Peter Schorsch
More “scared jackrabbits” running for re-election
This week another Democrat made a strong run at claiming a traditional GOP seat in Congress. After a near-miss in a deep-red district in Nebraska, Jon Ossoff nearly gained a majority against 17 other candidates in Georgia’s 6th District, where Republican candidates always win by double digits.
Ossoff will still be a slight underdog in the runoff against former Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel in the June runoff, but he will have the support of the Democratic establishment combined with a political ATM.
More than $8 million poured into his campaign from all over the country. This race is a must-watch over the next nine weeks.
What does that mean for Florida? For Bill Nelson and members of the Florida delegation representing swing districts, it means aggressive fundraising because tons of money will be raining down on them in the not-too-distant future. While in Tallahassee this week, Nelson was quoted as saying he is running for his fourth term in the Senate like “a scared jackrabbit.” Coming just after Easter, rabbit references are always welcome.
The recent release of first quarter campaign finance reports reveals other anxious jackrabbits. Nelson raised over $2 million and now has $3.64 million cash on hand. He knows he will need a lot more than that to compete with likely opponent Gov. Rick Scott over the airwaves.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is targeting South Florida Republicans Brian Mast, Mario Diaz-Balart, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Carlos Curbelo. Curbelo and Mast were the top two GOP fundraisers with Curbelo leading the way with $615,000. Mast had $428,000 while Ros-Lehtinen hauled in $341,000 and Diaz-Balart $126,500.
The National Republican Congressional Committee will be going after freshmen Charlie Crist and Stephanie Murphy. Crist pulled in a delegation-best $720,000; Murphy raised $286,000.
Former Rep. David Jolly went on “60 Minutes” in 2016 to lament the time members devoted to “dialing for dollars.” Before he decides whether to run again in 2018, he should know the situation is not getting any better.
The jackrabbits are multiplying.
Meanwhile, here are this week’s insights from the Beltway to the Sunshine State.
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Trump has spent more than 424 hours in Palm Beach since his inauguration — The president has spent one out of every five minutes of his presidency at Mar-a-Lago and his nearby golf club, reports Philip Bump with the Washington Post.
The Post tallied the amount of time the part-time Florida man has spent in Palm Beach, rounded to the half-hour, since he was inaugurated through Monday. According to Bump, Trump has spent about 424.5 hours at the so-called “winter White House” and 1,663.5 hours everywhere else, “including Air Force One headed to Mar-a-Lago.”
“(T)here’s a real sense in which Trump is splitting his time between his two jobs: service as president of the United States and acting as owner/host of Mar-a-Lago. In some cases, those roles overlap, such as when he introduced Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to a couple having their wedding at the resort,” writes Bump.
He went on to say while it wasn’t clear whether Trump planned to travel back to Palm Beach this weekend, if “the existing pattern holds, he’ll go on any two of the next four days.”
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Scott joins Trump for veterans bill signing — Gov. Rick Scott joined Trump at the White House on Wednesday for the formal signing of the Veteran’s Choice Program Extension and Improvement Act. Scott joined several other officials in the Roosevelt Room for the signing, including Florida Department of Veterans’ Affairs Executive Director Glenn Sutphin.
As one way of addressing the backlog for care facing veterans, the bill allows for veterans to seek care from non-VA providers. Trump stated at the ceremony that it was now “it’s time that we now take care of them properly.”
“My father served in WWII, and I proudly served in the United States Navy, and I appreciate President Trump’s commitment to our military and veterans,” Scott said in a release. “I was proud to join him today as he signed this important bill for veterans.”
Scott later met with U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin.
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Tweet, tweet:
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Rubio targets HUD oversight —The Miami Republican took a shot at lax oversight at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development this week. In an op-ed for the Florida Times-Union, Rubio wrote of his tour of the Eureka Garden Apartments in Jacksonville with HUD Secretary Ben Carson.
“Crumbling staircases, dangerous gas leaks, exposed electrical wires” and other deficiencies are conditions that have “existed for too long” at Eureka Garden and other places around the country.
