19 filings from 3 registrants · 2008–2010 · latest filed Jan 18, 2011
Reported on its behalf
$500K
every LD-2 on file
Its own filed spend
$0
lobbying for itself
Fees to outside firms
$500K
across every firm on file
Spend over time
Every filing period on record, as reported. One column per filed period — a period with no column is a period with no filing, not a zero.
Basis · Amendments and terminations supersede the original report for the same registrant, client and period, so a revised quarter is counted once at its latest filed value. Registration-only filings carry no activity money and are excluded from these totals.
Who lobbies for them
Every outside firm that has filed on this client's behalf, by fees reported.
Issue areas declared on the filings, ranked by how many filings name each one.
Energy/Nuclear
ENG
12 filings
$450K on those filings
Fuel/Gas/Oil
FUE
5 filings
$50K on those filings
Taxation/Internal Revenue Code
Bills named in the filings
Every bill reference extracted from the filings' activity descriptions.
H.R. 2419110th CongressFood, Conservation, and Energy Act of 20082 filingsthrough 2008
S. 2242110th CongressHeartland, Habitat, Harvest, and Horticulture Act of 20072 filingsthrough 2008
How these are found · Bill references are extracted from the free-text activity description each filing writes, then matched to the Congress in session that filing year. A reference we can't match to a bill on file is still shown, unlinked — we cite what the filing said rather than guess at what it meant. Naming a bill is not a position on it: LD-2 records that a client lobbied on the bill, never which side.
This record groups every filed spelling of the client's name into one entity, so "MERCK & CO., INC." and "MERCK & CO INC" read as the same company. The grouping is the client's normalized name — organizations that file under genuinely different names appear separately. Handle: verenium-corporation.
Reading this · LD-2 reports a hired firm's fee and a registrant's reported expenses on separate lines and never both on one filing, so the two lists above are different quantities and are ranked separately rather than against each other. Firm names link to their own record as the firms chapter lands.
TAX
2 filings
$20K on those filings
Environment/Superfund
ENV
2 filings
Agriculture
AGR
1 filing
$20K on those filings
Note · A filing names one to several issue areas and reports a single dollar figure for the period, so the same money appears beside every issue that filing declares. The dollar column is therefore spend on filings that named this issue — it is not a split of the total, and these figures sum above it. Filing counts do not double-count.
Max Sandlin
Mercury Public Affairs, LLC
Covered position: Member of Congress
5 filingsthrough 2010
Jesse AppletonMercury Public Affairs, LLCCovered position: LA, Sen. J. Talent; Sr. Advisor, U.S. Treasury5 filingsthrough 2010
Michael McsherryMercury Public Affairs, LLCCovered position: U.S. Dept. of Labor, HUD4 filingsthrough 2010
Christopher BohanonVan Ness Feldman, LLP2 filingsthrough 2010
Paul SweetMercury Public Affairs, LLCCovered position: COS, Rep. Vic Fazio2 filingsthrough 2010
Ben Lee McmakinVan Ness Feldman, LLPCovered position: Legislative Director, Rep. Mike Kopetski,1990-942 filingsthrough 2010
Jennifer OwenVan Ness Feldman, LLPCovered position: Research Asst.,US Sen.Comm. Eng&NR 2002-041 filingthrough 2008
Covered positions · 8 of 11 lobbyists named on these filings disclosed a prior government post. The text is reproduced exactly as filed.
