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Good Thursday morning and welcome to December!
NEWS -- THANKS BUT NO THANKS -- Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas -- the powerful House Financial Services chairman -- turned down President-elect Donald Trump’s offer to head the Office of Management and Budget, several sources told us. Hensarling was in the mix for Treasury secretary, a job that later went to Steve Mnuchin. The OMB job is a massive opportunity. It’s the largest operation in the White House, and is charged with the president’s budget and the mechanics of the federal government. Trump is now considering Gary Cohn, the president of Goldman Sachs, for that job. Neither side seemed eager to discuss the situation.
IN THE ROOM WHERE IT HAPPENS -- Vice President-elect Mike Pence and incoming WH Chief of Staff Reince Priebus visited Speaker Paul Ryan in his Capitol office Wednesday. (Pic: http://bit.ly/2gJljGv). Priebus had a well-organized white binder, and clutched what looked like a red Sharpie. Make no mistake: This, along with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), is the power circle. Ryan and Priebus have known each other for years. And Pence and the speaker served in Congress together. Pence and Ryan know how to work the Capitol. Priebus is close with Trump.
DONALD TRUMP and MIKE PENCE go to Indiana today to celebrate Carrier keeping nearly 1,000 jobs from moving to Mexico. Trump has a 7 p.m. rally in Cincinnati -- part of the new administration’s “thank you” tour. Fox News’s Sean Hannity will interview Trump and Pence from Cincinnati.
-- @SeanHannity yesterday: “1000 jobs saved today! Awesome start! … 1000 Families will have a better Christmas & future because @realDonaldTrump cared enough to fight for them.”
WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE IS READING -- @HerbieZiskend: “The media is giving trump more credit for 1000 jobs saved at Carrier than they gave Obama for 3.5 million jobs saved/created through ARRA.”
WHAT WILL GREET THEM -- INDIANAPOLIS STAR: “Federal access likely biggest factor in Carrier deal,” by Tony Cook and James Briggs: “Carrier Corp.'s decision to keep hundreds of jobs in Indianapolis had more to do with access to the federal government than state incentives, sources familiar with the deal told IndyStar. Carrier is maintaining its Indianapolis operations largely because of the business interests of its parent company, United Technologies Corp., said John Mutz, an Indiana Economic Development Corp. board member. The IEDC awards state incentives, primarily training grants and tax credits. Mutz, who was briefed on the state’s offer to Carrier, said United Technologies ‘wants to make sure they maintain a favorable relationship’ with the incoming Trump administration. ‘This is an enormous company with all kinds of subsidiaries that do government work, and I am sure they want to keep it,’ Mutz said.
“[V]ice President-elect Mike Pence, who is still governor of Indiana, and his state commerce secretary, Victor Smith, had been in discussions with Carrier for weeks. In what the source described as a ‘carrot and stick’ approach, Trump entered the negotiations later to discuss the company’s relationship with the federal government.” http://indy.st/2gaAtRL
-- DEPT. OF YA CAN’T MAKE IT UP: @joshgerstein: “Guess who reps Carrier, which just cut jobs deal with Trump/Pence? Teneo. Really. I think God is toying with us. Where’s Ashton Kutcher?” http://bit.ly/2fUxgrC PLAYBOOK NOTE: Teneo is the company founded by longtime Clinton aide Doug Band.
UP FOR GRABS -- House Republicans on Thursday will select the new chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, a panel that will have outsized influence in all of Republican Washington. The panel’s longtime chairman, retired Democratic Rep. John Dingell of Michigan, once was asked to describe the committee’s jurisdiction, and he pointed to a globe and said, “If it moves it’s energy, if it doesn’t, it’s commerce.”
That’s why Oregon Rep. Greg Walden and Illinois Rep. John Shimkus are fighting so hard to lock up the votes of the several dozen steering committee members. Walden is the odds on favorite, at this point. He’s served four terms in top slots at the National Republican Congressional Committee, and is widely popular among members of the panel. His steering committee allies say they have it all but locked up. It would be a coup of sorts for Walden. Shimkus is more senior, and is close to House Majority Whip Steve Scalise -- the pair have bunked together on Capitol Hill. Right now it looks like Walden will win. But it all comes down to Paul Ryan. If the speaker weighs in behind closed doors -- and many believe he will -- he has the power to sway the election.