“In some cases, property owners like those who owned Eureka Garden pocketed millions of taxpayer dollars instead of putting them toward needed repairs,” he wrote. “Meanwhile, properties have been given passing HUD inspection scores despite terrible conditions.”
Rubio and Carson are pledging a more diligent HUD that will be in tune to the needs of residents and make property owners accountable for the conditions in which people live.
“These would be meaningful first steps toward fulfilling one of HUD’s core functions,” said Rubio.
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Nelson presses Tom Price on Florida’s opioid crisis — In a letter to HHS Secretary Price, the Orlando Democrat declared the heroin and opioid crisis is “devastating Florida” encouraged Price and his agency to continue the fight against opioid abuse and misuse in the United States.”
“Addiction to heroin and opioids has reached staggering levels, and the situation is only getting worse. In 2015, more than 33,000 Americans died from an opioid overdose. That’s 15 percent more people who died from opioid overdoses than in 2014,” Nelson wrote. “The state of Florida is no exception to the national trend. More than 2,200 Floridians died of opioid abuse in 2015.”
Nelson challenged Price to consider Medicaid’s role, and to support efforts to retain Medicaid’s opportunities, even against proposals pushed by Republicans in Congress and Tallahassee.
“As the single largest payer for substance use services, Medicaid plays a critical role in the fight against the opioid epidemic,” Nelson wrote. “Changing the Medicaid program through block grants or caps will shift costs to states, eliminate critical federal protections, and hurt the more than 3.6 million Floridians who rely on the program, including those struggling from opioid disorders.”
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Paulson’s Principles: Reapportionment Roulette
Reapportionment is like the family portrait. The only thing you care about is how you came out; the hell with everyone else.
Democrats and Republicans have held a variety of positions on reapportionment, depending on whether they were the majority or minority party. Democrats completely dominated Florida politics for 120 years, from the end of Reconstruction to the 1990’s. When Florida and other southern states started trending Republican after World War II, Democrats used gerrymandering and reapportionment to solidify their strength.
In the early 1990’s, Republicans proposed to change the process of drawing District lines. Their proposal would be similar to the Fair District plan offered by Democrats in 2014. Democrats quickly rejected the Republican plan, believing it was simply a device to help the Republicans.
Even though Democrats controlled both houses of the Florida legislature by a 60-40% margin in 1992 and drew the state legislative lines, the Republicans won control of the state senate in 1994 and the house in 1996.
The Democrats were not able to agree on drawing the congressional district lines in 1992. Blacks, who made up about 18 percent of Florida’s population but accounted for a third of the Democratic vote, wanted Democrats to create three majority-minority districts. The Democrats refused, arguing that in doing so the surrounding districts would become whiter and more Republican.
Unable to draw the congressional districts, the task was left to federal court judge Clyde Atkins and a special master. I was hired by both the Florida and national NAACP as an expert witness to discuss the history of black voter discrimination in Florida.
In the case of Florida NAACP, et al. v. Lawton Chiles, et al., my testimony helped to influence the court to create two majority-minority districts and one minority-influence district (at least 40% minority).
After 120 years with no black member of Congress, Florida elected three African-Americans to the congressional delegation. Carrie Meek and Alcee Hastings were elected in the Miami area, and Corrine Brown was elected in Jacksonville.
I would not have voted for any of the three blacks who were elected to Congress with the possible exception of Meek, but that was not important. What was important was that the black electorate can vote for the candidates of their choice.
As the size of Florida’s congressional delegation grew due to its population growth, so did the Republican domination of the delegation. After the 2010 census, the Florida delegation grew from 25 to 27 members, and Republicans controlled 17 of the seats. Democrats were in full panic mode.
A bipartisan coalition made up of mostly Democrats and a few token Republicans, joined forces with the League of Women Voters (LWV) which has become increasingly dominated by the political left. The result was (in the spirit of Easter) the resurrection of the Republican reapportionment plan of the early 1990’s.
The Fair District Amendment was sold to eliminate politics from the reapportionment process. I always love it when reformers want to eliminate politics in the political process. It can’t be done. You simply replace one power broker with another.
