Carpenter Hawkins Sievers LLC, Strategic Public Affairs Advocacy

Services

Carpenter Hawkins Sievers LLC provides comprehensive government and public affairs management, consulting and services to our clients. We offer a combined 45 years of government affairs, public affairs and issues and political campaign management experience. Our corporate and trade association clients can effectively outsource all of their government and public affairs needs to us, enabling them to enjoy aggressive, cost-effective and worry-free management of all their public policy, political and communications issues. We provide our clients with a full range of expertise in a variety of public affairs disciplines, including:

Government Affairs Management and Consulting

Legislative, regulatory, political and reputational issues can arise suddenly. Our firm has managed issues in virtually every state in the country, and can respond quickly wherever and whenever the situation demands it. We manage single issues, or can provide a virtual government and public affairs operation for clients with needs throughout the country. In this way, our clients can effectively outsource their government and public affairs needs, enabling cost-effective management of important corporate issues without the costly overhead of a corporate government affairs apparatus.

Government affairs management and consulting
Legislative, executive branch and regulatory lobbying
Political consulting
Issues management
Communications and messaging
Coalition building, grass roots and grass tops outreach and mobilization
Community relations and charitable contributions management

Legislative, Executive Branch and Regulatory Lobbying

We represent our clients on a wide variety of issues before legislatures, executive branches, and state regulatory agencies. Our legislative advocacy services include:

Legislative consulting and strategy
Direct legislative and executive branch lobbying
Procurement
Situational analysis and risk assessment
Legislative bill tracking and analysis
Representation before trade and other relevant organizations

Political Consulting and Campaign Management

Elections matter. Sometimes, issues are resolved by the voters, rather than policymakers. And who gets elected can have a profound impact on policy as well. We understand the importance of election outcomes and can help our clients navigate the political process. Our political consulting services include:

Ballot initiative campaign management
Independent expenditure campaign coordination and management
PAC and political contribution strategy
Candidate interviews and legislative election planning

Issues Management

We design strategic plans to manage issues of importance to our clients, including public policy and reputational issues. We conduct qualitative and quantitative research to develop and guide communications, outreach, legislative, media and political strategies. Our services include:

Public and opinion leader research
Polling and focus group research
Data analysis
Strategic and tactical planning
Issue advocacy campaign management, including paid and earned media campaigns

Strategic Communications and Messaging

It is not enough simply to be right on an issue. We tell your story so that the public, opinion leaders and decision-makers understand your issues. Your issues must be framed and targeted properly to ensure that the right messengers are delivering the right messages to the right audiences. Our communications services include:

Corporate reputation plans and programs
Earned media relations
Media outreach plans
Message development, focus groups and testing
Media training
Talking points, press releases, op-eds and letters to the editor

Coalition Building and Mobilization

Seldom can an entity succeed without allies who perceive a mutual stake in the outcome of an issue. We build and manage relationships with key stakeholders to ensure that they understand our clients’ issue positions, to mobilize support or opposition on our clients' legislative and regulatory issues, and to build and enhance our clients’ profile and reputation among key stakeholders. Our services include:

State legislative coalition building
Grass roots and grass tops mobilization and activation
Local outreach programs to business, trade, policy, taxpayer, ethnic, media, civic and community non-profit leaders and organizations

Community Relations and Charitable Contributions Management

We design strategic community relations and charitable contributions programs to serve our clients’ business and reputational needs and to meet employee, stakeholder and community expectations. Properly executed philanthropic programs can raise a client’s profile, increase awareness and understanding of a client’s presence and impact in a community, and help build credibility and reputation. Our services include:

Charitable contributions planning and programs
Creating employee volunteerism and messaging programs
Ensuring visibility and strategic impact of giving programs