Tech groups and their allies are spending huge amounts on TV and digital ads in an all-out war against Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s tech antitrust bill. The flood of money isn’t surprising, but the Washington players helping them spend it are. Silicon Valley is relying on many of the same firms that helped elect lawmakers to influence those same politicians. This collision of capitalism and the Capitol raises questions about whose interests the consultants are serving when the goals of their political clients diverge from those of lucrative corporate accounts.
According to a Protocol review of public spending disclosures, the Computer & Communications Industry Association, a Big Tech trade group that has reportedly spent more than $23 million trying to sink Klobuchar’s bill and similar efforts, has worked with Democratic ad-makers to place many of those TV spots. Some of the ads, including the CCIA’s work, appear to be aimed at states like New Hampshire or Arizona, where Democratic senators are facing tough reelection campaigns and are reportedly on the fence about the legislation.
Disclosures show purchases of or inquiries about broadcast and cable spots by a company called Pier 91 in New Hampshire and Arizona as well as Pennsylvania, Georgia, Wisconsin, and Nevada. In many cases, the filings detail opposition to the bill explicitly. Although Pier 91 is a little-known ad buyer, its mailing address is the same as a prominent Democratic-allied public relations company and political vendor known as GMMB, and local D.C. business records confirm that Pier 91 is a trade name of the latter firm.
GMMB boasts that it’s what "Presidents Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton have in common." Political campaign spending records reveal that, aside from CCIA, its clients in the current political cycle include the Democratic National Committee, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Maggie Hassan. Hassan, who represents New Hampshire, appears to be worried about voting for the tech antitrust bills, according to POLITICO.
Working with GMMB to fight against the antitrust legislation is just the latest example of how Big Tech hires left-leaning campaign alumni, former government staff and consultants to sharpen the company’s work in Washington. Jeff Hauser, director of the Revolving Door Project and a critic of corporate involvement in politics, said it didn’t raise many ethical concerns for firms with expertise in polling or messaging to help businesses with sales marketing, as opposed to their Washington efforts.
“Less distinguishable and much more troubling is when you’re doing politics for a corporation and doing politics for an elected official,” Hauser said. He argued that the two lines of business give consultants motive to try to alter candidates’ positions or insights to send back to Big Business. “No one can really firewall their own brain.”
GMMB didn’t comment on Pier 91’s contracts. A CCIA spokesperson confirmed the firm is helping with “the concept and creatives for some of the TV ads we are running and then the strategy and logistics for booking in the various states,” but said GMMB’s work on campaigns was not a factor in the relationship.
CCIA’s president, Matt Schruers, also insisted that his group isn’t working against a unified Democratic priority. “We are finding that, as more Dems learn about the risks this bill pose[s] for security, privacy and digital services' existing efforts to moderate content online, they become concerned that it isn't ready for prime time," he told Protocol.
Consultants’ work has occasionally gotten the firm in hot water, though, and it often continues in a way that’s essentially invisible to the public even as — or, in many cases, because — the Democrats who are currently in power are leading charges against those same tech giants.
When Amazon was facing a backlash from local and progressive politicians over its plans to build its second headquarters in Queens, New York, for instance, the company turned to another major Democratic-allied firm, SKDK, according to local reports. Former political clients of the communications and strategy specialists include then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who was a fan of the tech giant’s plans, as well as both Obama and Biden. But SKDK also specializes in work with corporate clients and boasts work for tech companies. (Amazon abandoned its New York plans in 2019.)
SKDK — where partner Anita Dunn is the kind of Democratic communications fixture that presidents ask for by name — says, in fact, that prospective clients working on tech issues should expect results precisely because of the firm’s work on behalf of campaigns and liberal causes.
“Our team has worked with many of the lawmakers and regulators who set the policies that guide your work and your products,” SKDK claims. “We understand what you’re up against. And we can help position you for success.”
In addition to the work for Amazon, SKDK, which does not publicize all of its clients, pushed for a tax break for companies’ offshore profits back in the Obama administration. The WIN America campaign — which was stuffed with Democratic former government officials, according to a Bloomberg report — was led by Google, Apple and Cisco. At the time, the chairman of the Senate’s tax-writing committee was Democrat Max Baucus. In that case, as with the antitrust issue, the work by Democratic firms seemed to equip companies to push a viewpoint to appeal to Democrats generally or even particular lawmakers then in power.