--Important to remember: Ohio Rep. Pat Tiberi had the House Ways and Means Committee gavel all but locked up until Ryan backed the more senior Texas Rep. Kevin Brady in one of his first moves as speaker. Brady is now the chairman of the powerful tax writing panel.
PELOSI WATCH -- “Pelosi agrees to changes in Democratic leadership structure,” by John Bresnahan and Heather Caygle: “Just hours after fending off the first real challenge to her control in years, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has decided to support changes to the leadership that will loosen - somewhat - her grip on the Democratic hierarchy. Pelosi will back the election of the chair of [the DCCC], according to a letter she sent to her colleagues Wednesday night. The California Democrat will also throw her weight behind plans to add five new leadership spots, including two for junior members, the letter states. And Pelosi will back the creation of ‘vice chairs’ or ‘vice ranking members’ within the committee structure, a move designed to give junior members more say on what happens within panels.” http://politi.co/2gOi9h0
-- THESE MOVES might quell the boiling frustration among rank-and-file lawmakers in the near term, but it will be harder to tamp down the growing sense in the House Democratic Caucus and more broadly among Democratic operatives that a post-Pelosi succession plan needs to be put in place. And quickly.
WHAT ELIZABETH WARREN IS READING -- “Mnuchin foundation donated to groups that vouched for his bank: Trump’s Treasury pick earned millions of dollars from the sale of a bank accused of wrongful foreclosures,” by Isaac Arnsdorf and Ken Vogel: “Donald Trump’s choice for treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, earned tens of millions of dollars from a 2015 bank sale that got a boost from an array of nonprofit groups that had one thing in common -- they had received tens of thousands of dollars each from the bank’s foundation, which was run by Mnuchin. The sale of OneWest, a bank that Mnuchin co-founded and chaired, to CIT Group for $3.4 billion drew significant opposition from public interest groups because OneWest had been accused of wrongful foreclosures and racial discrimination in its mortgages and small-business loans.” http://politi.co/2gY2mjJ
-- WSJ: “Steven Mnuchin’s Defining Moment: Seizing Opportunity From the Financial Crisis: Donald Trump’s nominee for Treasury secretary made millions buying failed IndyMac and has résumé at odds with president-elect’s campaign rhetoric,” by Rachel Louise Ensign, Anupreeta Das and Rebecca Ballhaus: “On a muggy morning in July 2008, hundreds of customers stood outside IndyMac Bank branches in Southern California, trying to pull their savings from the lender, which was doomed by losses on risky mortgages. Steven Mnuchin didn’t know much about IndyMac as he watched the scenes on CNBC from his Midtown Manhattan office. But he immediately saw an opportunity and began figuring out how to buy the bank.
“Regulators seized IndyMac, foreshadowing a vicious banking crisis. Six months later, Mr. Mnuchin and his investment partners acquired IndyMac with a helping hand from the U.S. government. The deal eventually earned him hundreds of millions of dollars in personal profits. The former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. partner, Hollywood financier and hedge-fund manager now is President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for Treasury secretary. Like other Trump cabinet picks, Mr. Mnuchin has a résumé that is at odds with much of the president-elect’s populist rhetoric on the campaign trail.” http://on.wsj.com/2gJakNv
-- OUR TAKE: Mnuchin will likely be confirmed, but Democrats are going to jump all over this guy for his private-sector career. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren has already called him the “Forrest Gump” of the financial crisis. Expect fireworks at his confirmation hearing.
-- @gdebenedetti: “How you know Dems are spoiling for a fight on Mnuchin: a rare (first-ever?) joint statement from Sanders and Warren”: http://bit.ly/2gY34xr
THINK OF THIS: Mnuchin, billionaire Commerce Secretary nominee Wilbur Ross and billionaire Education Secretary nominee Betsy DeVos are all going to have to fill out financial disclosure forms before going in front of the Senate for confirmation. Those should be a fascinating read.
RNC WATCH -- “Trump’s allies jockeying over RNC control,” by Ken Vogel, Alex Isenstadt, and Eliana Johnson: “Donald Trump’s closest allies are jockeying over control of the [RNC] in a power struggle that could shape the direction of the GOP in the Trump era. At the center of the struggle are Trump’s incoming White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, who is the current RNC chairman and the president-elect’s lead liaison to the party establishment, and a pair of Trump confidants who have pushed him toward his populist base — chief strategist Steve Bannon and top donor Rebekah Mercer.
