Sunburn – The Morning Read Of What’s Hot In Florida Politics – 8.16.21

  By Peter Schorsch

Good Monday morning. This is a newsletter about the politics impacting Florida, so we will leave the discussion of the fall of Afghanistan to our betters.

___

The Southern Group was Florida’s top-earning lobbying firm for the second quarter in a row, according to new compensation reports covering April through June.

TSG dethroned perennial No. 1 firm Ballard Partners in Q1 when it reported $5.1 million in overall pay to Ballard’s $4.2 million.

The Southern Group one-upped itself in the second quarter, posting a $5.4 million haul between its legislative and executive branch lobbying reports.

TSG Chair Paul Bradshaw and the firm’s two-dozen or so lobbyists showed $3.3 million in receipts in the Legislature, up from $3.2 million last quarter. Likewise, executive branch earnings grew from $1.9 million to $2.1 million. Top-end estimates indicate the firm could have earned as much as $7.8 million.

Lobbying firms report their earnings for each contract in ranges covering $10,000 increments up to $50,000, after which a firm must report the exact contract size. Florida Politics uses the middle number of each range to estimate quarterly earnings.

The earnings growth came from some new additions to the client roster and a few pay boosts from the clients it has retained. Notably, Altria Client Services increased its contract from an estimated $35,000 per quarter to $53,000 per quarter.

Though the gap between The Southern Group and Ballard Partners grew in Q2, the latter firm still reported a quarter-to-quarter earnings increase. Still, it wasn’t enough to fend off a surging Capital City Consulting.

CCC reported significant gains last quarter, with legislative earnings nearing $2.4 million and executive earnings coming in just shy of $2.2 million — it was the top-earning firm in that metric.

The 12-person team led by Nick Iarossi and Ron LaFace earned $4.6 million overall, about $300,000 more than it managed in the first quarter. It may have earned as much as $6.2 million.

Ballard Partners also reported just shy of $2.4 million in the Legislature — only $10,000 separated it and CCC — and brought in another $2 million in the executive branch. Overall, the firm led by Brian Ballard earned an estimated $4.4 million during the reporting period. At the top end, the firm could have earned as much as $6.1 million.

___

Jennifer Krell Davis has been promoted to communications director at The Florida Bar.

Davis has served as deputy communications director for five years under longtime director Francine Andia Walker, who recently retired after 21 years with the Bar. As deputy communications director, Davis was instrumental in developing digital communications, branding, and social media strategies for The Bar.

The Florida Bar Communications Department provides a broad range of communications and public relations support for the Bar including managing content and branding for the Bar’s website, social media and email marketing; handling national, state, and local media requests on Bar issues, including discipline cases; coordinating statewide public education campaigns on legal issues and Bar initiatives; and providing communications support for Bar leadership such as talking points and presentation materials.

When Davis was hired in 2016 as the deputy director, it was her second stint with the Bar, as she had also served as a special projects coordinator with the department from 2001 to 2004, before going to work as the communications director for the Florida Chamber of Commerce, the Florida Department of State, and as press secretary for Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Davis also served as vice president of public affairs for the Florida Ports Council, the professional association for Florida’s 15 public seaports.

Davis received her undergraduate degree in English Literature from Florida State University and her law degree from the University of Florida. Davis, a Tallahassee native, is married to criminal defense attorney Ryan Davis of Jansen & Davis. They have two daughters.

___

Spotted in Dyersville, Iowa for Major League Baseball’s “Field of Dreams” game: Senate President Wilton Simpson.

___

Congratulations — Best wishes to the newly engaged Julie Fazekas and Jack Rogers. Jack, an aide to Sen. Jim Boyd, *finally* sealed the deal with one of the kindest hearts in The Process. He popped the question to Julie, a director at Red Hills Strategies, in North Carolina last week.

— SITUATIONAL AWARENESS —

—@RichardHaass: One can disagree with me & think the (Joe) Biden administration was right to pull out all U.S. troops from Afghanistan … but it is impossible to argue that it has gone about it in the right way. This looks to be both a major intelligence & policy failure with tragic consequences.

—@NGrossman81: Really not a fan of taking a complex foreign policy issue that spanned six presidential terms — with four quite different Presidents; two from each party — and trying to shove it into preconceived partisan point-scoring.

—@MattGaetz: The Afghan government we propped up was never going to win anything except a corruption contest. They’re leaving now with whatever U.S.-supplied assets they can steal.

—@AndrewLearned: The situation in Afghanistan is incredibly sad, especially for our Veterans. If you’re taking cheap shots now, after being silent for the last TWENTY YEARS and having never raised your hand to go there and serve, kindly shut the &#@$ up. @votevets because we did more than talk.

—@NateSilver538: One reason these Obama Birthday Takes are dumb is they take it as exceptional to hold a social event with “everything going on” when the large % of Americans of all social classes have resumed their social lives if you look at the data or look around.

—@Fineout: At some point, Miami Herald’s @Jacquiecharles will get the Pulitzer she deserves. Day-in, day-out, her continual coverage of the Caribbean — especially Haiti — is remarkable.

—@JennAgiesta: I do wish people would take a second to think about the terminology they’re using around new census data. Is “non-white” really the descriptor you want to use? Is “majority-minority?” Are there more inclusive ways to say that? I think there are.

—@RyanEGorman: In 10 days, @GovRonDeSantis has promoted monoclonal antibody treatments on Twitter five times. The promotion of #COVID19 vaccines, which prevent you from needing such a treatment in the first place, is nonexistent during that same period. Why? Politics, plain and simple.

Tweet, tweet:

—@Rivers_Kim: A personal thank you to everyone who has reached out to me over the last 24 hours. I have never been more confident in the future of Trulieve nor more proud of what we have built over the past 5 years. I look forward to the future and am grateful for your support. Onward!

—@FrancoRipple: I once said “utilize” while talking to @bsfarrington, and he literally stopped me mid-sentence and said, “really?!?” I have thought about that every time I think about “use” versus “utilize.”

Tweet, tweet: