Capital City Consulting's revenues have ballooned over the past two years, and the growth spurt isn't over yet.
New lobbying compensation reports show CCC collected nearly $7 million during the opening quarter of 2024. The new reports represent a six-figure increase over Q4 2023 and set a new high-water mark for the firm co-founded by Nick Iarossi and Ron LaFace.
Legislative lobbying revenues measured in at $3.74 million last quarter, and executive branch income also surpassed the $3 million mark by about $100,000. Overall, Capital City Consulting earned an estimated $6.82 million between New Year's and March 31.
Florida Politics estimates lobbying pay based on the middle number of the per-client ranges firms listed on their compensation reports. Contracts are reported in $10,000 increments up to $50,000. Using median estimates, Capital City Consulting still has an iron grip on the No. 3 spot in Florida Politics' Lobby Firm Rankings — there's more than $3 million in daylight between CCC and the No. 4 firm in Q1.
Florida Politics has previously published rundowns on the rest of the Top 25 firms last quarter, broken down into articles on the firms ranking No. 25 to No. 16, No. 15 to No. 11, No. 10 through No. 7 and No. 6 through No. 4.
As for Capital City Consulting, the firm's legislative compensation report listed more than 250 clients, several of which paid sums exceeding the cap on range reporting, meaning the listed amounts are concrete and not estimates. That set included Associated Industries of Florida at $165,000, Bentley Bay Retail at $80,000, Gartner at $63,000, Lennar Homes at $54,000 and Precision Healthcare at $53,000.
Beyond the top moneymakers, CCC's report included several well-known corporations and associations, such as CVS Health, AT&T, BlackRock, Paypal, Adobe, Chick-fil-A, Yamaha and 3M. The world's largest airline, Delta, and one of just seven companies with a trillion-dollar-plus market cap, Amazon, also rely on Capital City Consulting to handle their affairs in Tallahassee.
On the executive side, CCC's most lucrative contract was a $76,000 deal to represent Horne LLP, a major professional services firm. Other contracts crossing the $50,000 threshold included Florida Urban Medical and Educational Services at $63,000, Contender Boats $54,000 and AIF at $51,000, making it the firm's top Q1 client overall with $216,000 in payments.
The $50,000-plus list also included PCI Gaming, the gambling subdivision for the Poarch Band of Creek Indians. Though mainly centered in Alabama, PCI also runs gaming operations in Pensacola and Gretna.
Gaming is one of the firm's specialties — Iarossi is a past winner of INFLUENCE Magazine's "Gaming Lobbyist of the Year" award as well as the 2021 "Lobbyist of the Year" award — and its client roster includes a handful of other gambling enterprises such as bestbet Jacksonville and Melbourne Greyhound Park.
In addition to Iarossi and LaFace, Capital City Consulting's first-quarter team included Anthony Carvalho, Justin Day, Megan Fay, Kaley Flynn, Kenneth Granger, Maicel Green, Ashley Kalifeh, Andrew Ketchel, Drew Meiner, Joseph Mongiovi, Jared Rosenstein, Scott Ross and Chris Schoonover.
Of note, Capital City Consulting also has a robust local lobbying presence following its acquisition two years ago of Miami-based Prodigy Public Affairs, now known as CCC Miami. The new compensation reports only cover state-level lobbying revenues — pay received for lobbying county and municipal governments is not included.
Capital City Consulting's Q1 haul keeps up the pace the firm set last year, when it recorded its first $6 million-plus quarter. The firm's growth has accelerated rapidly over the past two years, surpassing $25 million in earnings for 2023, just one year after it broke the $20 million mark. Based on Q1 earnings, CCC could set a new personal best this year — if the firm were to notch $6.8 million per quarter for the rest of the year, annual revenues would exceed $27 million.
Florida lobbyists and lobbying firms faced a May 15 deadline to file compensation reports for the period covering Oct. 1 through Dec. 31. Compensation reports for the second quarter are due to the state on Aug. 14.
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