“Bannon and Mercer have encouraged consideration of Mercedes Schlapp, a veteran party strategist who was an official in the George W. Bush White House but who emerged as a staunch Trump booster during the campaign ... Priebus, on the other hand, prefers one of several contenders more associated with the party’s establishment, including Michigan Republican Party chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel and RNC official Matt Pinnell. Adding to the intrigue, Vice President-elect Mike Pence’s political team is pushing another candidate: Nick Ayers, a Georgia-based operative who advised Pence during the presidential campaign and has been assisting with the transition.” http://politi.co/2gBKo3q
HAPPENING TONIGHT -- GOP LEADERSHIP FETE -- The Congressional Leadership Fund, the leadership backed House Republican super PAC, is hosting a reception at the Capitol Hill Club honoring GOP leadership and the newly elected Republican lawmakers they helped bring to D.C. Slated to show up: Speaker Paul Ryan, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and the rest of their leadership team. CLF and American Action Network spent $48 million on 32 House races in 2016, and they won 29. Invite http://politi.co/2fIctZL
FIRST DAUGHTER -- “Ivanka Trump, climate czar? The first daughter aims to use the first lady’s lectern to champion liberal causes,” by Annie Karni: “Ivanka, 35, Trump’s avatar among the moneyed left-wing elite, is now poised to be the first ‘first daughter’ in modern history to play a larger public role than the first lady. And she’s positioning herself … as a bridge to moderates and liberals disgusted and depressed with the tone and tenor of the new leader of the free world. And the ambitious daughter, who once plotted her career around international brand domination, is planning to take on an even heavier lift. Ivanka wants to make climate change — which her father has called a hoax perpetuated by the Chinese — one of her signature issues, a source close to her told Politico. The source said Ivanka is in the early stages of exploring how to use her spotlight to speak out on the issue. If she can pull it off, her advocacy could come as a bit of solace to fearful Americans.” http://politi.co/2goLKk8
THE BEST READOUT EVER – “Pakistan’s surprisingly candid readout of Trump’s phone call with prime minister,” by WaPo’s Max Bearak: “‘Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif called President-elect USA Donald Trump and felicitated him on his victory. President Trump said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif you have a very good reputation. You are a terrific guy. You are doing amazing work which is visible in every way. I am looking forward to see you soon. As I am talking to you Prime Minister, I feel I am talking to a person I have known for long. Your country is amazing with tremendous opportunities. Pakistanis are one of the most intelligent people. I am ready and willing to play any role that you want me to play to address and find solutions to the outstanding problems. It will be an honor and I will personally do it.
“Feel free to call me any time even before 20th January that is before I assume my office. On being invited to visit Pakistan by the prime minister, Mr. Trump said that he would love to come to a fantastic country, fantastic place of fantastic people. Please convey to the Pakistani people that they are amazing and all Pakistanis I have known are exceptional people, said Mr. Donald Trump.’ Trump’s transition team did not respond to immediate requests for comment or corroboration.” http://wapo.st/2fOmEr8
WALL STREET MEMO -- “Goldman Sachs poised for return to power in Trump White House,” by Morning Money’s Ben White in New York: “Government Sachs is returning to Washington. After a decade in the wilderness, Wall Street’s most powerful firm, Goldman Sachs, is dominating the early days of the incoming Trump administration. The newly picked Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, spent 17 years at Goldman. Trump’s top incoming White House adviser, Steve Bannon, spent his early career at the bank. So did Anthony Scaramucci, one of Trump’s top transition advisers.
