The annual d*ck-measuring contest that comes with the disclosure of how much each lobbying firm makes for plying its wares has Brian Ballard’s firm with the, um, biggest numbers.
For 2012, Ballard Partners finished with $5.4 million in fees for legislative lobbying, well ahead of Ron Book ($4.84 million ), GrayRobinson ($4.03 million) and Southern Strategies ($3.84 million).
The Orlando Sentinel has a list of the Top 15 for the last two years here.
Comparing the numbers from the last two years, an interesting number popped out to me.
In 2011, Smith & Ballard and Ballard Partners brought in a combined $4,560,916 in legislative lobbying fees. Yet, in 2012, Ballard Partners sans Smith took home the aforementioned $5,429,897. That’s an increase of over $868,981. This healthy 19% increase occurred in a year, mind you, when Ron Book’s numbers stayed flat, GrayRobinson’s dropped off and Southern Strategies increased by about $280K.
In other words, parting ways with Jim Smith may have the best business decision ever made by Brian Ballard.
Then again, maybe it was the hiring of Tony Boselli.
