former top Manchin aide Jonathan Kott launched an anti–Bernie Sanders dark money group & now lobbies for oil giants, Big Pharma, & Fox News

basquebromance

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Nov 26, 2015
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Nearly 66% of lawmakers who retire or are defeated at the ballot box go to work in the influence industry, per a 2019 study. Jonathan Kott is a living example of the havoc this wreaks on our politics.


excerpts:

Kott’s path through Washington’s proverbial “revolving door” showcases the lucrative career opportunities available to Democratic Hill staffers: If you work for conservative Democrats who protect corporate interests and loyally attack progressives, corporate America will come calling with a big bag of cash.

A 2019 Public Citizen study found that nearly two-thirds of lawmakers who had retired or were defeated at the ballot box went on to work in the influence industry. Nearly 60 percent of these former members of Congress had taken up work for lobbying firms, consulting firms, trade organizations, or business groups to influence — and impede — federal government action.

Not surprisingly, staffers who move to K Street are likely to earn more money based on how many personal connections they retain on Capitol Hill, according to a 2017 study.

Kott’s career in public service began with an internship in the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), where he worked to address homelessness.

“When I went to HUD, I realized I could help homeless people get a place to live, and that’s what I thought I would spend my time in politics doing,” he told the Hill. “But I got drawn into the press side, and that’s where I wound up.”

By 2013, Kott was back in the public sector, working as the communications director for Manchin, the coal-baron-turned-senator. For some time, he simultaneously worked for both Manchin and Senator Chris Coons (D-DE), a conservative Democrat and close Joe Biden ally. Kott would go on to serve as Manchin’s senior advisor, too.

In the fall of 2019, Kott left Manchin’s office, according to Legistorm. He soon founded the Big Tent Project Fund, a dark money group focused on crushing Sanders’s presidential campaign.

The nonprofit spent $4.8 million on digital ads attacking Sanders, including those under the name United We Succeed. The ads criticized Sanders as a socialist who wanted to increase taxes on the middle class, saying that voting for him would mean Americans “losing our private health care.”

Kott returned to Capitol Hill after 2020, serving once again as a top aide to Coons. He soon decamped for K Street, becoming a partner at the corporate lobbying firm Capitol Counsel last June.

“Jon was a very effective communications director and trusted senior advisor for seven years,” Manchin said in a press release issued by the firm. “He is a thoughtful communicator and tactician with a true understanding of the importance of bipartisanship. I’m excited for him to be taking on this new role.”

In a January appearance on CNN, Kott sought to explain away Manchin’s refusal to end the Senate legislative filibuster, a rule that requires sixty votes to advance most legislation. This position puts Manchin on the side of powerful corporate lobbying groups, but Kott framed Manchin’s position as “looking to preserve how the Senate works and force them to work in a bipartisan way.”

He added, “Slogans and yelling isn’t the way it works.”

Kott told the Daily Beast in April that Manchin “doesn’t really care about party affiliation and is just focused on what he’s hearing from his constituents. And that’s basically how he handles his votes. He goes home most weekends. He talks to as many people as he can, comes back and decides how he’s gonna vote. And that’s basically what he does.”

 
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Joe Manchin has tanked 2 major pieces of progressive legislation in as many years
 
Meh, small money. Pelosi knows how to rake in the big money. Feed insider trading info to her husband then pretend she knows nothing about his ahem (cough) suspiciously timely stock transactions.
 

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