“Goldman’s president, Gary Cohn, spent an hour schmoozing with President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday and could be up for an administration job, possibly as director of the Office of Management and Budget, people close to Cohn and the transition said. Cohn, a long-time commodities trader, is friendly with Trump’s powerful son-in-law, Jared Kushner. It’s a stunning reversal of fortune for Goldman, a long-time Washington power that fell out of favor following the financial crisis. CEO Lloyd Blankfein got hauled before Congress along with other Wall Street executives to account for their behavior. And Trump, who ran as a populist and bashed Wall Street on the campaign trail, featured Blankfein as a shady and dangerous character in his final campaign ad.” http://politi.co/2gO6cIa
WHAT TRUMP TOWER IS READING – “Trump Outpaces All Recent Presidents-Elect on Cabinet Picks,” by Rob Bluey and Rachel del Guidice: “A Daily Signal analysis of Cabinet nominations dating back 40 years reveals that President-elect Donald Trump is outpacing all of his predecessors, including George H.W. Bush, who was a sitting vice president at the time of his election.” http://dailysign.al/2ge2VFt
-- Political Memo by NYT’s Alex Burns, “Trump, a Free-Form Leader, Experiments and Invites Drama”: “While Mr. Trump’s focus appeared to careen unpredictably from hour to hour [Tuesday and Wednesday], the larger pattern he followed was a familiar one. As a candidate, Mr. Trump operated largely on gut instinct, with publicity-seeking provocation as his chief tactic. Trusting few people outside a circle of intimates, Mr. Trump thrived in a daily cycle of controversy and cultivated an atmosphere of often-public drama and division within his campaign.” http://nyti.ms/2gOtXzR
-- “Wrestling exec Linda McMahon a top choice for Trump’s small business chief,” by Megan Cassella: “Linda McMahon, a professional wrestling executive and former Republican contender for Connecticut’s U.S. Senate seats, is among the top contenders to lead Trump’s Small Business Administration.” http://politi.co/2goN4DD
-- “Trump considering Dan Coats for intel director,” by Alex Isenstadt: “Coats, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, met with President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday at Trump Tower. Speaking to reporters afterward, he was coy about his intentions.” http://politi.co/2gBLOe9
ON THE AIR -- “Trump runs ads promoting ‘thank you’ tour,” by Steve Shepard: “Trump’s campaign apparatus is spending $2,300 on an oldies station in Cincinnati to promote his 7 p.m. event Thursday night at U.S. Bank Arena, a downtown venue that’s also home to a minor-league hockey team. The money for the ad is coming from Trump’s presidential campaign, according to a source tracking media buys — not the presidential transition.” http://politi.co/2gOgfNw
SHOT -- FOR POLITICS AND PINTS ONE DAY -- @steveweinstein: “Clinton now over 65 million votes. No candidate except Obama ever did that. Not even the great Trump! Clinton 65,001,074 Trump 62,578,111”.
CHASER -- NEW ON HILLARYCLINTON.COM -- “Help with the Michigan recount: Let us know if you want to get involved”: http://hrc.io/2gLs20j
FUTURE OF NEWS -- NYT Business Day front, “While We Weren’t Looking, Snapchat Revolutionized Social Networks,” by Farhad Manjoo: “Snap has quietly become one of the world’s most innovative and influential consumer technology companies. ... [P]erhaps most important, its model for entertainment and journalism values human editing and curation over stories selected by personalization algorithms — and thus represents a departure from the filtered, viral feeds that dominate much of the rest of the online news environment.” http://nyti.ms/2gOfJiG
VALLEY TALK -- “Sheryl Sandberg is donating more than $100 million in Facebook stock to charity,” by Re/code’s Kurt Wagner: “The stock, 880,000 shares, was transferred into what is known as a donor advised fund, which is controlled in this case by Fidelity, but gives Sandberg the chance to steer the money where she wants it. That includes women’s empowerment groups like Lean In (which Sandberg founded), anti-poverty organizations like Second Harvest Food Bank, and grief organizations like Kara, according to people familiar with Sandberg’s plans.” http://on.recode.net/2gJaioL
FOR YOUR RADAR -- “Mayors look to tackle climate change at city level,” by FT’s Ed Crooks in New York: “The mayors of Atlanta, Cape Town, Paris and Vancouver have pledged to lead a 7,000-city push to combat the threat of climate change, even as Donald Trump’s election as US president dims hopes for co-ordinated national action. The cities, along with Seoul, Quito and others, will join the board of the Global Covenant of Mayors, chaired by Michael Bloomberg, former mayor of New York, and Maroš Šefčovič, vice-president of the European Commission.” http://on.ft.com/2fI0TOt ... Release http://politi.co/2gaIG8s
THE NEW GILDED AGE -- “How to Hide $400 Million: When a wealthy businessman set out to divorce his wife, their fortune vanished. The quest to find it would reveal the depths of an offshore financial system bigger than the U.S. economy,” by NYT’s Nick Confessore: “[A] worldwide financial system catering exclusively to the very wealthy ... has become astonishingly effective at ‘offshoring’ wealth — detaching assets, through complex layers of ownership and legal planning, from their actual owners, often by hiding them in another country. Created by lawyers, accountants and private bankers and operating out of a global archipelago of European principalities, former British colonies and Asian city-states, the system has one main purpose: to make the richest people in the world appear to own as little as possible.” http://nyti.ms/2gLytAf
MEDIAWATCH -- WSJ’s JOSH DAWSEY TO POLITICO -- Memo from Carrie Budoff Brown and John Harris: “John and I are thrilled to announce that Josh Dawsey, a New York City Hall reporter for The Wall Street Journal, will join our White House team later this month. He struck us immediately as a classic POLITICO reporter. He excels at breaking news, getting behind the scenes to show how decisions are made, and holding public officials to account. Josh has worked at The Journal since 2012, breaking a number of stories about federal investigations into City Hall, record lobbying in the city and the questionable ethical activities of the mayor's political non-profit and his outside advisers. He has written detailed portraits of the mayor's management style and character, taking readers deep inside City Hall, while chronicling Bill de Blasio’s attempts to become a leader in the Democratic Party and his intra-party feud with Gov. Andrew Cuomo. … He graduated from the University of South Carolina and is a proud Southerner.”
