congress Nearly 300 K Streeters flock to meet Scalise The embattled House Republican introduced them to his political operation and new fundraising team.

Steve Scalise may be on the defensive on Capitol Hill, but he’s still in good standing with K Street donors.

The No. 3 House Republican met with nearly 300 lobbyists, consultants and political operatives Tuesday afternoon to introduce his political operation and new fundraising team.


Potential donors crowded into the third floor of the Capitol Hill Club to hear from the Louisiana Republican, who welcomed everyone and thanked them for their support. His chief of staff, Lynnel Ruckert, and his political staff followed, laying out his new fundraising program. Several Scalise staffers were on hand, including his policy director Bill Hughes, member services director Eric Zulkosky and personal office chief of staff Charles Henry.

One of the attendees described it as a “locker room” style rally and related that staff said they were “looking forward to a good year.”

A source close to the Scalise political operation said the event was a kickoff and introduction to his fundraising operation. The leadership political action committee is Louisiana-themed, but will raise money to give broadly to the conference.

Dozens of K Streeters were at the event, including Sam Lancaster of Comcast, Adam Peterson of T-Mobile, Jay Cranford of Clark Geduldig Cranford & Nielsen, Cliff Riccio of NTCA, Mike Ference of the S-3 Group, Megan Bell of NOIA and Mike Wascom of American Airlines.

No one brought up or addressed the continuing fallout from a 2002 speech Scalise gave to a white supremacist group.

More race-related news came out Tuesday when The Hill reported that Scalise voted against a resolution apologizing for slavery when he was in the statehouse.

Scalise’s office declined to comment.

Political director Tyler Daniel said last week that Scalise’s fundraising had not been affected by the news reports.

“We have continued to move forward with our first-quarter plans,” Daniel said. “We look forward to a successful quarter and a successful cycle and doing all we can do to keep and expand our majority.”

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this report incorrectly identified Cliff Riccio and Megan Bell's place of employment. Rick Crawford did not attend.

CORRECTION: Corrected by: Alysha Love @ 01/14/2015 10:51 AM Corrected by: Alysha Love @ 01/14/2015 07:57 AM An earlier version of this report incorrectly identified Cliff Riccio and Megan Bell's place of employment. Rick Crawford did not attend.