so THATS where Joe Allbaugh is

Former administration officials start new shop=The Hill.com= Two former top administration officials with direct ties to the president and vice president have joined forces in a new lobbying shop. Joe Allbaugh, the former Federal Emergency Management Agency chief and ex-Bush campaign manager, and Andrew Lundquist, who directed energy policy for Vice President Dick Cheney, recently created the firm Blackwell Fairbanks. “Andrew and I formed it just because there are a lot of synergies that we each offer and expertise that we each bring to the table,” Allbaugh said. Lundquist, a longtime staffer at the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee before moving to the White House, is an expert on energy-related issues, while Allbaugh specializes in international business opportunities, Allbaugh said. The firm is named after the hometowns of its principals: Allbaugh hails from Blackwell, Okla., and Lundquist from Fairbanks, Alaska. Former Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee staffer Howard Useem also lobbies at the firm. Already, the firm has one big name on its client list. Defense giant Lockheed Martin signed Blackwell Fairbanks to “educate” Congress and the administration on energy- and defense-related initiatives that may affect its business, according to Senate lobbying disclosure records. The two partners will maintain their separate lobbying shops as well. Allbaugh’s firm, Allbaugh Co. LLC, had contracts with seven companies and associations last year: BP Shipping USA, Cross Telephone Co., the National Mining Association, Oshkosh Truck Corp., Polycom, Union Pacific Corp. and Veco Corp. Allbaugh also is a co-founder of New Bridge Strategies — a firm that helps foreign and American companies form business relationships in Iraq. Lundquist formed his own shop after leaving the administration, where he helped develop its national energy plan. His clients include BP, Duke Energy Corp., Kennecott Energy Co., Toshiba Corp., TXU Corp. and the state of Alaska. Lundquist said that he and Allbaugh have a “friendship that goes back a long ways.” He noted that their two firms already share office space at 101 Constitution Ave. N.W. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- © 2004 The Hill