DCI Group

DCI Group History (by SourceWatch)

“The DCI Group, LLC is the top Republican lobby and public relations firm with offices in Washington, Brussels, and Houston. DCI has been associated with telemarketing company Feather Larson & Synhorst DCI and the direct-mail firm FYI Messaging. The DCI Group was the publisher of the now defunct website, Tech Central Station… Incorporated in 1997 in Phoenix, Arizona, Timothy N. Hyde, Douglas M. Goodyear, and Thomas J. Synhorst are listed as the LLC’s managers.

The DCI Group calls itself a ‘strategic public affairs consulting firm’ and boasts that it handles corporate issues like political campaigns. ‘We are a political firm and all of our partners have political campaign experience. We thrive in competitive circumstances, and are used to fluid situations and tight deadlines,’ their website claims. DCI Group offers services that include national, state and local lobbying; coalition building; and generating ‘grasstops’ and constituent support for issues. The firm has been linked to several industry-funded coalitions that pose as grassroots organizations.”

Annual Income from Fees in 2017: $10,000,0000

Clients and CampaignsBackground

Clients and Campaigns

Clients

American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE): Between 2012 and 2017, the coal industry trade-association ACCCE has contracted DCI Group, paying them $8.8 million.
National Association of Manufacturers (NAM): NAM is a large and influential trade association for the manufacturing industry. DCI Group has been paid $12.8 million from NAM contracts between 2013 and 2017.
ExxonMobil:
- DCI lobbied for ExxonMobil between 2005 and 2016. As of 2017, they are no longer listed on ExxonMobil’s lobbying disclosure form.
- ExxonMobil was a funder of the now-defunct, DCI hosted, Tech Central Station and United4Jobs websites (more information under “Campaigns”).
- In 2006, Greenpeace obtained a leaked invitation to a strategy meeting hosted at the Washington, DC DCI office. The meeting, “Strategic Discussion Regarding the Clean Air Act”, was sponsored by the ExxonMobil-funded Heartland Institute. Many of the other ExxonMobil-funded nonprofits were invited to the meeting, including the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

NAM 990s: 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017

ACCCE 990s: 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017

Campaigns

United4Jobs and Tech Central Station:

From 2003 to 2005, these two DCI run campaigns were used to fight the McCain-Lieberman climate initiatives, also known as the Climate Stewardship and Innovation Acts of 2003 (S.139) and 2005 (S.1151). Tech Central Science Foundation, while being funded by ExxonMobil, paid Charles River and Associates (CRA) to produce a report on the theoretical economic impact of the McCain-Lieberman bill. The CRA report, published in October 2003, claimed that one million jobs would be lost if the act was passed and implemented. United4Jobs pushed that report throughout 2004 and 2005 in an effort to heighten concerns around the act.