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{{#Show badges:FTD|Tobaccowiki|AEX}}The '''DCI Group, LLC''' is the top [[Republican Party|Republican]] [[lobbying|lobby]] and [[public relations]] firm with offices in Washington, Brussels, and Houston. DCI has been associated with telemarketing company [[Feather Larson & Synhorst DCI]] and the direct-mail firm FYI Messaging. The DCI Group was the publisher of the now defunct website, [[Tech Central Station]], and had close ties to the [[George W. Bush]] [[Bush administration|administration]]. Incorporated in 1997 in Phoenix, Arizona, [[Timothy N. Hyde]], [[Douglas M. Goodyear]], and [[Thomas J. Synhorst]] are listed as the LLC's managers.
The DCI Group calls itself a “strategic public affairs consulting firm” and boasts that it handles corporate issues like political campaigns. “We are a political firm and all of our partners have political campaign experience. We thrive in competitive circumstances, and are used to fluid situations and tight deadlines,” their website claims. DCI Group offers services that include national, state and local lobbying; coalition building; and generating “grasstops” and constituent support for issues. The firm has been linked to several industry-funded coalitions that pose as grassroots organizations. Perhaps it comes as no surprise as DCI advertises its ability to provide “third party support” to clients. “Corporations seldom win alone,” the group’s website says. “Whatever the issue, whatever the target—elected officials, regulators or public opinion—you need reliable third party allies to advocate your cause. We can help you recruit credible coalition partners and engage them for maximum impact. It’s what we do best.”<ref>DCI Group, [http://web.archive.org/web/20041020021010/http://www.dcigroup.com/2021/wrapper.jsp?PID=2021-12 via web.archive.org], organizational website, accessed Oct 20 2004.</ref>
The use of third-party front groups is common in the business of swaying public opinion. Traditionally, however, strategic influencers view the news media as the channel through which their message flows from the front group to the target audience. DCI and its affiliates offer “direct contact” that bypasses the media entirely. The client’s message is directly delivered via phone banks, regular mail and/or the internet. Direct contact provides the campaigners with complete control over the message. Freed from the filters created by news outlets, they can be as biased and inflammatory as the message shaper deems necessary.
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==DCI's Involvement in Exxon Climate Denial==
DCI Group was subpoenaed in April 2016 amidst an expanding investigation by state attorneys general into the funding of climate change denial by [[ExxonMobil]]. The multinational oil corporation had become the focus of attention from state attorneys general after separate investigations by ''InsideClimate News'' and the ''LA Times''/Columbia School of Journalism revealed it had known internally about the threat of climate change for several decades. Despite this knowledge, Exxon poured millions of dollars into climate change denial and to groups working to obstruct any action to reduce carbon pollution. The Greenpeace project Exxon Secrets, which tracks spending by ExxonMobil, documented over $30 million in funding to U.S. climate denial groups from 1998-2014.<ref name="nick">Nick Surgey, "[https://www.prwatch.org/news/2016/04/13092/dci-group-subpoenaed-expanding-exxon-climate-denial-investigation DCI Group Subpoenaed in Expanding Exxon Climate Denial Investigation]," ''Center for Media and Democracy'', April 20, 2016.</ref>
Exxon has been a DCI client for many years. According to data from the Center for Responsive Politics, DCI represented Exxon every year between 2005-2016. DCI created Tech Central Station, a now-defunct website which promoted climate change denial and which received funding from Exxon. A bipartisan group of Senators wrote to Exxon about its funding of the website in 2006. Also in 2006, an invitation was leaked to Greenpeace about a strategy meeting hosted at the DCI office. The meeting -- titled "Strategic Discussion Regarding the Clean Air Act" -- was sponsored by the Exxon-funded [[Heartland Institute]]. Numerous non-profit organizations that have received funding from Exxon were invited, including the [[American Legislative Exchange Council]] (ALEC) and the [[Competitive Enterprise Institute]]. According to the invitation, the meeting was intended to help develop an "action plan" to help push back against legislation mandating the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Although DCI and Exxon have a long history, the subpoena could reveal more about what DCI has being doing for Exxon.<ref name="nick"/>
==2012: "Massive Campaign" for Pete Peterson's "Fix the Debt" Astroturf Supergroup==
{{about_FTD}}
==Ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council==
{{about_ALEC}}
==U.S. Think Tanks and Azerbaijan==
