San Francisco - Alphabet's
Google is racing to hire more conservatives for its lobbying and
policy arm, trying to get a foothold in President-elect Donald
Trump's Washington after enjoying a uniquely close relationship
with the administration of President Barack Obama.
In the weeks since the Nov. 8 election, Google has ramped up
efforts to hire Republican lobbying firms and in-house lobbyists
to change the composition of its Washington office, according to
three lobbyists with knowledge of the matter.
The company also posted an advertisement for a manager for
conservative outreach and public policy partnership, seeking a
"liaison to conservative, libertarian and free market groups."
While the position is not new, it gives Google a chance to
make a hire that reflects the new political climate.
Conservatives already are represented in the office.
A Google spokeswoman declined to comment on the record for
this article.
CEO Larry Page of Alphabet,
Google's parent company, is expected to be in the room on
Wednesday when Trump convenes a gathering of leaders of some of
the largest technology companies in his New York headquarters.
The session, organized by Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner,
adviser Reince Priebus and Trump supporter and tech financier
Peter Thiel, is billed as an introductory meeting that would not
result in any job or investment announcements, two sources
briefed on the talks said.
Others attending are Apple CEO Tim Cook, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos, Tesla
Motors CEO Elon Musk, Microsoft CEO
Satya Nadella and Oracle CEO Safra Catz, according to sources
familiar with the session plans.
The Information Technology Industry Council, a trade group
whose members include Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon, had a
conference call last Friday to discuss policy objectives it
could agree on to present to Trump, according to a person
familiar with the call.
Read also: What's the sales strategy for Google's phone?
Trump clashed with Silicon Valley on several issues during
the election campaign, including immigration, government
surveillance and encryption. His surprise victory alarmed many
companies, which fear he might follow through on his pledges.
Trump has also opposed the Obama administration's "net
neutrality" rules, ordered in 2015 by the communications
regulator to reclassify broadband internet services to treat
them more like public utilities. The rule is now said to be
headed for a reversal.
Google's bet
Liberal-leaning Silicon Valley bet heavily on Democratic
presidential candidate Hillary Clinton winning the White House,
and many technology companies have found themselves scrambling
in the wake of Trump's election. But Google, which forged deep
ties to the Obama White House and was the largest corporate
contributor to Clinton's campaign, appears to have been caught
especially off guard, Washington insiders said.
Only 33 employees of Google and its parent company Alphabet
donated $201 or more to Trump, for a total of $23,300. Clinton
received donations from 1 359 Google or Alphabet employees for a
total of $1.6 million. Google NetPAC, the company's political
action committee, made 56 percent of its contributions to
Republicans in the 2016 election cycle, according to data from
the Center for Responsive Politics.
During Obama's presidency, more than 250 people moved
between jobs at Google or related firms and the federal
government, national political campaigns and Congress, according
to a report this year by the Campaign for Accountability, a
watchdog group. The company notched several wins during the
administration, including favorable policies on net neutrality.
Google seemed poised to enjoy similar treatment under a
Clinton administration. Schmidt was seen wearing a staff badge
at Clinton's election night party, a sign of their close
relationship. But those ties are now something of a liability as
the company tries to re-position its presence, lobbyists said.
Read also: Google faces age-bias lawsuit
The hiring push will adjust the political makeup of Google's
Washington office, where the team of lobbyists for Congress and
the agencies contains more Democrats than Republicans, according
to people familiar with the operation. Such a skew is not
unusual given that Democrats controlled the White House the past
eight years.
To be sure, conservatives are well-represented in the
company's Washington office: Susan Molinari, a former Republican
congresswoman from New York, has been the top lobbyist since
2012, and Seth Webb, who worked for a former Republican speaker
of the house, helps lead Congressional lobbying.
But the company has tended toward moderate Republicans in
past hiring. Its previous director of conservative outreach was
alumnus of Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign, and a
number of former staffers for Sen. John McCain have passed
through the office as well.
But the company still has to reconcile the lobbyists it
hires with its liberal-leaning existing staff. Said one lobbyist
for a rival tech company, "I think they are going to have a
tough time really finding the cultural fit."