Efforts by professional Democratic consultants on behalf of Amazon, and other big business interests resisting Democrats’ agenda, have occasionally prompted outcry from the party’s core constituencies. Earlier this year, for instance, major unions slammed another Democratic firm, the Global Strategy Group, for its efforts to stop Amazon workers from unionizing in Staten Island. Major labor groups including the Service Employees International Union distanced themselves from GSG after the polling firm’s work emerged. GSG said it was “deeply sorry” for its activities.
BerlinRosen, another firm with close ties to New York Democrats and labor groups, worked for Sidewalk Labs, the smart city company that’s part of Google parent Alphabet, reportedly on a project to develop a tech hub in Toronto. The project fell through in 2020, in part over concerns about Big Tech’s involvement. BerlinRosen has not limited itself to helping Big Tech: The firm also represents the Teamsters in work to push back on Amazon and organized efforts to get people off Meta services, especially in light of social justice concerns.
The firms usually do checks for conflicts and won’t work against a client, but it’s not clear if there’s any standard arrangement in hiring or staffing to mitigate the kinds of conflicts that can occur when outside firms are in a position to steer politicians’ positions or to give companies’ efforts the kind of sparkle that only information from a campaign can provide.
There can be awkward transitions. As a candidate in 2020, Joe Biden repeatedly slammed Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook. Now, Ben LaBolt, a top-ranking communications alumnus of Obama’s reelection campaign who has advised the Biden White House, is a partner at Bully Pulpit Interactive and has represented Mark Zuckerberg regarding his donations to 2020 election infrastructure.
Sometimes, the projects also include work with the stable of lobbying organizations that the tech companies have set up. Precision Strategies, which was founded by some of the top staffers and digital experts in Obama’s campaigns, does media outreach for TechNet, which represents most of Big Tech and is one of the trade groups in the scramble to speak for the industry on privacy.
Despite such work, few of the communications and strategy firms themselves ever have to register to lobby. Federal lobbying transparency rules focus on those who spend a lot of time contacting legislators and regulators directly. By contrast, the Democratic (and Republican) firms that support Big Tech tend to offer advertising, media relations, messaging strategy and other services that don’t usually trigger any disclosure requirements. The projects also allow Washington firms to shield themselves from the boom-and-bust of election cycles by putting in place longer-lasting contracts with big tech companies.
With Democrats in power, it’s natural to scrutinize the firms that cater to them. But the relationships with Big Tech are ubiquitous on the right, too. Targeted Victory, the GOP answer to the Democrats’ early-2010s digital advantages, helped place op-eds on behalf of Meta that portrayed its rival TikTok in a negative light, according to a Washington Post report earlier this year. And NetChoice, the Big Tech lobbying association that works primarily to court conservatives and push back on tech-skeptical Republicans, has worked with the Trump-allied communications firm Nahigian Strategies. Zuckerberg’s election-infrastructure contributions even got a boost from Brian Baker, who has close ties to prominent Republican donors.
For now, though, the companies’ relationships with Republicans don’t help them with the party in control of Congress and the White House. The ties between Democratic firms and Big Tech reflect a greater tension between the message of the lawmakers and the corporations that the consultants work with. Democrats are expected to suffer losses in Congress in the midterm elections, however, and the GOP is beginning to outline its own anti-tech agenda. Soon enough, the Democratic firms may have to make do with less corporate work and more campaigns.
Social and political incest drives these people. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had just urged Brown University graduates to stay resilient and summon their “better angels” on Memorial Day weekend when she was forced to turn her attention to a less uplifting situation: her husband’s arrest in California.
The details emerging from the incident were not especially flattering.
The night before, May 28, Paul Pelosi, 82, had been in Oakville, among the country’s most exclusive enclaves, leaving a small dinner at the hedgerow-lined estate of Alexander Mehran, a longtime friend and Democratic donor.
Paul Pelosi got behind the wheel of his black 2021 Porsche 911 to drive the 6 miles to the Pelosis’ Napa Valley country house. It was around 10 p.m., according to a police report and eyewitnesses.
He went a little more than half a mile and was trying to cross State Route 29 and make a left. But a Jeep was coming down the highway and hit Paul Pelosi’s car as he made the turn.
