A House Seat Won, a House Lost, and a House Leader Divided

Last week, major financial institutions including Citigroup, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, MasterCard and Visa brought 20 of their top executives into town. They visited 35 lawmakers' offices last Thursday. About 50 congressional staffers also sat through a seminar by the Financial Services Roundtable last Tuesday.

The Food Marketing Institute, which represents grocers that oppose the banks and card companies, held its own "fly-in" in April (its second this year) -- along with the National Grocers Association. More than 100 of the groups' members met with 150 members of Congress. The institute also briefed 19 members of the House Blue Dog Coalition of conservative Democrats at a breakfast that month.

"This fight is huge," said Scott Talbott, senior vice president of government affairs at the Roundtable. "This is a lifeblood issue for both sides."

Hire of the Week

The former editor and publisher of Campaigns & Elections magazine has been hired to head the polling division of Qorvis Communications.

Ronald A. Faucheux, 57, has been named president of Clarus Research Group, the PR firm's newly expanded research arm. Its clients will be corporations, associations and the like, not candidates for office.

In addition to his new job at Qorvis, Faucheux will continue to teach at the Graduate School of Political Management at George Washington University and at the Public Policy Institute at Georgetown University. He previously worked as chief of staff to Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and headed government affairs for the American Institute of Architects.

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