LegiStorm

A former Senate Commerce Committee staffer has jetted off to the private-spaceflight industry.

Mary Guenther started this month as director of space policy to the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. The trade group lobbies on aerospace issues and appropriations.

Guenther spent five years with the Commerce Committee before leaving in September. She was most recently a professional staff member under Chair Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.).

Several senators have run afoul of Senate ethics rules designed to prevent them from using official Senate resources for campaign activities, according to a LegiStorm review of all senators' Twitter accounts and official websites.

According to guidance from the Senate Rules Committee, Senate rules prohibit "any linkage from a Member's official website or social media to any campaign website or social media." The committee further states that "a Member's campaign website may not link to his or her official Senate website."

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) is among those to have mixed their official and campaign presence online. Hawley's official website frequently links to his campaign Twitter account in press releases and has done so as recently as last month. His official Twitter account has frequently linked to his campaign Twitter account, as recently as this past November. 

Other senators who have run afoul of the rules are Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii).

Graham linked to his campaign Twitter account from a press release on his official website this past July. Rubio's official Twitter account has linked to his campaign Twitter account numerous times, as recently as November 2019, and his official website has also linked to his campaign Twitter account numerous times, as recently as February 2019. Cruz linked to his campaign Twitter account from his official Twitter account in July 2019. Booker and Schatz have both linked to their campaign Twitter accounts from their official Twitter accounts numerous times, with Booker's most recent instance occurring in October 2018, and Schatz's in January 2014.

While she could not have been in violation of Senate ethics rules at the time, then-Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) linked to her campaign Twitter account from her official Twitter account numerous times in August 2017. According to House rules, "Member and Committee websites may not include personal, political, or campaign information; and may not be directly linked or refer to websites created or operated by a campaign or any campaign-related entity." Her official Twitter account at the time, @RepSinema, has now become @SenatorSinema.

Correction: An earlier version of this post wrongly listed Sen. John Ossoff (D-Ga.) as having violated Ethics rules.

Rep. Maxine Water's (D-Calif.) former chief of staff has landed at delivery-service company Shipt.

Chasseny Lewis started this month as the company's director of federal affairs. Shipt, which is owned by Target, operates as a subscription delivery service for groceries and other household items.

Lewis left the Hill in December after just six months as chief of staff to Waters, who chairs the House Financial Services Committee. In addition to her time lobbying for Credit Suisse as their director of U.S. public policy, Lewis has served as chief to Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.) and worked for Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Ala.) and Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.).

Retired Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.) is lobbying on behalf of the wife of a Bulgarian banking tycoon.

Royce is part of a small Brownstein Hyatt team working on Bulgarian "anti-corruption reform" issues for Bulgarian eonomist Antoaneta Vassileva, according to a disclosure filed on Friday.

In 2017, Bulgaria accused Vassileva's husband, Tsvetan Vasilev, of embezzling the equivalent of 1.3 billion USD from one of the country's largest banks, Corporate Commercial Bank. The bank failed in 2014, during Vasilev's time as chair and majority shareholder. The family has maintained Vasilev's innocence and claims that Bulgaria's charges against him and other other family members were retaliatory. Others, including former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, have also spoken out about Vasilev's alleged innocence.

This isn't the first time that Tsvetan's family has turned to U.S. lobbyists for its cause. From two years beginning in 2017, Vassilev hired two firms, Schmitz Global Partners and Jefferson Waterman International, to help bring Magnitsky Act sanctions against certain Bulgarian officials. The U.S. reportedly decided against the sanctions in 2019.

The Brownstein disclosure does not specify the nature of the "anti-corruption reform" it is working toward or mention whether it will involve the Magnitsky Act.

Tim McGraw and Faith Hill's daughter Maggie is trading in country for House music.

Maggie McGraw, the country-music superstars' middle daughter, is now Rep. Jim Cooper's (D-Tenn.) staff assistant and legislative correspondent. She recently finished a master's degree in sustainability from Stanford University.

Maggie seems to be following in the political footsteps of her Nashville-resident parents, who have long defied the country-music standard with their vocal support of the Democratic Party.