Teradyne, Sublime Systems, Alkermes, Harvard University, and the Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association represent different sectors of the Massachusetts economy. But they all hired the same lobbying firm based more than a thousand miles away to represent them this year: Ballard Partners.
There’s a good reason Brian Ballard’s Florida firm has had a busy year: He is considered an ally and friend of President Trump. Politico reported this month that the firm may have overstepped its bounds, alienating some in the White House over a cryptocurrency client, but Ballard had enough juice to get a face-to-face meeting with Trump and Susie Wiles, Trump’s chief of staff, to smooth things over.
Ballard does have a Boston office, which it opened during the Biden administration and put former state rep Gene O’Flaherty in charge of — a Democrat who was Marty Walsh’s top in-house lawyer when Walsh was mayor. But Ballard is not yet a major player on Beacon Hill, and did not rank in the top 30 last year as measured by total lobbying spending in Massachusetts.
In D.C., it’s another story entirely: Politico reported that Ballard raked in $14 million in lobbying fees in the first quarter, or roughly triple what it generated the same time a year ago, making it one of the busiest lobbying firms in Washington this year. A search of the federal government’s lobbying database shows more than 90 new clients hired Ballard in the first four months of the year. (A spokesman for Ballard declined to comment.)
Among them were Teradyne, a North Reading manufacturer in the semiconductor industry, and Alkermes, a biopharma company that’s technically based in Ireland but has its biggest corporate-and-lab facility in Waltham. Neither returned requests for comment about Ballard’s hiring. In its filings, Alkermes said it tapped Ballard to “provide guidance and advice regarding mental health, public health and regulatory reform,” while Teradyne cited “export control regulation interpretation.”
Sublime Systems, a Somerville startup, depends heavily on federal funding for a factory it’s building in Holyoke to make low-carbon cement. Spokeswoman Erin Glabets declined to comment about Ballard’s hiring, although the stated purpose in Sublime’s federal filing is “advocacy and guidance related to energy grants.” The company recently secured a federal tax credit worth nearly $50 million, along with up to $87 million that the US Department of Energy awarded Sublime last year for the project. Glabets said those awards remain unchanged, and the company is moving ahead with engineering and permitting, with a goal of opening the Holyoke plant in 2027.
Harvard hired Ballard before Trump’s inauguration, and before the high-profile fight between the university and the White House that has since ensued. Spokesman Jason Newton reiterated the statement he provided to the Harvard Crimson in January, when asked about Ballard’s hiring: “The University remains active in Washington in support of higher education and research and works with a wide range of partners, including peer institutions, associations, other advocacy groups, and consultants.”
The Mass. hospital association also offered a statement about why it hired Ballard that didn’t mention Trump: “Ballard has a strong history of representing safety net hospitals, and our engagement comes during a critical moment when our safety net infrastructure is faltering and decisions around the future of Medicaid funding are being made. In addition to our national consultants at [law firm] Alston & Bird, they are an important component of MHA’s mission to protect healthcare organizations, patients, and caregivers here in Massachusetts.”
This is an installment of our weekly Bold Types column about the movers and shakers on Boston’s business scene.
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