Copyright 1999 The Washington Post
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February 04, 1999, Thursday, Final Edition
SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A25; SPECIAL INTERESTS; THE
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HEADLINE: Cassidy's Exit and Entrance Strategies
BYLINE: Bill McAllister
BODY:
They are shuffling the chairs once again over at Cassidy
Cos. and, when one of the city's lobbying giants makes a move, the bodies can be
left all along K Street. This time there are a number of key executive changes
coming in both Cassidy & Associates, its big lobbying division, and Powell
Tate, its public relations arm.
Cassidy & Associates announced
yesterday that it has hired Dennis Kedzior, a top budget and appropriations
committee aide for 21 years under both House Democrats and Republicans, as a
senior vice president. Getting more clients will be the primary job of Al
Gordon, the former chairman of the New York State Democratic Party, who is
signing up as Cassidy's executive vice president in charge of business
development. Gordon was an aide to former New York governor Mario Cuomo.
Powell Tate Chairman Jody Powell is faced with the loss of three senior
vice presidents, including his business development director.
Powell
said yesterday that the departure of the three was purely coincidental. Timothy
M. Gay, the business development director, left to accept a similar position
with the Washington office of Burson-Marsteller; David Olive, a former GOP Hill
staffer, will open a Washington office for a West Coast-based public affairs
company; and Craig James, president of the Powell Tate Advertising Group, will
remain active with the firm as a consultant, Powell said.
Powell Tate
has expanded rapidly over the past year. "We have hired 22 people since January
1998, so we are not in a body-shedding mode," said Powell, the former spokesman
for the Carter White House.
This week his firm added yet another new
name: Dwayne "Dewey" Kratt, a former director of member services for the House
Republican Conference, who becomes a group director.
There are a number
of other changes in the works for Cassidy. Frederick Schneiders Research, the
Cassidy research arm, announced that it is opening a Boston office, to be headed
by John Della Volpe, a New England pollster.
Cassidy Cos., which dropped
its plans to go public last year, citing stock market turbulence, has made a
change in its financial advisers. The parent company has dropped the Arlington
brokerage firm of Friedman, Billings, Ramsey and Co., which was in line to
underwrite its $ 40 million initial offering.
About 10 days ago, the
company hired Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, the big Wall Street firm, to
"help us explore and evaluate an array of options," as one insider put ite.
Among the options remains the question of whether and when Cassidy makes an
initial stock offering.
The Message Is Generic
With debates expected over the growing costs of Medicare's
drug benefits, the Generic Pharmaceutical Industry Association,
representing the folks who bring you all those cheap no-brand
drugs, is gearing up for a major fight.
To carry its
message on limiting patent extensions to the Hill, the
association has hired Fierce and Isakowitz, the lobby shop formed by Donald L.
Fierce, former chief of congressional relations and planning for the Republican
National Committee, and Mark Isakowitz, a former director of government
relations at the National Federation of Independent Business, and J. Steven
Griles & Associates, a firm founded by Griles, a former assistant interior
secretary during the Reagan administration.
"This is a classic David and
Goliath lobbying fight," says Isakowitz, quickly adding that the brand-name
drug industry is, of course, the Goliath. This year the
generics want to do more than "play defensive on patent
extensions," says Isakowitz.
Those are the congressional deals
that major drug companies often seek, allowing them to retain
exclusive control over a drug after its patent
would have normally expired.
The companies often say they need the extra
time because delays in drug approvals eat up their initial
patent-protection time.
Schering-Plough Corp. hired
nine law and lobby shops last year in an unsuccessful effort to extend its
anti-allergy Claritin patent and Isakowitz expects the company
to try again.
One new addition to the Fierce and Isakowitz staff who is
likely to be making the generics' pitch is Kate Braden, a legislative assistant
to Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) who this week became a senior associate at the
firm.
The Revolving Door
Robert W. "Bob"
Hickmott, an aide to former senator Timothy E. Wirth (D-Colo.) and counselor to
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo of late, has joined the
Smith-Free Group as a senior vice president.
The Healthcare Leadership
Council has hired Carrie Gavora, a health policy analyst at the Heritage
Foundation and former aide to Sen. Frank H. Murkowski (R-Alaska), as its policy
director, and Kelly Vogel from the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association to
be director of government relations.
The council is a coalition of
health care companies.
Thomas M. Boyd, an assistant attorney general for
legislative affairs in the Reagan administration, has moved to the Washington
office of the Atlanta law firm of Alston & Bird and will open its
legislative practice. He was formerly a partner in the Washington office of
Columbia-based Ramsey, Cook, Looper and Kurlander, which dissolved earlier this
year.
McAllister's e-mail address is mcallisteb@washpost.com
LOAD-DATE: February 04, 1999 