The most recent controversy surrounding the DCI group is their decision to take on as a client the government of [[Azerbaijan]], a resource-rich country plagued with corruption and human rights issues.<ref name="OD">Kevin McCauley, [http://www.odwyerpr.com/blog/index.php?/archives/5300-DCI-Works-Tanks-for-Azerbaijan.html "DCI Works Tanks for Azerbaijan"], ''O'Dwyers Blog'', October 23, 2012.</ref> As part of their $20,000 per month contract, DCI will provide "strategic PR, media outreach and establishment of relationships with U.S. think tanks."<ref name="OD"/> According to the contract, DCI seeks to establish relationships between U.S. think tanks and the Azerbaijani government because think tanks are “vital contributors to the formulation of U.S. policy and serve as validators of official policy positions."<ref name="OD"/>
U.S. Department of State notes that Azerbaijan is “one of the most important spots in the world for oil exploration and development" but rates the the country's human rights record as “poor, especially with respect to freedom of assembly, freedom of expression, the administration of justice, and the respect of property rights.<ref name="OD"/>
Human Rights Watch has condemned the Azerbaijaini government for its treatment of "imprisoned journalists, human rights defenders, and political opposition activists"<ref>[http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/11/02/azerbaijan-concerns-regarding-freedom-media-and-freedom-expression "Azerbaijan: Concerns Regarding Freedom of the Media and Freedom of Expression"], Human Rights Watch, November 2, 2012.</ref> after police forces attacked anti-corruption protesters in the capital city of Baku in October 2012.<ref>[http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/10/20/267840/azerbaijan-police-crack-down-on-protestors/ "Police forces clash with anti-corruption protestors in Azerbaijan"], PressTV, October 20, 2012</ref>
==Disinformation Used to Thwart Wall Street Reform==
Another recent controversy was the DCI-backed front group, "Stop Too Big To Fail," aimed at killing wall street Wall Street reform. Stop Too Big To Fail "is an [[astroturf]] operation funded by corporate interests to give the appearance of grassroots opposition to reform."<ref name="TPM">Justin Elliott, [http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/04/rent-a-front_stop_too_big_to_fail_fights_reform.php "Rent-A-Front: New Group Wages Stealth Battle Against Wall Street Reform"], TPM, April 21, 2010</ref> {{#evpev:youtube|nFq0o6f9jno|210|right|Rachel Maddow and Simon Johnson expose DCI Group on fake grassroots effort to stop financial reform|right|210}}The group posed as a liberal grassroots organization and launched a $1.6 million ad campaign asking viewers to tell their senators, “vote against this phony ‘financial reform.’ Support real reform, stop ‘too big to fail.’” "Stop Too Big To Fail has also launched diaries on netroots sites like ''Daily Kos'' and ''FireDogLake'' and posted columns on ''Huffington Post''.<ref name="TPM"/> The group even went as far as to dupe Simon Johnson, a former chief economist at the IMF, now at MIT, into participating "in a media conference call purportedly on the topic of breaking up large banks."<ref name="TPM"/> They To his dismay, they later displayed a photo of Johnson, who is a prominent advocate of breaking up the big banks, on their webpage to his dismay.<ref name="TPM"/>
This was not the first time DCI has helped large corporations to create a phony “consumers group.” DCI has manufactured "grassroots" campaigns for the tobacco industry in fake "smoker's rights groups" and has managed public relations for the [[Coalition to Protect Patients' Rights]], an anti-health reform group.
==Stealth Campaign Targeting Republicans Undermined Mortgage Reform Legislation==
The Associated Press reported October 20, 2008 that "[[Freddie Mac]] secretly paid a [[DCI Group|Republican consulting firm]] $2 million to kill legislation that would have regulated and trimmed the mortgage finance giant and its sister company, [[Fannie Mae]], three years before the government took control to prevent their collapse. In the cross hairs of the campaign carried out by [[DCI Group|DCI]] of Washington were [[Republican Party|Republican]] senators and a regulatory overhaul bill sponsored by Sen. [[Chuck Hagel]], R-Neb. DCI's chief executive is [[Doug Goodyear]], whom John McCain's campaign later hired to manage the GOP convention in September. ... The Republican senators targeted by DCI began hearing from prominent constituents and financial contributors, all urging the defeat of Hagel's bill because it might harm the housing boom. The effort generated newspaper articles and radio and TV appearances by participants who spoke out against the measure. Inside Freddie Mac headquarters in 2005, the few dozen people who knew what DCI was doing referred to the initiative as "the stealth lobbying campaign," according to three people familiar with the drive. They spoke only on condition of anonymity, saying they fear retaliation if their names were disclosed." <ref>John Stauber, [httphttps://www.prwatch.org/node/7848 "DCI Group's Stealth Campaign Torpedoed Freddie Mac Reform"], PRWatch.org, October 20, 2008.</ref>
==Representing Burma Spells Controversy for John McCain and the RNC==
After Goodyear left the McCain campaign, he said DCI worked with a "moderate faction within the Myanmar government that sought assistance in working alongside the U.S. government in its fight against the opium trade and Myanmar’s AIDS epidemic. Recognizing the implications of this effort, DCI Group agreed to take on this project on the condition that the Myanmar government demonstrate a major confidence-building commitment and agree to release a number of political detainees including Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi." <ref>Marc Ambinder, "[http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/05/the_dci_group_responds_on_burm.php The DCI Group Responds On Burma]," ''The Atlantic'', May 19, 2008.</ref>
