Web Ad Firm Learns People Don't Like Spying
July 22, 2008
Datamation By Ray Everett-Church

The last couple of weeks have been pretty bad for the folks over at the behavioral targeting and advertising company NebuAd. Read More...

Madison Group Retained by CTIA
July 14, 2008
Roll Call Staff By Kate Ackley and Anna Palmer

Dialing Up a New Client. CTIA — The Wireless Association has bolstered its outside lobbying roster. It recently retained the Madison Group, a bipartisan lobbying and consulting firm that focuses on tax, technology, trade and transportation issues. Read More...

Avaya hires Madison Group to lobby federal government on telephone and patent issues
January 14, 2008
International Business Times By The Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Communication systems provider Avaya Inc. hired Madison Group to lobby the federal government, according to a disclosure form. Read More...

Saving Vulnerable Freshmen
September 5, 2007
Roll Call Staff By Kate Ackley

At a cost of $10,000 per person for this election cycle, it may not be the priciest club for a Washington, D.C., lobbyist. But the two dozen members of a new fundraising clique say their collective effort will pack quite a punch for their party’s most vulnerable House Members. Read More...

Madison Group's Mason has gone far, fast, and now seeks to mentor
May 21, 2007
The Hill By Jessica Holzer

Marcus Mason, a top transportation lobbyist, has always had an itch to get places fast. At 20, he started his own photography business. At 21, he was tapped to run the congressional campaign of Walter Tucker, a Democrat then serving as mayor of Compton, Calif. After Tucker won, the 22-year-old Mason became the youngest chief of staff on Capitol Hill. By his early 30s, he was the No. 2 lobbyist at Amtrak. Read More...

Mason Joins Madison
March 12, 2007
The Politco Suite Talk By Aoife McCarthy

The Madison Group, a government relations firm in Washington, has added a new partner, Marcus Sebastian Mason. He'll focus on transportation and homeland security issues.

Mason was the senior director of government affairs at Amtrak for six years. He also worked on Capitol Hill as chief of staff and legislative director for California Democratic House members Walter Tucker and Juanita Millender-McDonald.

His job at Amtrak has not been filled.

HOME - Vested Interests K Street Moves
February 26, 2007
Roll Call Staff By Kate Ackley

The Madison Group is in expansion mode. The firm, founded by Robb Watters, has tapped Marcus Sebastian Mason, most recently the senior director for government affairs at Amtrak, to be an equity partner. Mason is a former chief of staff to Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald (D-Calif.) and also is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's corporate advisory council.

Forget About the Flowers
February 12, 2007
Roll Call Staff By Kate Ackley and Bree Hocking

With just 48 hours left before Valentine's Day, lobbyists looking to woo a new Capitol Hill crush with a fancy dinner or romantic bauble might want to consider more than just where to book a table and how to find the perfect gift. They also would be wise to brush up on ethics rules.

The newly imposed House standards, including a ban on gifts and meals from lobbyists, deal with the professional relationship between K Street and Congress, but they have infused interactions of a much more personal nature with an element of confusion. Read More...

A 'very practical problem solver'
November 1, 2005
The Hill By Jonathan E. Kaplan

Seasoned Washingtonians might view a poster of the movie "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" hanging in the office of lobbyist Robb Watters as a ploy to soften his image; the public holds lobbyists in the same low regard as trial lawyers, car salesmen and reporters.

But Watters, who founded the Madison Group lobbying firm in February, shares the same idealism as the fictional Sen. Jefferson Smith, who challenged the political system by trying to block legislation that would have created a dam on the site where he proposed building a national boys camp. Watters, like Jimmy Stewart's senator, exudes an enthusiasm and idealism whether he's talking about legislative tactics, James Madison or pheasant hunting. Read More...

Robb Watters Elected to Board of Trustees of The George Washington University Medical Faculty Associates
October 7, 2005
U.S. Newswire

The George Washington University Medical Faculty Associates (MFA) is pleased to announce the election of Robb Watters to its Board of Trustees. Watters will add more depth and experience to the already great wealth of knowledge serving on the MFA Board today.

Watters focuses on the development and implementation of legislative strategies, analyzing and monitoring legislative and agency activity, organizing lobbying campaigns and working with government officials. He executes these services for individuals, businesses, corporations and governments. His practice includes Fortune 500 companies, Business Associations, and municipal governments. In 2003, Watters was appointed an ISAC Consultant on Trade Matters by Secretary of Commerce Don Evans and the United States Trade Representative Ambassador Robert Zoellick. Read More...

