Drew Wilson
The team at Corcoran Partners netted an estimated $1.5 million last quarter, new compensation reports show.
Michael Corcoran and lobbyists Jacqueline Corcoran, Matt Blair, Helen Levine, Will Rodriguez and Andrea Tovar represented nearly 90 clients in Q1. Their efforts netted $1 million in legislative lobbying fees and $500,000 in executive branch lobbying fees.
Florida Politics estimates lobbying pay based on the middle number of the per-client ranges firms list on their compensation reports. Contracts are reported in $10,000 increments up to $50,000.
Corcoran Partners’ top legislative client in Q1 was Fontainebleau Development, the South Florida-based luxury real estate development company behind the eponymous Fontainebleau Miami Beach and several other well-known hotels and resorts.
It paid Corcoran Partners $68,000 for legislative lobbying work last quarter and repeated at the same level on the firm’s executive branch report for a total of $136,000 in payments over the three-month reporting period.
The No. 2 spot on both reports belonged to the Florida Optometric Association, which paid $35,000 in legislative lobbying fees and an additional $35,000 in executive branch lobbying fees.
The Florida Optometric Association is one of the belligerents in the long-running “Eyeball Wars,” with the other being the Florida Society of Ophthalmology. The optometrist group has advocated for a scope-of-practice expansion that would allow them to prescribe more medications and perform surgical procedures. Ophthalmologists argue they, as medical doctors, should be the ultimate authority on ocular matters. Lawmakers have agreed so far, though bills to expand optometrists’ purview have advanced through committee stops in recent Legislative Sessions.
In addition to FAO, Corcoran Partners collected $35,000 in legislative lobbying fees from The Big Easy Casino and Verizon. The pair showed up in the $15,000 bracket on the firm’s executive branch compensation report, putting them at $50,000 overall last quarter.
Well-known names on the firm’s reports also included Walmart, Coca-Cola and Live Nation Entertainment.
The latter is the parent company of TicketMaster, which was the leading opponent to a bill filed last Session that would have made required ticket vendors to give consumers the option of purchasing resellable tickets. The measure was a thinly veiled swipe at TicketMaster, which has been criticized by its competitors for locking tickets it sells into a so-called “walled garden.” TicketMaster — with Corcoran Partners’ help — was successful in defeating the bill.
A handful of health care companies helped pad the firm’s coffers, too. Anthem and the Florida Association of Health Plans each paid $40,000 between Corcoran Partners’ two reports, while Health Choice Network of Florida paid $20,000 overall.
Corcoran Partners’ median earnings estimate for Q1 matches the firm’s average haul across the previous four quarters and puts it on pace for another Top-10 performance in 2022.
Florida lobbyists and lobbying firms faced a May 15 deadline to file compensation reports for the period covering Jan. 1 through March 31. Compensation reports for the second quarter are due to the state on Aug. 14.
