Regents hire firm to lobby for University of Iowa this session

IOWA CITY — Iowa’s Board of Regents has hired a new Des Moines-based government and public affairs firm with ties to Republican heavy-hitters like Gov. Terry Branstad to lobby on behalf of the University of Iowa this upcoming session.

The board in late November signed a contract with LS2group — founded in 2009 by a former regional political director with the Republican National Committee — to “represent the interests of the board and the university before the Iowa Legislature and the executive branch.”

The contract is a first of its kind for the Board of Regents — which historically has tapped individual state relations officers on staff to advocate and lobby on behalf of the three public universities it governs.

For the upcoming session, the board will continue using Jillian Carlson as its state relations officer for Iowa State University; Jason Chapman as its relations officer for the University of Northern Iowa; and Jennifer Harbison to lobby on behalf of UI Health Care.

Keith Saunders — who was the board’s UI lobbyist for 17 years and before that lobbied on behalf of UNI — recently transitioned to a new role within the board office.

As of Oct. 20, Saunders is the board’s associate general counsel and facilities coordinator and Carolann Jensen, the board’s ISU state relations officer last year, now is the board’s chief operating officer.

Branstad chief of staff

The board’s new contract with LS2 — which can be renewed annually — pays the firm $7,500 a month for the seven-month period between December and the end of June, totaling $52,500.

It assigns two LS2 team members as lead consultants on the UI-Board of Regents job: firm partner Jeffrey Boeyink and Brittany Lumley, managing director of government affairs.

Boeyink joined LS2 in 2013 as a senior vice president after serving as chief of staff for Gov. Terry Branstad from 2010 to Sept. 6, 2013. In that role, according to his LS2 bio, Boeyink served as the state’s chief operating officer, overseeing day-to-day operations of the governor’s office and the entire executive branch of state government.

Before his appointment to chief of staff — also serving as Branstad’s chief policy adviser — Boeyink was Branstad’s 2010 campaign manager, raising a record $8.5 million.

That campaign, according to Boeyink’s bio, “was the first campaign in nearly 50 years to defeat an incumbent Iowa governor with his 10-point victory on November 2, 2010.”

Boeyink — who graduated from Central College and got a master’s in public administration from Iowa State — also has previously served as executive director of the Republican Party of Iowa. He was promoted to partner at LS2 in 2016.

As a lobbyist, Boeyink and Lumley in the last session lobbied on behalf of more than 50 entities in Iowa — including former Board of Regents President Bruce Rastetter’s Summit Group and Summit Carbon Solutions, which for years have been trying to build a carbon sequestration pipeline across Iowa.

They also represented Wild Rose Entertainment LLC, founded and previously led by another Board of Regents President Michael Richards.

Lumley, according to her bio, previously was a research attorney for the Iowa House of Representatives majority caucus staff — having graduated from UI with a business management degree. She also holds a law degree from Drake University Law School and remains an attorney in good standing in both Iowa and Missouri.

Two of LS2’s founding partners have deep Republican ties — including Charles Larson Jr., who before establishing LS2 served in the Iowa Legislature as a state representatives in the 1990s, chairing the House Economic Development Committee and the House Judiciary Committee.

While in the Legislature, Larson chaired the Republican Party of Iowa for two terms and served on U.S. Senator John McCain’s presidential cabinet, according to his bio.

Karen Slifka, a founding partner, was midwest regional political director for the Republican National Committee prior to LS2 and in 2004 worked on President George Bush’s re-election campaign.

Joe Shannahan, a third founding partner, served as communications director and spokesman for Democratic Gov. Tom Vilsack in the early 2000s and as a spokesman for one of Sen. Tom Harkin’s re-election campaigns.

‘Advocate the board’s position’

LS2, under its new contract with the Board of Regents, is not only expected to lobby — in a general sense — for UI and the board. Its representatives also must develop relationships with key university and regent decision-makers and schedule legislative visits on behalf of UI President Barbara Wilson.

The consultants must “provide advice and support in preparation for and during these engagements” according to the contract, which also requires LS2 to “identify and monitor legislation that impacts the board and the university and advocate the board’s position before the legislature and the executive branch.”

The goal, according to the contract, is to “enhance the position of the board and the university.”

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com