-- “Breitbart News sees advertisers exit, calls Kellogg’s decision ‘un-American,’” by L.A. Times’ David Ng: “Breitbart News Network is seeing some of its advertisers head for the exit doors and is responding in typical Breitbart fashion: by going on the counteroffensive, labeling one of them as ‘un-American’ and calling it a war on conservatism … Breitbart is fighting back at one of the advertisers — the breakfast cereal maker Kellogg Co. — by launching a Twitter campaign #DumpKelloggs that encourages its readers to sign a petition and boycott the maker of such favorites as Froot Loops and Apple Jacks. On Wednesday, Breitbart placed an article about its #DumpKellogs campaign in the top slot of its homepage. By early afternoon, the article had drawn more than 6,000 reader comments, many in support of the boycott.” http://lat.ms/2gaMPJw … Breitbart’s story http://bit.ly/2gYgz0r
-- “Reporter Sopan Deb Shifts From Chronicling Donald Trump To Covering Culture,” by HuffPost’s Michael Calderone: “In a memo to staff, [N.Y.] Times Culture Editor Danielle Mattoon said Deb will ‘cover a spectrum of news – cultural, political, race/gender/class, way-we-live-now – through arts and entertainment lenses in the Trump era.’ Deb, 28, joined CBS in 2014 as an associate producer following stints at NBC News, Al Jazeera Media Network, The Boston Globe and Major League Baseball.” http://huff.to/2gaMSVw
-- HAPPENING TONIGHT: CNN’s Jake Tapper will moderate the headline panel of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics forum with Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway and Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook. The conversation, “War Stories: Inside Campaign 2016,” will air on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday at 9 a.m. EST.
-- Skipping the Harvard event, for unexplained reasons: HBS grad Steve Bannon http://bit.ly/2gH1tJz
-- Longtime Iowa Caucus veteran journalist David Yepsen is returning to host “Iowa Press” on Iowa Public Television starting Jan. 20, 2017: http://bit.ly/2gOgBDH ... Des Moines Register story http://dmreg.co/2gLw1tz
NEW TIME MAGAZINE -- This week’s TIME cover story reflects on Fidel Castro’s life, his complicated legacy, his brother and successor Raúl, and the future of renewed relations between Cuba and the United States. See the cover. http://bit.ly/2gHkX33
SOUND FAMILIAR? WaPo yesterday, “Donald Trump is assembling the richest administration in modern American history,” by Jim Tankersley and Ana Swanson: http://wapo.st/2fHUHWP
--Politico, last Saturday, “Trump’s team of gazillionaires: The self-styled champion of the working class assembles an administration that could be worth as much as $35 billion,” by Ben White and Matt Nussbaum: http://politi.co/2fdgOnO
SPOTTED -- South Carolina Rep. Jeff Duncan greeting Texas Rep. Mike McCaul, a candidate for DHS secretary, by saying “Mr. Secretary” … Adrian Fenty, John Podesta and Steve Spinner on the redeye from SFO-IAD … Former Mississippi Sen. Trent Lott on a flight from Dulles to Heathrow … Mark Leibovich boarding an Amtrak train at NY Penn Station yesterday afternoon … Mass. Gov. Charlie Baker outside Union Station yesterday afternoon ... Newt and Callista Gingrich last night at Cafe Milano
REMEMBERING CLAUDE WYATT DICKERSON – John Dickerson posts on Instagram about his father: “He was a good man. Fought like hell ‘till the end. He always did. Thanks to the doctors and nurses at @DCVAMC”. Instapic of the two http://bit.ly/2gJsMWb
JOEL BENENSON spoke to DAVID AXELROD at UChicago’s Institute of Politics on Tuesday night. Video of the full event is online and is a fascinating look inside the Clinton camp’s views as to why they lost the election. Video http://bit.ly/2gYd1LD
OUT AND ABOUT -- The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Intellectual Property Center hosted the 4th annual IP Champions Awards on Wednesday evening. Fox News’ James Rosen emceed the event, which honored innovators across a broad spectrum of industries, including Sugar Ray lead singer Mark McGrath and Billy Idol guitarist Billy Morrison.