Police who responded arrested him on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol and suspicion of driving with a .08 blood alcohol content or higher. He is due back in court Aug. 3. If criminal charges are filed, he will be arraigned then. (The driver of the Jeep was not arrested.)
It may not have been only alcohol that hindered Paul Pelosi’s driving. Two people who have spoken with the Pelosis since the crash said that Paul Pelosi had had cataract surgery in the days preceding the dinner. (Doctors are somewhat divided about when it is acceptable to drive, with estimates that range from 24 hours to two weeks.)
The speaker swung into crisis mode. By Sunday afternoon, Larry Kamer, a crisis manager who has a home in Napa and has worked for high-profile clients including Harvard University and Nike, was retained. The family also consulted with John Keker, one of San Francisco’s most prominent defense lawyers, and Lee Houskeeper, a longtime public relations executive for San Francisco political types, including former Mayor Willie Brown.
The newly assembled team had to deal with a few unwelcome certainties: The accident would refocus attention on Paul Pelosi’s troubled driving record, including a crash when he was a teenager that left his brother dead. It would also send reporters — from TMZ to The Napa Valley Register — scrambling after every detail.
And it would shine a spotlight on the Pelosis’ California life, where the couple inhabit two homes, including a 16.55-acre gated estate and mingle with other rich residents, at a time when economic hardship is straining many people of lesser means.
Ultimately, a representative for Nancy Pelosi gave a terse statement emphasizing Nancy Pelosi’s distance from the accident.
“The speaker will not be commenting on this private matter, which occurred while she was on the East Coast,” it read.
‘Everybody in San Francisco Now Has a Napa Place’
The Pelosis have had a weekend home in Napa Valley since 1990, when they spent $2.35 million for their property, which came with a Palladian-style villa, guesthouse and pool.
“It’s not a palace,” Brown said. “If you go up there, you will notice that some people have places with caves for the wine and all that kind of stuff. That’s not what they have. They have a place you can actually live in, without servants. You wouldn’t bring the Three Tenors to sing.” But the Pelosis do have a vineyard, from which they sell grapes.
“Everybody in San Francisco now has a Napa place,” Brown continued. “Everybody who can afford it.”
Neighbors are aware of Nancy Pelosi’s regular presence, in part because of the security detail that appears when she is in Napa and can cause traffic delays. Nancy Pelosi and her husband also host a regular summer gathering that is attended by many of the Democratic Party’s biggest names.
Nancy Pelosi, 82, usually goes to the Memorial Day weekend dinner that her husband attended just before his arrest, at the Oakville home of Mehran, a major commercial real estate developer. In an interview, Mehran said that he had been friends with the Pelosis for more than 50 years. Since the 2020 election cycle, he has given more than $1 million to Democratic politicians and groups, according to Federal Election Commission data.
The Pelosis have taken to Napa, an often insular world where family, political and social circles overlap. They have their spots: Nancy Pelosi eats at Pizzeria Tra Vigne, an artisanal pizza place (where Chelsea Handler was recently spotted), and gets coffee at the Model Bakery (where David Beckham is a regular). She can be seen at Sunday Mass at St. Helena Catholic Church and sometimes picks up the tab for her daughters’ and granddaughters’ mani-pedis at Blush, the local nail salon.
But even in Napa, Pelosi, who doesn’t seem to do California casual, is often seen in the fitted suits that are her Capitol Hill signature. After all, the Pelosis remain San Francisco people at heart and since 1987 have been ensconced in Pacific Heights, perhaps the city’s most exclusive neighborhood, where they own a three-floor red brick town house.
They make regular appearances at the city’s biggest social events — among them the San Francisco Symphony’s opening gala — and they have season tickets to the San Francisco Giants and the San Francisco 49ers. They have been known to turn their shopping excursions at the local Giorgio Armani boutique (where Nancy Pelosi was spotted two weeks ago) into a sport of its own.
Paul Pelosi, who holds investments in commercial real estate and the tech sector, is still a swaggering presence in the city’s society circuit at 6 feet 2 inches, well dressed, with a full head of salt-and-pepper hair. But more than a dozen people interviewed for this article said they had never seen evidence that Paul Pelosi drinks to excess. (Nancy Pelosi does not drink at all.) “Paul is a social drinker,” said Mehran, 71. “That’s the best way to put it.”
