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The Movie Industry's GOP Voice
by Sarah Lai Stirland
When Jack Valenti retired from his long-time job as president and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) this summer, some of his friends predicted that the MPAA might have to hire two people to do the work he did alone for 38 years with the organization.
The prediction turned out to be prescient. Last week, MPAA hired Stacy Carlson, a well-connected Republican, to assume the new position of executive vice president of global government affairs. Carlson will report to Valenti's successor, Dan Glickman, but she will have considerable responsibility because she will oversee all of the association's lobbying efforts. She will manage a team of seven lobbyists.
Washington insiders say they are not surprised at the appointment of such a well-known Republican at MPAA because House Republicans are known to be unhappy with the MPAA's decision to appoint a Democrat to head the association. Glickman is a former Democratic House member from Kansas who also served as former President Clinton's Agriculture secretary.
Glickman said he needed to hire a lobbyist to succeed Jon Leibowitz, MPAA's former vice president of congressional affairs, and that he was impressed with Carlson's credentials and work experience. But Glickman acknowledged that ideology was a factor in the hiring process. Leibowitz, a Democrat, left the MPAA earlier this year to become an FTC commissioner. He was sworn in to the post in early September.
"The truth of the matter is that I was looking to diversify ideologically," Glickman said of Carlson's appointment. "I'm a very publicly identified Democrat ... so it's obvious that in a Congress that's very evenly matched that you need to have people who know and can reach out to the whole operation, not just half. Almost every organization in Washington does that."
Carlson currently manages federal policy issues for the state of California as the director of the state's Washington, D.C., office, a position she has held since the beginning of the year. She will start her new job at the beginning of next year. Before her current job, she was a senior adviser for public policy at the law firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, where Glickman also worked.
During the 2000 presidential election, Carlson was the Western region political director for Republican George W. Bush's presidential campaign and was in charge of 11 states. She also spent six years working on Capitol Hill as a staff director for the House Administration Committee when Rep. Bill Thomas, R-Calif., was the panel's chairman.
She also worked for five years at various Silicon Valley banks that specialize in funding technology startups.
In other news, the telecommunications association CompTel/ASCENT last week said its chief legal officer, Carol Ann Bischoff, is leaving "to focus on raising her two young daughters." Her last day with the organization is Wednesday. The association has yet to find Bischoff's successor, a spokeswoman said.
And Medley Advisors, an independent equity research company based in New York, has hired Washington Post telecom reporter Christopher Stern as its senior telecom policy analyst. Stern will join the company's Washington team, and work with Medley's senior policy director for telecom and technology, Jessica Zufolo.
Stern will cover the media and broadcasting industries and share cable coverage with Zufolo. Zufolo covers the wireline and wireless industries, as well as the cable industry. "We're really excited and thrilled that he accepted the offer," Zufolo said.
Techies Host Election Night Parties
Outsiders may sometimes view Washington, as a somber place filled with poker-faced lawyers and policymakers. But parties are an important part of the relationship-building process key to lobbying. In that spirit, a number of technology industry groups or other groups with tech clients will host Election Night parties Tuesday in Washington and in Silicon Valley.
Gloria Dittus, CEO of the public affairs company Dittus Communications, which serves many technology clients, will open the doors of her home in Washington's tony Kalorama neighborhood to both Republicans and Democrats. She expects about 150 guests, who will be able to watch news on election returns on eight or nine big-screen televisions.
Her company's clients include the Alliance for Digital Progress, Americans for Computer Privacy, the Business Software Alliance, the computer maker Dell, and many other technology- related concerns. It will be her first Election Night party.
Asked whether her family minds a cadre of Washington lobbyists and administration types invading her home, Dittus said: "Well, I'm single, and my dog is very social."
Elsewhere, the Consumer Electronics Association and ICG Government, a procurement consulting firm, will hold an invitation-only party at Morton's, The Steakhouse, in northern Virginia's Tyson's Corner area. Sen. John Warner, Rep. Tom Davis and his wife, Virginia state Sen. Jeannemarie Devolites Davis, all Republicans, have been invited, as have local technology company business leaders.
Firm Volunteers Lawyers For Legal Disputes
In other election-related news, the law firm of Bingham McCutchen announced last week that it is making more than 200 of its attorneys, or a quarter of its legal staff, available as volunteers on Election Day to provide advice in potential voting disputes.
The law firm is offering its help as part of Election Protection 2004, a project of the Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights under Law, the People for the American Way Foundation and a coalition of civil-rights groups. The volunteers will staff hotlines and be available to voters to ensure ballot access in Florida, Nevada, Massachusetts and Ohio.
Bingham McCutchen is a full-service law firm. But most recently a team of 50 of its lawyers did the legal footwork to help AT&T Wireless through the federal government's antitrust analysis for Cingular Wireless' purchase of AT&T Wireless.
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