Former Rep. Bob Livingston (R-LA) and other politically connected players are jumping into the COVID-19 supply business — with some help from the National Governors Association.
Livingston’s lobbying firm and another firm started by a top Republican fundraiser are listed on NGA’s “Coronavirus Resources” page — which the governors’ group says is “an online hub for businesses and other organizations with supplies or services to connect with states officials regarding critical needs.”
The Livingston Group, Livingston’s lobbying firm, is described as a source of key medical supplies. So is top Republican fundraiser Mike Gula’s firm Blue Flame.
The Livingston Group’s entry into the COVID-19 medical supply trade has not been previously reported.
On the NGA’s Coronavirus Resources page, the lobbying firm is said to have “access to FDA standard N95 masks and isolation gowns and COVID-19 serological test kits.”
Brian Glackin, who leads the lobbying firm’s defense practice, and Allen Martin, a founding partner of the lobbying firm and Livingston’s former congressional chief of staff, are listed as contacts for the firm on the NGA page.
Gula’s medical supply business was first reported by Politico late last month.
The NGA, Livingston and Blue Flame did not immediately respond to TPM’s requests for comment.
A liability waiver on the bottom of the NGA page notes that the group, which is bipartisan and represents the leaders of the 55 states and territories, “has not screened, and does not endorse, the entities on this list.”
The NGA is currently chaired by Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) and vice chaired by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D), whose state is the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.
