Lobbying World

• AEROSPACE. SpaceX, the rocket manufacturer and launcher, has hired The Nickles Group to lobby on “general issues related to aerospace, budget, intellectual property, defense, labor, science/technology and tax,” according to lobbying disclosure records. Former Sen. Don Nickles (R-Okla.); Hazen Marshall, once the Senate Budget Committee’s staff director; and Don Kent, former chief of staff to Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) are among the lobbyists on the account. Patton Boggs also lobbies for SpaceX.

• CIVIL RIGHTS. Endgame Strategies has contracted with Save the Santa Ynez Valley, a group based in Santa Barbara, Calif., to lobby on “issues relating to land use policy in the Santa Ynez Valley (Santa Barbara County, Calif.); HR 3313 (113th Cong.).” That bill would make specified land in Santa Barbara County part of the Santa Ynez Indian Reservation. Steven Duffield, once policy director and chief counsel for the Senate Republican Conference, will be lobbying for the group.

{mosads}• IMMIGRATION. Immigration reform remains a major business driver for K Street. The Service Employees International Union, a major backer of the overhaul effort, has hired Alison Reardon to lobby on immigration reform legislation.

• TAX. A former House Ways and Means Committee chairman is helping out the Greater Houston Partnership. Ex-Rep. Bill Archer (R-Texas), now at PricewaterhouseCoopers, will be lobbying for the trade group on “general tax, energy, immigration, transportation and health care issues relevant to the Greater Houston Partnership.” Don Carlson, Archer’s former chief of staff, is also registered to lobby for the group. 

• TELECOMMUNICATIONS. Signal Above, a low-power television station in McLean, Va., has brought on some lobbying help. Becker & Poliakoff will be representing the TV station on the “Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act (P.L. 112-96) authorizing the Federal Communications Commission to conduct a spectrum incentive auction.” Omar Franco, a former chief of staff to Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.), is lobbying for the station.