LegiStorm

A senior attorney to Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats has a new job, and it's music to her ears.

Avery Gardiner is now at Spotify, where she'll work on global competition policy. Gardiner was most recently chief technology counsel to Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and chief counsel to the Judiciary Committee's Competition Policy, Antitrust and Consumer Rights Subcommittee, which Klobuchar chairs.

The streaming giant runs a small but influential in-house lobbying team that works on issues from artificial intelligence to technology-industry competition. Scott Wilson, one of Spotify's two registered lobbyists, is also an alumnus of Senate Judiciary Democrats.

Republican staffers are more likely than their Democratic counterparts to pass through the revolving door, according to LegiStorm data.

So far this year, 415 partisan ex-staffers have registered as federal lobbyists or foreign agents. Of those, 225 (54%) were Republicans, and 190 (46%) were Democrats. Republicans made up 53% of partisan staffers who registered as lobbyists in 2022.

For over a decade, Republicans have made up the majority of staffers-turned-lobbyists every year except 2021, when numbers were virtually tied.

Congressional Republicans also more likely than Democrats to add ex-lobbyists to their staffs. Of the 96 former lobbyists who have moved to partisan Hill offices this year, 61 (64%) are Republicans and 35 (36%) are Democrats.

A Senate adviser has decamped to Waxman Strategies, former Rep. Henry Waxman's (D-Calif.) firm.

Jackson Thein is now a director at the lobbying and communications group. The Clean Air Task Force, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and Electrify America make up Waxman Strategies' biggest federal lobbying clients by revenue. Henry Waxman has run the lobbying shop since retiring from Congress in 2015.

Thein was most recently Sen. Jeff Merkley's (D-Ore.) policy adviser on health, education, nutrition and LGBTQ issues.

Former Rep. Steve Watkins (R-Kan.), who lost re-election thanks to three felony charges, has registered as a first-time federal lobbyist.

Watkins is lobbying on behalf of Radia Inc., a low-profile Colorado-based company doing business in renewable energy and aviation. He is working through Huxley Rock, the one-man shop that he founded after leaving office. Per a recent filing, his lobbying work began last month and focuses on Federal Aviation Administration aircraft-certification issues.

Watkins was charged with three counts of felony voter fraud in 2020, during his first term in office. He lost his primary bid that year and later accepted a diversion plea that allowed him to avoid a criminal record.

In Congress, Watkins served on the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Veterans' Affairs Committee.

A staffer to Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) has traded the Hill for a Koch brothers' lobbying group.

Daniel Tillson joined Americans for Prosperity this month as a federal liaison. The influential right-wing advocacy group, which serves as the primary lobbying outfit to funders David and Charles Koch, disclosed spending about $1.5 million on its federal lobbying program in the last year.

Tillson was most recently a legislative assistant handling Wicker's foreign affairs and homeland security portfolio. Wicker is ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.