Paul Pelosi has, however, had a history of car accidents over the course of his life. At 16, in 1957, he was behind the wheel of a sports car that crashed. His brother David, who was a passenger, was killed. (A jury ultimately exonerated Paul Pelosi of misdemeanor manslaughter charges, according to news accounts at the time.)
In the late 1970s Nancy Pelosi became the Northern California chair of the Democratic Party. On her way to a barbecue for a local politician, a car that she was in with Paul Pelosi and a number of their children flipped on its side. No one was hurt, and Nancy Pelosi hitched a ride to go meet donors.
The Pelosi camp declined to comment to The New York Times on who was driving.
A Political Career Closely Tied to San Francisco Society
Paul Pelosi’s family roots are in San Francisco, but he met Nancy Pelosi when they were both college students in Washington, D.C. The two had much in common. They were liberal Democrats and observant Catholics. And both were Italian American royalty.
When they settled in San Francisco in the late 1960s, Paul Pelosi’s connections in the city catapulted them into influential circles. His brother Ronald Pelosi, a rising political star on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, was married to Barbara Newsom, the aunt of the state’s future governor, Gavin Newsom; and the sister of William Newsom (Gavin Newsom’s father), an appeals court judge who administered the trust of oil tycoon John Paul Getty.
Nancy and Paul Pelosi became friends with Getty’s son Gordon and Gordon’s wife, Ann Getty. The families remain close. In November, just before heading to Glasgow, Scotland, to address the COP26 U.N. global climate summit, Nancy Pelosi officiated at the wedding of Gordon and Ann Getty’s granddaughter Ivy Getty. (Ivy Getty, who wore a 16-foot veil and a mirrored John Galliano for Maison Margiela dress, is an oil heiress; criticism from progressive Democrats followed.)
Nancy Pelosi’s rise in politics began as a fundraiser, but as her children grew, she began to consider running for office. In 1986, Rep. Sala Burton, a Pelosi family friend, entered the hospital with terminal cancer. A special election to replace her was scheduled.
Nancy Pelosi decided to run for her seat, but her house was just outside the district. So Paul Pelosi leased the town house in Pacific Heights, and the family moved about 15 blocks northeast. Burton endorsed Nancy Pelosi days before she died. The rest is history.
Some analysts consider Pelosi among the most effective speakers ever to lead the House, and she is a pathbreaking figure in American politics. She has spoken at times of how her faith informs her politics and her desire to expand the social safety net, and she is credited with pushing the Affordable Care Act through the House.
But it’s clear that this spring has been challenging for her.
She has watched while the landmark legislation passed by the House, the $2 trillion Build Back Better Act, has stalled in the Senate. In addition, House Democrats appear poised for a shellacking this fall, which would mean Pelosi would have to hand over the speaker’s gavel, 35 years into her congressional career.
Among the powerful political and social figures who inhabit the Pelosis’ world, there was abundant sympathy and some protectiveness after what happened over Memorial Day weekend.
A person who witnessed the accident said both cars were totaled, and that Paul Pelosi simply sat in the car, seemingly frozen, for several minutes, until the sheriff and members of the Fire Department arrived moments later.
Neither Pelosi nor the driver of the Jeep was injured.
Some friends felt that Pelosi’s full night in custody at the Napa County Jail after the accident was excessive. Others were puzzled why their friend hadn’t preempted the whole ordeal by simply taking a car service home.
And some local residents suggested that, in an earlier era in Napa, driving after drinking was met with understanding, rather than criminal charges.
“I feel just awful about what’s happened because there was a time when if a thing like this happened, the cops would take you home,” said society doyenne Diane Wilsey, better known as Dede.
Wilsey, who is Paul Pelosi’s fellow trustee at the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center, is a Republican, but she has donated to several of the speaker’s political campaigns and sees the couple socially in California.
“I don’t agree with Nancy on everything, but I cannot think of anyone nicer than Nancy or Paul,” she said.
Meanwhile, according to The San Francisco Chronicle, the Napa County district attorney has been busy fending off some 1,500 angry calls inspired by right-wing pundits, including Donald Trump Jr., claiming without evidence that Paul Pelosi would not “face any consequence” for the incident. Pelosi is set to return to court in August. Local authorities stress that he will receive no special treatment.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.