Todd Weiss. Photograph courtesy of File Photo/Newscom.
With the Obama administration pushing for tighter gun control after Sandy Hook, the NRA ramped up its legislative fight, spending $830,000 on lobbying in the first quarter of 2013, compared with $725,000 during the same period last year. As it fought off the bill that would have expanded background checks for gun buyers, it hired a new lobbying firm, Greenberg Traurig, and parted ways with another, Dentons.
The NRA’s recently added advocate, Michael Williams, a senior director at Greenberg Traurig, was an in-house lobbyist for the NRA before joining Greenberg in 2001. He bills himself as “one of the major architects” of the NRA’s strategy to derail President Clinton’s gun-control legislation in the late ’90s. Williams has also represented Smith & Wesson since 2005, bringing in $60,000 from the gun maker last year. So far in 2013, Greenberg Traurig has made $20,000 from the NRA.
When Todd Weiss and Mathew Lapinski jumped from Dentons to Crossroads Strategies this spring, they apparently took their former firm’s NRA representation with them. Weiss and Lapinski have lobbied for the association since 2005, and the NRA paid Dentons $120,000 in 2012. The duo surely fits in at Crossroads, which has represented the NRA since the firm’s founding in 2010. It made $240,000 from the NRA last year.
This article appears in the June 2013 issue of The Washingtonian.
Marisa M. Kashino joined Washingtonian in 2009 as a staff writer, and became a senior editor in 2014. She oversees the magazine’s real estate and home design coverage, and writes long-form feature stories. She was a 2020 Livingston Award finalist for her two-part investigation into a wrongful conviction stemming from a murder in rural Virginia.
NRA Changes Lobbying Firms Amid Gun Control Efforts
The push for new legislation leads the NRA to hire Greenberg Traurig to bolster its lobbying efforts.
With the Obama administration pushing for tighter gun control after Sandy Hook, the NRA ramped up its legislative fight, spending $830,000 on lobbying in the first quarter of 2013, compared with $725,000 during the same period last year. As it fought off the bill that would have expanded background checks for gun buyers, it hired a new lobbying firm, Greenberg Traurig, and parted ways with another, Dentons.
The NRA’s recently added advocate, Michael Williams, a senior director at Greenberg Traurig, was an in-house lobbyist for the NRA before joining Greenberg in 2001. He bills himself as “one of the major architects” of the NRA’s strategy to derail President Clinton’s gun-control legislation in the late ’90s. Williams has also represented Smith & Wesson since 2005, bringing in $60,000 from the gun maker last year. So far in 2013, Greenberg Traurig has made $20,000 from the NRA.
When Todd Weiss and Mathew Lapinski jumped from Dentons to Crossroads Strategies this spring, they apparently took their former firm’s NRA representation with them. Weiss and Lapinski have lobbied for the association since 2005, and the NRA paid Dentons $120,000 in 2012. The duo surely fits in at Crossroads, which has represented the NRA since the firm’s founding in 2010. It made $240,000 from the NRA last year.
This article appears in the June 2013 issue of The Washingtonian.
Marisa M. Kashino joined Washingtonian in 2009 as a staff writer, and became a senior editor in 2014. She oversees the magazine’s real estate and home design coverage, and writes long-form feature stories. She was a 2020 Livingston Award finalist for her two-part investigation into a wrongful conviction stemming from a murder in rural Virginia.
Most Popular in News & Politics
Dognapping Is Becoming a Problem in DC. Here’s How Pet Owners Can Protect Themselves and Their Pets.
March for Our Lives Is Planning a Huge DC Protest Against Gun Violence in June
Washington DC’s 500 Most Influential People
DC Spring Animal Sightings, Ranked From Worst to Wildest
Should We Care About What’s Left of the Trucker Convoy?
Washingtonian Magazine
June 2022: 101 Reasons to Love Summer in DC
View IssueSubscribe
Follow Us on Social
Follow Us on Social
Related
A Johnny Cash Statue Is Coming to the Capitol
LGBTQ Pioneer Barney Frank’s Story Is Now a Graphic Novel
Inside the Effort to Revamp the DC Archives
This DC Poet Was Once the USSR’s Biggest Kid Actor
More from News & Politics
DC Spring Animal Sightings, Ranked From Worst to Wildest
March for Our Lives Is Planning a Huge DC Protest Against Gun Violence in June
Dognapping Is Becoming a Problem in DC. Here’s How Pet Owners Can Protect Themselves and Their Pets.
Should We Care About What’s Left of the Trucker Convoy?
5 Facts About Dumfries, Virginia, the Possible New Home of the Washington Commanders
Trucker Convoy Stragglers Get Kicked Out of Racetrack, Form New Movement, Visit the National Mall, Don’t Go Home
The Trucker Convoy Has Given Up on DC Yet Again. We Tried One Last Time to Find Out What They Wanted.
Number of Chesapeake Bay Blue Crabs Hits Record Low