With Daniel Lippman  

COINBASE FORMS A PAC (AGAIN): As major cryptocurrency players continue to ramp up their presence in Washington — and the overlap between digital assets and campaigning continues to expand — crypto exchange Coinbase is the latest on the scene to form a vehicle with which to steer money toward crypto-friendly candidates ahead of the midterms.

— The Coinbase Innovation PAC is the trading platform’s second go at direct spending on candidates. A PAC the company registered in 2018 shut down less than a year later without reporting any funds raised or spent, FEC filings show. But now its efforts have coincided with a major boom for cryptocurrencies — and in heightened interest in Washington in regulating the industry.

— Though Coinbase has had registered lobbyists in town since 2015, the company went on a lobbying hiring spree last year, spending $1.5 million on federal lobbying — a sum that blows away its previous record outlay of $230,000 in 2020. A spokesperson said the Coinbase PAC intends to contribute to lawmakers of both parties, telling PI in an email that “we believe the bi-partisan potential is clear and we intend to support crypto-forward lawmakers who align with our mission to advance economic freedom for all Americans.”

— Kara Calvert, who the company brought on in December as its senior director of public policy for North America, will run the PAC alongside CFO Alesia Haas, according to the committee's FEC statement of organization.

— Coinbase isn’t the only crypto player looking to get involved in the midterms. Todd White, a relative veteran in the crypto lobbying space, helped launch a super PAC last fall seeking to haul in $300 million to help elect a new generation of crypto-savvy politicians. Then last month, a group of crypto financiers launched a bid to spend $20 million supporting congressional candidates “who work to give consumers and innovators the opportunity to build and use next-generation technologies and services here in America.” Yet another super PAC seeded with crypto money plans to spend $10 million in Democratic primaries to back candidates who take a “long-term” view on policy planning, including as it relates to pandemic preparedness and prevention.

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DGA’s LOBBYING ARM ADDS JA’RON SMITH: Ja’Ron Smith has joined Dentons Global Advisors Government Relations, the new lobbying subsidiary of the global consultancy comprising Dentons and the Albright Stonebridge Group, as a partner.

— Smith served in the Trump administration as deputy assistant to the president and deputy director of the White House’s Office of American Innovation. An alum of Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Smith was one of the chief advocates for the landmark criminal justice reform bill former President Donald Trump signed into law, and became a familiar face during mass protests in 2020 over police brutality and systemic racism that swept the country.

— He most recently served as executive director of the Center for Advancing Opportunity, and previously registered to lobby with Meeks, Butera & Israel on behalf of the advocacy arm of a criminal justice reform organization founded by rapper Meek Mill.

MEET CRYPTO’S WANNABE WASHINGTON KINGMAKER: POLITICO’s Sam Sutton talks with FTX chief executive Sam Bankman-Fried, the 29-year-old billionaire who founded the cryptocurrency exchange and who is now working to expand the industry’s influence with policymakers in Washington.

— “He was a political nonentity until the last election cycle, when he spread $5.2 million across two super PACs backing President Joe Biden’s election” though now, “‘I care about policy more than politics,’ Bankman-Fried said in an interview crammed between meetings on Capitol Hill. ‘As the industry and our firm gets a higher profile, I think it becomes more and more important for us to be engaging with policymakers in D.C.’”

— “With the exception of a $1,000 contribution to Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) he made as an 18-year-old student, Bankman-Fried was not heavily involved in campaign finance until he contributed millions to super PACs backing Biden in October 2020. His recent activity has been bipartisan. His contributions over the last eight months include a string of direct donations to Republican campaigns, including those of Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Mitt Romney of Utah, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Ben Sasse of Nebraska.” And as noted above, “his colleagues have stepped up their giving as well.”

THE CIVIL LIBERTY TO SILICON VALLEY PIPELINE: “The tight-knit civil liberties advocacy community has helped shepherd through the most significant reforms to government surveillance over the past decade. But a growing number of experienced civil liberties and privacy activists have taken jobs at major tech companies in recent years, even as the data collection and practices of tech companies and the government come under increasing scrutiny,” Emily Birnbaum and Daniel report in Morning Tech.

— According to their analysis of recent departures, at least nine high-level advocates focused on government surveillance, data ethics and privacy have left civil society to work at major tech companies since 2019, including four in the past year alone. Five in all went to Meta, two left for Microsoft and the other two went to Apple and Twitter. The transitions have split the civil liberties advocacy community, with some glad to see advocates getting roles with major platforms and others expressing alarm at the trend.

THIEL STEPS DOWN FROM META TO FLEX HIS INFLUENCE GAME: “Peter Thiel, one of the longest-serving board members of Meta, the parent of Facebook, plans to step down … to focus on influencing November’s midterm elections,” a person with knowledge of Thiel’s thinking tells The New York Times’ Ryan Mac and Mike Isaac.

— “Mr. Thiel sees the midterms as crucial to changing the direction of the country, this person said, and he is backing candidates who support the agenda of former president Donald J. Trump. Over the last year, Mr. Thiel, who has a net worth estimated at $2.6 billion by Forbes, has become one of the Republican’s Party’s largest donors. He gave $10 million each last year to the campaigns of two protégés, Blake Masters, who is running for a Senate seat in Arizona, and J.D. Vance, who is running for Senate in Ohio.”