The voters embraced the Fair District Amendment, and it passed. The Republicans had to redraw District lines, which the Florida courts threw out. On July 9, 2015, the Florida Supreme Court rejected the Republican districts and substituted the plan of the LWV’s.
Twenty-four of the 27 districts were redrawn, and eight were substantially altered. The Democrats gained only one seat in the Florida delegation in the 2016 election, but the roulette process has only begun.
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Open Gaetz Day starts early, ends late — Before leaving Washington for the nearly three-week Easter recess, the Republican from the First District did not believe Congress should adjourn before taking care of health care. That failure, according to Gaetz, meant he and his colleagues “don’t deserve recess” until they address health care.
But since the members are home in their districts, Gaetz feels they should spend quality time with constituents. He is having another Open Gaetz Day on Thursday. His schedule is a literal sunrise-to-sunset agenda.
He began the day at 6:30 a.m. with a “beach town hall” broadcast on live radio, followed by a beach cleanup.
The rest of the day included an education briefing, a military round table, a legislative update on live radio, two environmental cleanup public interactions, and a community legislative update.
The final event began at 6:30 p.m. when he joined a Constituent Info Booth at the Blue Wahoos baseball stadium.
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Gaetz questions Navy’s lifting of training flight pause — Less than two weeks after the U.S. Navy instituted an operational pause on training flights for the T-45 aircraft at Pensacola Naval Air Station, the Navy has lifted that pause much to the concern of the Republican from the First District. The issue was — and continues to be — the safety of the aircraft’s oxygen systems.
“I remain concerned with the decision to lift the operational pause for the T-45C absent sufficient data from the examination of On-board Oxygen Generating System (OBOGS),” Gaetz wrote to Vice-Admiral Mike Shoemaker, Commander of the Naval Air Forces.
Gaetz expressed concern that the pause was lifted before “the root cause” of the problem was fully identified. He asked pointed questions of Admiral Shoemaker including whether the Navy can provide “more transparency” to their on-going process.
In addition to representing the district housing Pensacola Naval Air Station, Gaetz is also a member of the House Armed Services Committee.
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Gaetz puts Navarre Pass reopening on hold, temporarily – The first-year Republican congressman from Fort Walton Beach is pushing legislation to allow private ownership of land on Pensacola and Navarre Beaches.
But Gaetz told leaders in Navarre that it will not include reopening Navarre Pass, reports the Pensacola News-Journal. The pass, which allows boating between Santa Rosa Sound and the Gulf of Mexico, has been closed since 1965 after Hurricane Betsy clogged the waterway with debris.
Gaetz, who said reopening the Pass would bring up to $1 billion in economic impact through tourism and fishing, believes the two issues should not be linked. That is why he dropped the issue from his proposed bill, which has the support of Sen. Marco Rubio.
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Rutherford, Tom Rooney herald new VA transparency — The Jacksonville freshman Republican was enthused with a new tool to promote transparency at the U.S. Veterans Administration. The VA’s new Access and Quality system allow veterans to access information on wait times and the quality of care provided by the hospitals compared to private facilities.
Rutherford, a member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, said he was “proud of the work we’ve done.” Quoted in the Sunshine State News, Rutherford gave kudos to the VA “for increasing the transparency by making patient wait times and care data available online.”
“No other health care system in the country releases this type of information on wait times,” said VA Secretary David Shulkin in a news release. “This allows veterans to see how the VA is performing.”
Also weighing in was 17th District Republican Rooney, who praised Shulkin’s leadership in making the new system a reality, adding that it indicates a “new era of transparency.”
“Veterans across the nation are justifiably tired of inexcusable wait times and their lack of trust in the government to provide the basic services we promised in exchange for their service is unacceptable,” he said.
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Dunn files legislation to protect rights of seated airline passengers — The Panama City freshman is filing legislation designed to prevent a repeat of the United Airlines fiasco, where a properly seated passenger was forcibly removed from his seat. Dunn has introduced the Secure Equity in Airline Transportation (SEAT) Act, which would prohibit airlines from removing a seated passenger on over-booked flights.
