Life and Lobbying Go On, After Abramoff

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Lobbyists from the defunct firm Alexander Strategy Group, which closed after being tied to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff and disgraced House majority leader Tom DeLay, are finding new K Street homes, reports Judy Sarasohn. Daniel Gans and Amelia Blackwood have started their own shop, Polaris Government Relations. Polaris has several former ASG clients, including BellSouth, U.S. Telecom Association, Xcel Energy and the Association of Kentucky Fried Chicken Franchisees, which retained Polaris to lobby on "estate taxes, 'frivolous obesity suits,' the minimum wage and avian flu." Former ASG lobbyist Paul Behrends is now at C&M Capitolink and Terry Haines is at Buchanan Ingersoll. In related news, the U.S. Senate Indian Affairs Committee released a report detailing how Abramoff used nonprofit groups "as extensions of for-profit lobbying operations." One group, conservative activist Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform, funneled more than $1 million from the Choctaw tribe to Ralph Reed, reports Associated Press.