Drew Wilson
Capital City Consulting (CCC) hit a new high in the first quarter with $7.55 million in earnings, giving them an iron grip on the No. 3 spot in Florida Politics’ lobby firm rankings.
New lobbying compensation reports show CCC collected $4.05 million for lobbying the Legislature last quarter and an additional $3.5 million lobbying the Governor, Cabinet and state agencies. The firm’s overall total represents a 10% increase over its $6.87 million haul in Q4 2024.
Florida Politics estimates lobbying pay based on the middle number of the per-client ranges firms listed on their compensation reports. Contracts are reported in $10,000 increments up to $50,000.
Even using more conservative revenue estimates, the firm co-founded by Nick Iarossi and Ron LaFace would still have a firm hold on the No. 3 spot in Florida Politics’ Lobby Firm Rankings. CCC more than doubled the next-highest total on the list.
CCC’s legislative compensation report listed more than 260 clients, several of which paid sums exceeding the cap on range reporting, meaning the listed amounts are concrete and not estimates. That set included Associated Industries of Florida (AIF) at $199,000, followed by Advocating for Seniors and Gartner at $63,000 and Neal Land Development Group, CDR Maguire and Lennar Homes at $53,000 apiece.
Beyond the top moneymakers, CCC’s report included several well-known corporations and associations, such as AT&T, BlackRock, PayPal, Adobe, Chick-fil-A, Yamaha and 3M. The world’s largest airline, Delta, and one of just a dozen or so companies to achieve a trillion-dollar-plus market cap, Amazon, also rely on Capital City Consulting to handle their affairs in Tallahassee.
On the executive side, CCC’s most lucrative contract was a $102,000 contract with professional services firm Horne LLP. Other contracts crossing the $50,000 threshold included The GEO Group at $72,000, AIF at $63,000, PCI Gaming at $59,000 and CDR Maguire at $53,000.
In addition to Iarossi and LaFace, Capital City Consulting’s first-quarter team included Justin Day, Cory Dowd, Megan Fay, Kaley Anne Flynn, Ken Granger, Maicel Green, Ashley Kalifeh, Andrew Ketchel, Drew Meiner, Joseph Mongiovi, Jared Rosenstein, Scott Ross and Chris Schoonover.
Of note, Capital City Consulting also has a robust local lobbying presence following its acquisition two years ago of Miami-based Prodigy Public Affairs, now known as CCC Miami. The new compensation reports only cover state-level lobbying revenues — pay received for lobbying county and municipal governments is not included.
Iarossi, meanwhile, branched out into federal lobbying earlier this year, taking on the title of Managing Director at BGR Group — the Washington lobbying firm run by Advocus Partners, a longtime national partner of CCC.
Capital City Consulting’s Q1 haul once again puts the firm on pace for a record year — CCC topped $25 million in earnings for 2023 and followed that with a nearly $27 million performance last year. If the firm’s next three reports keep pace with its first-quarter haul, the 2025 total would surpass $30 million.
Florida lobbyists and lobbying firms faced a mid-May deadline to file compensation reports for the period covering Jan. 1 through March 31. Compensation reports for the second quarter are due Aug. 14.