Katrina and the Lobbyists
September 12, 2005
Washington Post By Judy Sarasohn

The star-studded (by Washington standards, that is) fundraiser last week at the home of PR and lobbying maven Gloria Dittus brought in nearly $300,000 for five different Hurricane Katrina relief groups. Notable attendees included Lindy Boggs, the former Congresswoman, ambassador to the Vatican and Pelican State native, as well as her daughter Cokie Roberts of ABC News; former Sen. John Breaux (D-La.); and former Reps.-turned-lobbyists Bob Livingston (R-La.), Billy Tauzin (R-La.) and John; Disney's top lobbyist Preston Padden; International Dairy Foods Association CEO Connie Tipton; and H. Stewart Van Scoyoc, owner of Van Scoyoc Associates. Corporate contributors included BellSouth, Pfizer, the American Beverage Association and Exxon Mobil. What had been planned as a quiet dinner with Dittus and the Tauzins morphed into a 280-person shindig that included an emotional speech from Tauzin. "Thank you for caring, thank you for sharing," he told the crowd assembled on Dittus' patio. "You haven't seen the worst of it. ... But don't count Louisiana, Alabama and the Mississippi Gulf Coast out. We're comin' back." Dittus, who traveled over Labor Day weekend with a team of volunteers and supplies to the Gulf region, added: "It's an honor to be an American today. Thank you again for digging deep." The funds that lobbyists donated to as part of the effort were the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund, the American Red Cross, Alabama Governor's Emergency Relief, Mississippi Hurricane Fund and the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Fund. "It is a terrible tragedy that has befallen the earth," said lobbyist Robb Watters, who, along with his colleague and wife, Blair Watters, served on the event's host committee. "It's wonderful that the Washington business community can come together in a bipartisan nature. I hope we can help everyone who has been displaced."

Lobby News
April 21, 2005
Roll Call By Kate Ackley

Meanwhile ... The technology association CapNet has tapped lobbyist and one-time Congressional aide Robb Watters to run its political action committee. Watters, who is president of the Madison Group, said, "I look forward to leading an aggressive fundraising campaign that will assist Members of Congress and Senators who are pro-technology."

Tim Hugo recently left his post as CapNet president to focus on a lobbying career, and he has affiliated the Tim Hugo Group with the Madison Group.

Lobbying
April 20, 2005
TechDaily

CapNet announced Wednesday that Shane Tews, director of government relations for VeriSign, and Robb Watters, president of the lobbying firm Madison Group, will run the high-tech lobbying group's political action committee (PAC). Watters will serve as the chairman of the group's PAC and Tews will hold the position of policy chairwoman. "We are asking our members to help us build a more unified, more cohesive message through aggressive fundraising, which will strengthen the influence of the technology community," Watters said in a statement.

Hill leery of Dulles site
June 27, 2004
The Washington Times By Eric Fisher

Baseball advocates on both sides of the Potomac River have spent years trying to convey how much the Washington area has evolved from its status as merely a government town.

Despite its renaissance, the local area still receives a sizable jolt of energy from Capitol Hill. Hotels, restaurants, cab drivers, caterers, all three area airports and countless other establishments rise and fall on what the federal government is doing both day and night... Read More...

Taking the Watters
June 23, 2004
Off the Record

Blair Watters, most recently director of special projects for the House Democratic Caucus, is joining the Madison Group in July as executive vice president. At the Madison Group, she will focus on technology, budget, and commerce matters for the firm’s clients such as Intuit Inc. and SAS. “She will bring a wealth of information and contacts to our firm,” says Madison Group President Robb Watters, who is married to Watters. For the Democratic Caucus, Watters, 29, assisted Chairman Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) on the House floor. She has also previously served as deputy chief of staff to Rep. Karen McCarthy (D-Mo.). Robb Watters says the firm, which he founded in January after leaving Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, will make two more hires next month.

Lobbyists Play the Waiting Game as Gridlock Deepens
June 23, 2004
Influence Magazine By Kate Ackley

As a stalled Congress puts damper on business development, creativity is key for government relations specialists

With bitter partisanship on Capitol Hill, a presidential election on the way, and most members’ attention focused on the war in Iraq, Congress is as gridlocked as ever. But that doesn’t mean the advocacy business grinds to a halt... Read More...

Love You, Hate Your Politics
What happens when donkeys and elephants date
February 12, 2004
Capital Living By Betsy Rothstein and Sarah Bouchard

When Stephen Woodward, a medical researcher in Dupont Circle, began dating Jim one spring, nothing seemed to threaten their blossoming relationship. Woodward, a hardened liberal Democrat, didn't even notice that his new beau was a right-wing Republican.... Read More...