SPOTTED: Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Ben Jenkins, Oscar award-winning producer and director Bruce Cohen, David Hirschmann, Mark Elliot, Jared Parks, Bradley Hayes, Ray Kerins, Mitch Rose, David Green, Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.) who took the stage to toast awardees, Rich Bagger, Kathryn Lyons, Amos Snead, Grover Norquist, Benny Johnson, Ruth Vitale, Suhail Khan, Megan Wilson, Ashley Gold, Anissa Brennan, Rick Lane, Mike Castellano, Cameron Gilreath.
PIC DU JOUR – The massive Christmas tree last night in the lobby of the Trump hotel in D.C. (it’s a fake tree). http://politi.co/2gaQBCI
BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: Jen Psaki, White House communications director, celebrating with her husband and daughter “and a big glass of wine” -- read her Playbook Plus Q&A: http://politi.co/2gBWqJN
BIRTHDAYS: Natalie Wyeth Earnest (hubby tip: Josh) ... Karen Tumulty, the pride of San Antonio ... Florida Gov. Rick Scott is 64 … POLITICO Magazine’s Elizabeth Ralph, the pride of Radnor, Pennsylvania ... former CIA director Stansfield Turner is 93 … Joel Miller of Rep. Brett Guthrie’s office (h/t wife Megan Bel Miller) ... Charlie Anderson of the WH National Economic Council ... Kyle Lierman of the WH Office of Public Engagement ... Wayne Ting ... DNC alum Raul Alvillar ... Susan Stilts Collins, celebrating with breakfast with the 4 kids and dinner at Sushi Ogawa in DuPont with her husband (hubby tip: Rob) ... Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) is 58 ... Jared Scott Small … Ani Toumajan, LA for Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) and the pride of Southfield, Mich. (h/t doting bro Mihran) ... Shin Inouye, press secretary for USCIS and former director for speciality media at the White House (h/t Ben Chang) ... Marylouise Oates, novelist and wife of Bob Shrum (h/t Tammy Haddad) ... Safra A. Catz, Israeli-born co-CEO and board member at Oracle, is 55 ... Natalie Ravitz, SVP of comms for the NFL after stints working for Rupert Murdoch, Mike Bloomberg and Sens. Barbara Boxer and Paul Wellstone (h/ts Jewish Insider) ...
... Josh Kraushaar, politics editor at National Journal, is 35 ... Marty Chase is 76 ... Bush WH alum Jenny Lynn Buntin ... Bruce Kieloch is 51 ... Politico’s James Senkbeil ... NPR’s Carrie Johnson ... Yochi Dreazen, deputy managing editor and foreign editor at Vox ... JS Kim, I-banking analyst covering tech and media at Credit Suisse in Hong Kong ... Berry Kurland ... Jordan Lieberman, president of Audience Partners: Politics ... Mona Salama, a Breitbart News contributor, is 29 ... Brett Lieberman ... Jeri Henson Dies ... Reggie Smith ... Ryan Bell ... Hayley D’Antuono is 25 ... Terri New, founder and president of Capital Strategies ... Bruce Young ... Charlie Anderson (aka Uncanderson) ... Becky Weissman … Jake Kuitwaard … Terrie New … David Seldin, partner at Brunswick Group … Randy Bauer … Dan McGuire … Donnie Fowler ... Jamie Domini (h/ts Teresa Vilmain) … Stephanie Yousef … Woody Allen is 81 … Bette Midler is 71 … Sarah Silverman is 46 ... Zoe Kravitz is 28 ... pop singer Nico Sereba (Nico & Vinz) is 26 (h/ts AP)