“Passengers should have the peace of mind to know they will not be dragged off a plane once they’re in their seat,” said Dunn in a release. “The SEAT Act will require airlines to sort out overbooking before allowing passengers to board the airplane.”
Dunn’s bill would require the U.S. Department of Transportation to revise rules making it clear that not even airline employees have priority over a seated passenger. According to Dunn, the legislation makes an exception for a seated passenger who “is a threat to the safety of others.”
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Lawson meets constituents with during Tallahassee town hall — About 60 people attended the freshman Democrat’s town hall meeting Wednesday in Tallahassee.
While there were some complaints — constituents complained about not being able to get through to his office, something Lawson apologized for — there was none was none of the acrimonies that has greeted Republican members of Congress from constituents angry about the GOP plan to scuttle the Affordable Care Act and federal spending. Instead, Lawson told the crowd he went to Washington to improve the Affordable Care Act, not to repeal or replace it.
Lawson said he believes in working with Republican colleagues when possible. He has to, within the Florida delegation — as he noted, he’s the only Democratic congressman between Pensacola and Orlando. His District 5 comprises eight counties between Tallahassee and Jacksonville.
“I have no choice, ladies and gentlemen. I’m like the Lone Ranger on some of those issues,” he said. “When you talk about North Florida, who you talking about? I stand alone out there, waving a flag.”
He continued: “I work with a lot of my Republican colleagues because nothing was done by one particular party. Putting a man on the moon wasn’t done by a Republican or Democrat. It was a joint effort. To do things in America, it’s always going to be a joint effort. We have to get over the campaign and do what’s best for you, the citizens in this country.”
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Buchanan seeks funds to fight red tide — Noting the dangerous threat toxic algae poses to humans, marine life and the economy, the six-term congressman announced he is requesting increased federal funding to combat red tide.
Red tide, also known as Karenia brevis algae, has lingered along Suncoast shores on and off for several months now, killing thousands of fish and discouraging potential visitors from taking in some of the country’s best beaches. Karenia brevis algae produce a toxin that can harm and kill a variety of animals, including birds, fish, sea turtles and marine mammals such as dolphins and the already endangered Florida manatee. In fact, the toxins from red tide blooms killed nearly 300 Florida manatees in 2013.
“We need to use every tool at our disposal to safeguard the public and protect marine life and fragile coastal ecosystems,” Buchanan wrote to the leadership of the House Committee on Appropriations. “Not only do harmful algal blooms deter tourists and upset related industries, they can be dangerous to humans as well.”
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Spotted: Rep. Vern Buchanan writing about the bipartisan approach to animal protection issues in USA Today.
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Buchanan to Interior: Restore manatee protections — The Sarasota Republican and several colleagues wrote to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke asking for restoration of protective status for Florida’s manatees. Buchanan is leading the effort three weeks after blasting the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service for downgrading manatee protections.
“This decision was disappointing and potentially very harmful to the survival of the iconic Florida animal,” the letter said. “Based on widespread opposition from the public and scientists, we urge you to overturn this decision and restore manatees to endangered status.”
Buchanan had statistics to back up his claims. While the rule was under consideration, “nearly 87,000 comments opposed the rule with only 72 comments in support.”
“As you may know, the manatee at one time was on the brink of extinction,” the letter said. “We cannot support any action that could lead to such conditions again.”
Also signing the letter: Democrats Kathy Castor, Charlie Crist, Alcee Hastings, Ted Deutch, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, Frederica Wilson, Val Demings, Darren Soto, and Stephanie Murphy. Republican Daniel Webster also signed.
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Pro-Trump group airing ads backing Mast advocating repeal, replace Obamacare — An advocacy group formed by six of Trump‘s top campaign aides launched a $3 million advertising campaign to praise Congress members working to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.
The list of 12 select members from America First Policies includes Republican Mast of Florida’s 18th Congressional District.
