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Tyco Taps Navigators to Lobby

The all-GOP lobbying firm the Navigators has signed up Tyco International, the once-embattled conglomerate.

The 2-year-old firm will help tell Tyco’s “comeback story” on Capitol Hill while lobbying on a range of tax, trade, health care and homeland security issues, said Navigators managing principal Phil Anderson. “I think there’s a recognition on the Hill that Tyco is a company that’s a great, great story,” Anderson said. “So we’re happy to have them as a client.” [IMGCAP(1)]

The Tyco name had become synonymous will the high-flying corporate excess of the late 1990s. But even as New York prosecutors press charges of grand larceny and securities fraud against the company’s former CEO, Dennis Kozlowski, Tyco has executed a quick recovery. It has shown steady profits for two years, and it has been remaking its Washington operation to convince lawmakers that it’s no longer a corporate bad boy.

The company shelled out more than $500,000 last year to get outside lobbying help from Greenberg Traurig, Baker and Hostetler, and Harris Wiltshire and Grannis.

Foreign Agent Files. The all-GOP lobbying shop Barbour Griffith and Rogers has signed up the government of Taiwan’s National Security Council as a new and lucrative client.

Taiwan has agreed to pay Barbour Griffith $1.5 million a year for lobbying and communications services for four years beginning March 4. The firm will handle “strategic counsel” and “tactical planning on foreign policy matters,” according to the contract.

Brand New. Duane Gibson, a consultant with the Livingston Group, has branded his lobbying practice as GovBiz Advantage Inc., a company he set up earlier this year. Gibson said he will continue to work with the Livingston Group, but he will also represent a half-dozen clients through GovBiz.

“The vast bulk of [Livingston] affiliates have a company or some entity that they operate,” said Gibson, who also co-owns a gourmet pet treat company called YummyChummies.com, which is unrelated to his lobbying.

GovBiz’s clients include the Alaska Miners Association, Alaska Federation of Natives, GE Energy and Colorado Railcar Manufacturing.

K Street Moves. Max Chamovitz, formerly a lobbyist at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and aide to Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), has joined the lobbying firm Strategic Marketing Innovations Inc. He will focus on defense issues. … The Associated Builders and Contractors, a construction-industry group, has added two to its government-affairs division. Sue Forrester, the new director of political affairs, was previously national director of the Republican National Committee’s Victory 2004 program, while Carin Nersesian, the new director of legislative affairs, was a legislative assistant to Rep. John Porter (R-Nev.). … William Campbell has been named vice president of Aon Consulting’s federal government practice. Campbell was assistant secretary for management at the Veterans’ Affairs Department.

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