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Governors, state legislators, and local officials have become increasingly important in shaping public policy. It began with welfare reform, was evident in the 1996 telecommunications legislation, played a crucial role in the passage of GATT and NAFTA, and brought education and welfare reform issues to the forefront. Recently, Governors have played a key role in shaping federal legislation related to Internet taxes, agriculture, and financial services. And following the tragedy of September 11, 2001 state and local officials have tremendous new responsibilities to protect our Nation's homeland security.
With regional offices in Boston, Denver, Miami, Las Vegas, Orange County, California, Tallahassee, and headquarters in Washington DC, Dutko Worldwide is focused on serving our clients wherever they do business and at all levels of government. Unlike other firms stuck inside a Washington mindset, Dutko Worldwide’s public affairs experts are regionally located to serve clients in all 50 states. Our base in Washington and reach into every part of the country allows us to provide clients with completely integrated state and federal solutions. So whether you are Fisher Scientific in New Hampshire, Quiznos in Colorado, JP Morgan in New York, or Microsoft in Washington, Dutko Worldwide is uniquely positioned to deliver results.
Our nationwide team of professionals helps clients manage issues at the state and local level—all across the country. Some clients have critical policy issues that are under consideration in multiple states. Others care about specific problems or opportunities in just a few states. Generally, we have at least four types of clients:
First, we help large companies enhance their existing state government affairs capacity, serving as a "utility infielder" to their in-house team, leveraging their state and local political activities, and engaging state and local associations. These clients typically have multiple issues in multiple states--we give them the added capacity and strategic capabilities to manage challenges all across the country.
Second, we also help smaller companies or those without an existing state government affairs team. In a sense, these clients outsource their state and local government affairs requirements to us. Our job is to help monitor issues nationwide, give them an immediate presence in any state at the executive branch and senior legislative leadership
levels, and help identify and manage local lobbyists (when and where needed).
Third, we help clients who seek to engage state and local officials at the federal level and to impact national policy. Governors remain among the best lobbyists in Washington, and few federal issues are resolved without the input of these governors and their fellow state and local officials. There is a natural synergy between our professionals with experience at the state and federal levels that clearly benefits clients seeking to impact
federal issues.
Fourth, we help clients who sell products or services to state governments. Working with our colleagues at Dutko Government Markets, we specialize in helping clients build customers and partners at the state and local levels. For clients with innovative offerings in telecommunications hardware and IT services; homeland security applications and education solutions, substantial sales opportunities exist at the state and local levels—and we are uniquely positioned to help clients develop and implement sales strategies in these critical markets.
We are able to maintain such diverse relationships across the country because we invest heavily in the success of state and local officials. We are integrally involved in the national Governor's Association, the Republican Governor's Association, and the Democratic Governor's Association. We run and manage the Democratic and Republican mayoral and county official associations, and work closely with the attorney general groups and those representing state legislators. As a result, we have unequaled experience in working with these officials, and an intimate familiarity with their perspective and priorities. We put this experience to work for our clients.
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