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Caught Our Eye

Rep. Gaetz adds cigar lobbyist as new chief

Posted by Keturah Hetrick on Aug. 24, 2017

One of Congress's top champions for marijuana reclassification has picked up a new chief of staff from an adjacent industry: the premium cigar lobby.

Kevin "Kip" Talley, chief of staff to Rep. Matthew Gaetz's (R-Fla.) as of this month, is a former lobbyist for the International Premium Cigar and Pipe Retailers Association, where he spent three years as senior director of federal legislative affairs. Talley, who's also worked as a National Rural Letter Carriers Association lobbyist, most recently worked for Talley Strategies, a boutique government affairs firm where he spent several months as a principal.

As an IPCPRA lobbyist, Talley worked on a number of tobacco-related bills related to the Food and Drug Administration's definition and regulation of cigar and pipe products.

Gaetz has recently made headlines for introducting legislation that would reclassify marijuana as a Schedule III drug, the same classification given to legal but heavily regulated substances including OxyContin and methadone.