“Obamacare is collapsing and bringing our health care system down with it, harming millions of American families,” said Nick Ayers, Chairman of the Board of America First Policies. “The time is now to repeal and replace this terrible law, but we need citizens to engage.”
The issue advocacy campaign will be on broadcast or cable, the internet and through phone calls in twelve districts, including CD 18, which stretches from Ft. Pierce to Palm Beach in Southeast Florida.
Mast was lobbied personally by Trump to support the GOP’s health care bill that never came up for a vote last month, and he reportedly called on his colleagues to unite behind the bill in an emotionally charged address, according to The Washington Post.
Mast flipped the seat from blue to red last November when he defeated Democrat Randy Perkins. The seat had been held for the previous four years by Patrick Murphy, who opted to run for U.S. Senate last year.
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Frankel returns from trip to Korea, Japan — The Palm Beach Democrat picked the right time to go on an Asian-Pacific fact-finding trip. She and some of her colleagues made stops in South Korea and Japan just as North Korean leader Kim Jong-un began raising tensions in the region.
The focus was the nuclear ambitions of North Korea and their effects on the entire region. She visited the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and American military facilities in Japan. On the itinerary were meetings with South Korean Minister Yun Byung-se and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The trip wrapped up with a meeting between the lawmakers and a North Korean defector.
“A strong, unwavering relationship between the U.S. and its allies Japan and South Korea is necessary for the national and economic security of all three countries,” she said in a statement. “In this regard, the United States, in consultation with Japan and South Korea, must explore all reasonable economic, diplomatic, and defensive actions such as cyber that would prevent North Korea from developing such a (nuclear) capability.”
Right on cue, some are saying the U.S. indeed may have played a role in the failed North Korean missile launch earlier this week. Frankel serves on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
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Deutch, Curbelo urge Trump Administration to stay in Paris climate change accord — The two Floridians, co-chairs and co-founders of the bipartisan House Climate Change Caucus, are jointly urging the Trump Administration to remain in the Paris Climate Change Agreement. With the administration rumored to be ready to pull out of the accord, Deutch and Curbelo argued strongly against the move.
“It is imperative that we maintain our seat at the table in global discussions on how to address the threats posed by climate change,” they said in a joint statement. “It is our hope the administration will take a responsible approach on this issue.”
The agreement, which was completed in 2016, calls for signees to undertake “ambitious efforts to combat climate change,” Of the 197 nations attending the conference, 143 countries have signed on.
In March, Curbelo, a Miami Republican, and Deutch, a Boca Raton Democrat, signed a letter urging Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to keep the U.S. in the agreement.
“Stepping away from the agreement would mean stepping away from the immense opportunities that these international investments afford American businesses and research institutions,” they wrote.
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Diaz-Balart delivers keynote at affordable housing dedication ceremony — The Miami Republican was on hand Monday as Collier County official dedicated Hatchers Preserve, an 18-unit, single-family rental community in Immokalee.
The community was built by Rural Neighborhoods in partnership with the Big Cypress Housing Corp. and was funded, in part, through by the Department of Housing and Urban Development grants.
“This new community will provide a safe roof over the heads of 18 deserving families,” said Diaz-Balart, who serves as the chairman of the House Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Subcommittee, in a statement Monday. “(This) dedication ceremony is a prime example of the federal government and local leaders coming together to advance solutions. I especially want to commend the great work of Rural Neighborhoods, including Steve Kirk, for their vision and determination to see this project to its completion. I look forward to continue working with the Southwest Florida community to protect and preserve affordable housing.”
The homes will be rented for $650 a month to families earning 50 percent of the area median income, and $725 a month to families earning 80 percent AMI.
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Now serving his eighth term in Congress, Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart has become a powerful voice in Florida’s congressional delegation. As chairman of the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Subcommittee, Diaz-Balart will play a fundamental role during budget discussions and any negotiations about infrastructure improvements. And he’s spent years pushing lawmakers to consider comprehensive immigration reform, something he says is still working on. We caught up with Diaz-Balart during his visit to Immokalee, located in the western part of his sprawling district, to talk about housing, transportation and 2018.
