Drew Wilson
Georgia McKeown was again one of the top-performing solo lobbyists of the quarter, with $180,000 in earnings in the last quarter of 2018.
Combined with the hauls she notched in the first three quarters of 2018, the Johnson & Blanton lobbyist pulled down an estimated $555,000 in pay through her solo spinoff.
Consulting firms and solo lobbyists are required to report their quarterly pay in $10,000 ranges for each client, except for those that pay more than $50,000 over a three-month span.
Florida Politics uses the middle dollar of those ranges to estimate quarterly earnings.
McKeown’s legislative and executive branch reports rang up at the same level this go around, with each showing nine clients paying an estimated $5,000 apiece and three checking in at the $15,000 level.
Her top three legislative clients for the quarter were also her top three for the year.
Those principals were Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, which paid McKeown $45,000 for legislative lobbying work, followed by the city of Deltona and the Florida Cemetery, Cremation & Funeral Association at $40,000 apiece.
It was the same story on the executive side, though the order was swapped.
Deltona and the Florida Cemetery, Cremation & Funeral Association again hit $40,000 followed by Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals at $35,000.
All told, the trio accounted for $240,000 of McKeown’s 2018 earnings.
Other major clients included the Center for Independent Living, Elite Professional Education, Family Support Services of North Florida, Phoenix House of Florida and Self Reliance Inc., all of which paid McKeown $40,000 last year — $20,000 apiece for her services on both sides of the Capitol complex.
If each of McKeown’s clients paid the top dollar in their reported range, she could have earned close to $1 million in fees last year.
