianza Americas, a Latino immigrant advocacy group. The firm advises RIP Medical Debt, an organization that collects donations and absolves medical debt for needy individuals.
“Some of these issues are hard to advance, and with the lobbying culture, it doesn’t work out that way,” Thompson said. “The big behemoths can spend the money to outweigh them.”
Blue Ridge Law & Policy made the top 10 list even though it registered its first lobbying clients in August.
The two-person shop was founded by Walton Liles, a former lobbyist for Fidelity Investments Inc. and Republican committee aide, and Ben Brown, who worked as counsel to Daniel Gallagher while he was a commissioner at the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm’s clients include Liberty Mutual Group Inc. and Deloitte LLP.
Elevate Government Affairs got an even later start. Five lobbyists who departed the public affairs firm Signal Group founded Elevate in October yet generated nearly $1.1 million in lobbying fees by Dec. 31. The firm has 30 clients, including Microsoft Corp.
© 2020 BGOV LLC All Rights Reserved.