FP: You were in Miami last week with HUD Secretary Ben Carson, tell me about the trip, what you learned and what he learned about affordable housing and the needs in South Florida.
MDB: I’m very grateful that he’s actually traveling and he’s trying to figure out what’s out there, what’s working and what’s not working, which is wonderful to see. Here’s a man who is doing it for the right reason, and he’s trying to learn. These are very complicated areas. It’s a huge agency, and it’s an agency that has major problems, fiscal accountability problems. … I think it was very helpful for him to see just different things that are working and not working that well, and why. I’ve met with him, I had the opportunity to meet with him again, and had the opportunity to ride in the car with him, which was a really good time. I feel really, really optimistic about the fact that he’s a person who wants to do the right thing. And I am really looking forward to working with him in a very, very close way to make sure that taxpayer money is well spent, and that also some of the key programs are working continue to receive help.
FP: This Immokalee project was a partnership — federal, state and local. When you talk about housing, especially affordable workforce housing, in Florida and beyond how important is that local, state and federal role?
MDB: I think it’s crucial. One of the ways you get more accountability is by having a local community be part of it. There’s so many instances where the federal government, HUD and others decide this is what you’re going to do; this is where you’re going to do it. And frankly, that doesn’t work too well. This is one of the best examples. Rural Neighborhoods is this group that builds; they rehabilitate, they manage, they do incredible work. They receive funding from different sources; they leverage public funding with private funding. This is not one of the traditional things (people think of when) they think of HUD — these high rise buildings … This is a local community, having a need and going to them and saying “what can we do here?” And what you’re going to see, if you come here in five years, is these homes in pristine shape, because that’s the kind of work (Rural Neighborhoods does) around the state.
FP: President Trump, when he was on the campaign trail, talked so much about infrastructure improvements to transportation. What, if any, impact do you think the inability to get health care reform through Congress is going to have on getting those massive infrastructure improvements through?
MDB: I think the potential is for it to have a serious impact. … If we can’t — controlling the House, Senate and the White House — get together and pass legislation and do what we’ve been saying forever, which is repeal Obamacare and replace it with more a patient-centered centered system of accountability and choice, if we can’t even do that, then it begs the question of can we do the even more complicated issues like tax reform.
Why do I mention tax reform, even though you mentioned infrastructure, which is key to my heart? If you can’t do health care, it’s going to be very difficult to do tax reform. If you can’t do tax reform, then the question is, where are the funds coming from to do infrastructure? I wish I could tell you I’m not concerned, but I don’t know how you do things that are more complicated if we can’t even do health care.
FP: You’ve been a huge proponent of immigration reform for many, many years. What’s the status right now?
MDB: I’m not giving up on it. I think we have a greater opportunity, a greater chance. I think it’s obviously a problem and it’s not going to fix itself, you’ve heard me say that a million times. I’m still working, and I think we have a better shot than if Hillary (Clinton) had gotten elected. I wish I could tell you right now things are great; they’re not. But I’m optimistic. We’re still working, we’re still talking, and I think it may be one of those things that surprises folks. I think this is a president who wants to solve problems, and I think once … they all see this is broken from A-to-Z, I don’t think this president is going to sit back and let it stay broken. So, I’m optimistic.
FP: As you start looking toward 2018, are you concerned at all about re-election?
MDB: I’m a firm believe you do good things, and good things happen. I don’t worry about that. I just work, and good things happen.
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Ros-Lehtinen draws another Democratic opponent for 2018 – First term Miami Beach Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez filed to challenge the longtime Republican incumbent in the redrawn Florida 27th Congressional District, which now leans Democrat.
“We deserve a member of Congress who will hold President Trump accountable,” Rosen Gonzalez, a single mother of three, told the Miami Herald. “Instead of the president’s lapdog, I’ll be a watchdog who stands up for science against climate change deniers, stands up for immigrants against persecution, and fights back against partisan attacks on women’s health care.”
Others looking to enter the CD 27 race include Scott Fuhrman, a Democrat who lost to Ros-Lehtinen in 2016, and University of Miami academic adviser Michael A. Hepburn. Rosen Gonzalez would have one more year on the commission in the 2018 election cycle, but does not have to resign to run.
