Yelp hires Issa aide as first lobbyist

Local review and search website Yelp has hired Laurent Crenshaw, an aide to House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), as its first public policy official based in Washington, D.C.

In an email, Crenshaw said he will likely register as a lobbyist soon after joining the company on Nov. 4.

{mosads}”I’m extremely excited to be joining this fast-growing company and plan to continue working on issues I care about and love including Internet freedom, intellectual property, technology and telecommunications, along with a host of others,” Crenshaw said. 

He is currently Issa’s legislative director and has also worked for former Rep. J.C. Watts (R-Okla.) and Roy Blunt (R-Mo.). Blunt is currently a senator.

Yelp has mostly kept a low profile in Washington, but the company has been a vocal critic of Google’s search practices. Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman testified before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in 2011, arguing that Google’s search engine was illegally suppressing competition.

The Federal Trade Commission investigation into Google’s search practices ended early this year with no action against the company.