LegiStorm

A former Republican staffer with 26 years of House experience has finally made the move to K Street.

Craig Roberts is now a senior vice president at Milne, Wiener & Shofe Global Strategies. The bipartisan firm lobbies for clients ranging from pharmaceutical companies to the American Postal Workers Union.

Roberts was most recently a special adviser to House Administration Committee Republicans. Roberts got his start in Illinois, where he held senior roles in the state government and co-authored several editions of the Almanac of Illinois Politics. He first moved to D.C. as chief of staff to then-Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) - a position he held for the congressman's entire 24-year House tenure.

The American Trucking Associations has driven off with a staffer to Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.), ranking member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Sean Garcia started recently as legislative-affairs director at ATA, which spent just shy of $2.3 million on federal lobbying in the last year. Garcia is no stranger to the federal-affairs world: Before moving to the Hill, he was a lobbyist at the American Public Works Association, the American Water Works Association and Signal Group.

Garcia was most recently Larsen's senior legislative assistant handling transportation and energy, among other issues. ATA's PAC donated $10,000 to Larsen's reelection campaign last cycle. Larsen, in his first session as T&I's top Democrat, reportedly intends to dedicate attention to trucking-industry issues as part of a broader push to improve freight operations.

Dozens of clients still trust Jack Burkman with their lobbying business, even after the right-wing trickster and conspiracy theorist's felony guilty plea.

Burkman disclosed lobbying for 39 clients in the year's first quarter. His lobbying firm, J.M. Burkman and Associates, brought in a combined $140,000 through 11 clients and less than $5,000 each for the remaining 28.

Two of the firm's biggest clients by revenue are also among its newest accounts. Near the end of Q1, Burkman signed the Lakeland Group for $40,000 and PJM Power Ventures for $20,000. J.M. Burkman and Associates describes the Lakeland Group as a "national consumer advocacy group helping consumers hurt by pharmaceuticals." J.M. Burkman and Associates describes PJM Power Ventures as "a solar company," though the address listed for the entity does not appear to exist.

The firm has brought on seven total new lobbying clients and lost only two existing relationships so far this year.

Burkman and fellow lobbyist Jacob Wohl pleaded guilty in October to felony telecommunications fraud for their part in a robocall voter-suppression scheme against Black voters. Both Burkman and Wohl are also known for their attempts to frame Robert Mueller, Pete Buttigieg and Anthony Fauci for sexual assault.

In March, a federal judge ruled against the pair in a N.Y. lawsuit related to the robocall scheme. Criminal charges in Michigan are pending.

Burkman's firm made $148,000 from 10 clients and less than $5,000 each from another 24 clients amid his guilty plea in 2022 Q4. In 2020 Q1, before the robocall incident, J.M. Burkman and Associates made $154,000 in lobbying revenue from nine clients and less than $5,000 each from another 46.

A Republican attorney is back to the Senate, now with experience lobbying and navigating congressional investigations.

This is Jon VanderPlas's second week as general counsel to Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee Republicans. He came to the committee from ID.me, where he was a lobbyist and counsel for government affairs. ID.me provides online identity-verification services, including for the Internal Revenue Service. VanderPlas helped ID.me to handle a 2022 House investigation into the company. Democrats leading the investigation reported that ID.me may have made "baseless claims... [to] increase demand for its identity verification services."

Before ID.me, VanderPlas was chief of staff and senior policy adviser at the Department of Labor's Veterans' Employment and Training Service. He is also a retired Marine Corps officer and an alumnus of then-Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and then-Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.).

Electric vehicles have made a first-time lobbyist out of Albert Gore III, son of former Vice President Al Gore (D).

The younger Gore disclosed last week that he's now a part of the Zero Emission Transportation Association's lobbying team. ZETA advocates for a complete transition to electric-vehicle sales by 2030. Gore, who took over as the coalition's executive director in January, told Politico that the organization's 2023 policy goals would focus on implementation of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and Inflation Reduction Act.

Gore previously spent seven years at Tesla, where he worked on public policy and business development. His father famously won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his environmentalist advocacy work.