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Crenshaw shines light on ‘scary’ disease affecting daughter – The former Jacksonville congressman is looking to raise public awareness of inflammatory bowel disease and help raise money for research. The Florida Times-Union reports that Crenshaw’s daughter, Alex, is one of the 1.6 million Americans diagnosed with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, collectively known as inflammatory bowel disease.
The disease, with no known cure, affects the digestive system.
The Crenshaw family — wife Kitty, another daughter, and two grandchildren – have become advocates for the Crohn’s &Colitis Foundation, and raised about $100,000 since 2009. They regularly take part in the organization’s annual Take Steps fundraising marches. Crenshaw sits on the foundation’s national board. On April 22, the Central and Northeast Florida Chapter in Jacksonville Beach will name him an honorary chair and feature Alex as an “honored hero.”
“It’s kind of a family affair,” Crenshaw told the Times-Union.
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Ballard Partners adds another foreign client to D.C. roster — The Florida-based firm has been retained by the Socialist Party of Albania to “provide consulting and advocacy services in a bid to improve U.S.-Albanian bilateral relations” at a rate of $20,000 a month.
Ballard Partners work for the Socialist Party of Albania will include advising, counseling and assisting the party in its communications with the U.S. government, according to Foreign Agents Registration Act documents filed in April.
The year-long deal continues until the end of March 2018 and fetches the agency $20,000 per month. Earlier this month, the firm, led by Brian Ballard, signed a similar year-long contract to strengthen ties between the U.S. and the Dominican Republic.
The Socialist Party of Albania rose to power following its majority win in Albania’s 2013 parliamentary elections. Leading the left-leaning political party is Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, who’s up for re-election in Albania’s upcoming June elections.
The Democratic Party of Albania last year hired Podesta Group in a similar bid to advance U.S. relations. That political group, which was formerly Albania’s leading political party, hired Podesta for counsel on relevant U.S. policies and Congressional activities, as well as to arrange meetings with U.S. executive branch officials and members of Congress.
In January, a third Albanian political group fighting for seats in the June elections, the Socialist Movement for Integration, retained The McKeon Group to facilitate a dialogue between members of that party and the Trump administration.
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Burgos departing Marco Rubio’s office, joins TechNet as VP — TechNet, a network of technology CEOs and executives, announced Wednesday that Burgos would serve as its vice president of federal policy, government relations and communications.
“As a seasoned veteran of Capitol Hill and federal campaigns at all levels, Alex brings a wealth of policy experience, deep relationships, and strategic vision to TechNet,” said Linda Moore, the president and CEO of TechNet in a statement. “We are excited to welcome Alex to the TechNet team and believe his wide range of skills, experience, and insights will take our federal advocacy programs to new levels of success.”
Burgos joined Rubio’s team when the Miami Republican was first running for office, serving as his campaign’s communications director. He would go on to serve in the same role in Rubio’s U.S. Senate office. Before working for Rubio, the Miami native served as the senior communications manager for the Global Intellectual Property Center at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a deputy press secretary for the National Republican Congressional Committee.
“TechNet’s members include breakthrough startups and the most storied, life-changing technology companies on the planet, and I am excited to join the TechNet team to help keep America’s innovation economy growing and creating more good-paying jobs,” said Burgos in a statement. “Serving Senator Rubio and my home state of Florida has been the honor of a lifetime, and now I’m thrilled to partner with TechNet’s members to advance the policies that will spur the next chapter of America’s incredible innovation story.”
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Personnel Note: The National Association of Counties (NACo) added a bit more of a Florida flavor recently with the hire of Kevan Stone as Associate Legislative Director for Transportation and Infrastructure. Stone was previously a policy advisor for former Rep. John Mica. Stone holds a degree in political science from the University of Central Florida.
NACo’s current president is Leon County Commissioner Bryan Desloge. The Tallahassee native’s term runs through 2017. The organization advocates on Capitol Hill for 3,069 county governments.