PI PERSONAL FINANCE CORNER: Investors may soon be able to take advantage of the political whiplash that’s gripped the nation’s capital in recent years — and corporations’ attempts to weather the storm — according to Financial Times’ Steve Johnson, who reports that “New York-based Strategas Asset Management has unveiled an exchange traded fund designed to tap into companies’ efforts to increase their profitability by lobbying the US federal government.”

— “Dan Clifton, head of policy research and lead portfolio manager for the Strategas Global Policy Opportunities ETF (SAGP), said the launch aimed to capitalise on the US experiencing ‘the most politically volatile period since the end of the Civil War, with the party in power having changed in seven of the last eight election cycles.’”

— “‘One year it is tax cuts or healthcare reform, then it gets taken away. Companies are now saying they have a greater risk to their business from Washington than from other risks,’ Clifton added. ‘They understand that they need to be at the table as part of the process in Washington. We believe these companies have an earnings advantage over other companies.’”

— How it works: “Clifton argued that smaller companies may get more bang from their lobbying buck than large ones, which might have to spend on lobbying every year as a form of ‘maintenance’, around issues such as workers’ rights and healthcare. ‘Small companies see this as a R&D expense. They say “we are going to get a return on this”. Small and mid-cap have had a tremendous performance in backtesting. It’s the first time we are incorporating that style,’ Clifton said. … Rather than total spending, SAGP weights companies based on their ‘lobbying intensity’, taking into account their size.”

SPOTTED at a DCCC fundraising dinner hosted by Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck at Joe’s Seafood last night, per a PI tipster: Speaker Nancy Pelosi, DCCC Chair Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.), Reps. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.), Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), Sean Casten (D-Ill.), Jason Crow (D-Colo.), Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Robin Kelly (D-Ill.), Dan Kildee (D-Mich.), Joe Neguse (D-Colo.), Ed Perlmutter (D-Colo.), Bobby Scott (D-Va.), Brownstein’s Zach Pfister, Nadeam Elshami, David Reid, LaKeitha Anderson, Mark Begich, Katelynn Bradley, Mimi Burke, Annmarie Conboy, Steve Demby, Doug Friednash, Laura Johnson, Tim Keating, Radha Mohan, Al Mottur, Sage Schaftel, Mike Stratton and Russ Sullivan, and friends and clients of the firm.

— Holten Stringer is joining Van Scoyoc Associates as manager for government relations. He was most recently a legislative correspondent and grants coordinator for Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas). Van Scoyoc has also promoted Laurie Katz and David Haines to associate vice presidents.

— Scott Bennett is joining Boehringer Ingelheim as senior associate director of government affairs and public policy for their Animal Health division, primarily handling the livestock, poultry and equine portfolios. He was most recently director of congressional affairs for the American Farm Bureau Federation.

— Michael Pedroni has joined the Investment Company Institute as chief global affairs officer. He was most recently executive vice president and managing director at the Managed Funds Association and is a GWU and IMF alum.

— Paul Brigner is joining the Electric Coin Company as head of U.S. policy and strategic advocacy. He was most recently director of technology policy at the Chamber of Digital Commerce.

— Steve Pavlick has been promoted to partner at Renaissance Macro Research. He was previously deputy assistant secretary for legislative affairs at Treasury and served as the economic lead for the Trump transition before that.

— Evergreen Strategy Group has hired Alena Yarmosky as a director and Jacquelyn Katuin as a manager. Yarmosky was previously a senior communications adviser and Katuin was previously assistant secretary of public safety and homeland security under Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam.

— The America First Policy Institute has tapped Steve Yates to chair its new China Policy Initiative. He is an Idaho GOP, Dick Cheney and Radio Free Asia alum.

— Digital public affairs firm Engage has promoted Riley Bechdel and Ryan Fraase, both formerly vice presidents, to partner — its first such elevations in nearly a decade — as the firm marks its 15th anniversary.

— The Nature Conservancy is adding Darci Vetter as its global lead for policy and government relations. She was most recently at Edelman Global Advisory, and previously served as chief agricultural negotiator at USTR.

— David Gillette will succeed Marvin Feuer as AIPAC’s chief lobbyist and director of policy and government affairs as Feuer moves into the role of director of strategy, per Jewish Insider.

None.

AMHP Holdings Corp. Political Action Committee (AmeriHealth Caritas PAC) (PAC)
Certified Conservatives PAC (PAC)
Coinbase, Inc. Innovation PAC (Coinbase Innovation PAC) (PAC)
District 66 Westside Board of Education (Super PAC)
Strength in Seven PAC (Leadership PAC: Shontel Brown)
Web3 Forward (Super PAC)
Wisconsin Truth PAC (Super PAC)

Capitol Counsel LLC: Glaxosmithkline LLC
Federal Hall Policy Advisors, LLC: Fir Tree Partners
Liberty Partners Group, LLC: Atlas Healthcare Partners (C-Asc Coalition)
Murray, Montgomery & O'Donnell: City Of Escondido
The Ingram Group LLC: Tennessee Business Forum
The Livingston Group, LLC: Bespoke Design LLC
The Livingston Group, LLC: Covisus Corporation
Von Batten-Montague-York: United Somali Alliance Of The USa

Cornerstone Government Affairs, Inc.: Chegg, Inc.
Cornerstone Government Affairs, Inc.: Cribs For Kids, Inc.
National Association Of Colleges And Employers: National Association Of Colleges And Employers
O'Neill And Associates: Analogic
O'Neill And Associates: Edaville Operations LLC
Resolution Public Affairs, LLC: Alliance For Trade Enforcement
Resolution Public Affairs, LLC: March For Our Lives Action Fund