==Tobacco Industry and the Tea Party==
[[Image:Tobacco tea party.jpg|thumb|Connections between the tobacco industry, third-party allies and the Tea Party, from the 1980's (top) through 2012 (bottom). The thick black line connects CSE with its direct successor organisations(Source:''Tobacco Control''<ref name="teaparty"/>)|400px|right]]
According to a study published February 8, 2013 in the journal ''Tobacco Control'', "Rather than being a purely grassroots movement that spontaneously developed in 2009, the Tea Party has developed over time, in part through decades of work by the tobacco industry and other corporate interests."<ref name="teaparty">Amanda Fallin, Rachel Grana and Stanton A Glantz. [http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/early/2013/02/20/tobaccocontrol-2012-050815.full "‘To quarterback behind the scenes, third-party efforts’: the tobacco industry and the Tea Party"], ''Tobacco Control'', 8 February 2013</ref> The DCI Group was behind this effort through their consultation services to [[Americans for Prosperity]] and [[FreedomWorks]], both of whom have worked to oppose smoke-free laws across the United States since at least 2006.<ref name="teaparty"/>
==DCI’s Past==
==Personnel==
===Partners===
As of February 2013June 2016:<ref name="ppl">DCI Group, [http://www.dcigroup.com/who-we-are/our-people "Our People"], organizational website, accessed February 2013June 30, 2016.</ref> *Megan Bloomgren
*Dan Combs
*Jennifer Cutler
*Ryan Grillo
*[[Tim Hyde]], founding partner
*Jon Kemp
*[[Brian McCabe]]
*Diane Miller
*Paul Ryan
*[[Tom Synhorst]], Chairman
===Senior Counselors===
As of February 2013June 2016:<ref name="ppl"/>
*[[Robert D. Blackwill|Amb. Robert Blackwill]]
*[[Charles Francis]]
*Michael J. Stratton
*Beneva Schulte
===Other personnel Personnel and former staffFormer Staff=== *[[Robert D. Blackwill|Amb. Robert Blackwill]], former Senior Counselor
*Doug Davenport, former partner and founder of the government affairs division
*Teddy Eynon
==Clients==
'''As of January 2013June 2016''':<ref>OpenSecrets.org, [http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/firmsum.php?id=D000021952&year=2012 DCI Group 2012], accessed February 2013June 2016.</ref> *American TasK Task Force Argentina
*[[Exxon Mobil]]
*National Association of Waterfront Employers
'''Past Clients''':<ref>Center for Responsive Politics,[http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/firmsum.php?id=D000021952&year=2011 DCI Group 2001-2011], OpenSecrets.org, accessed February 2013</ref>
*AG Spanos Companies
*Akins Crisp Public Strategies *Alliance Surgical Distributors
*Alliant Techsystems
*American Iris
*American Roll-On Roll-Off Carrier
*American Task Force Argentina
*Applied Digital
*Aquasciences
*Hydration Technologies
*Innova Corporation
*Inspire STEM USA
*[[Intel|Intel Corporation]]
*Intelligent Car Corporation
*International Brotherhood of Teamsters
*International Genomics Consortium
*Mvp Group International
*National Association of Business PACs
*National Association of Waterfront Employers
*National Louis University
*National Pork Producers Council
*Nipmuc Nation Tribal Council
*Northern Arizona University
*Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association
*[[Pacific Research Institute]]
*[[Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America]] (PhRMA)
*United Medical Center
*US Telecom Association
*[[Verizon Communications]]
*Visa International
*[[Washington Strategies]]
*Welldog Inc
*Winning Strategies Washingtons
'''Other groups that have been associated with DCI Group''':
** [[Fix the Debt's Lobbyists]]
** [[Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget|Fix the Debt's Parent Group]]
** [httphttps://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Category:Fix_the_Debt_Corporations Fix the Debt's Corporations]
** [[Pete Peterson]]
** [[Peter G. Peterson Foundation]]
*Noam N. Levey and Chuck Neubauer, "[http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-100206foley,0,5979987,print.story?coll=la-home-headlines Foley Enters Alcohol Rehab Center]", ''Los Angeles Times'', October 2, 2006.
*"[http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/1027dci_sells_tcs.htm DCI Sells TCSDaily]", ''O'Dwyers PR daily'', October 27, 2006. (Sub req'd).
*Jonathan Stein, "[http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2008/05/8236_john_mccain_dci.htmls John McCain and the Dictator Money Trail]," ''MotherJones Blog,'' Jonathan SteinMay 14, 2008.*Nick Surgey, 14"[https://www.Mayprwatch.08org/news/2016/04/13092/dci-group-subpoenaed-expanding-exxon-climate-denial-investigation DCI Group Subpoenaed in Expanding Exxon Climate Denial Investigation]",''Center for Media and Democracy'', April 20, 2016.
===References===
<tdo>search_term=DCI Group</tdo>
[[Category:Elections (U.S.)]][[Category:Lobbying firms]][[Category:Politics (U.S.)]][[Category:Public relations firms]][[Category:Tobacco documents organizations|DCI Group]][[Category:United States]] [[Category:Real Economy Project]] [[Category:Fix the Debt]]
