Gregg Hartley

Gregg Hartley served as Rep. Roy Blunt's longtime Chief of Staff on the Hill.  In 2003, Hartley left Blunt's office and joined the K Street firm, Cassidy & Associates.

Hartley was very active with Blunt's leadership PAC, the Rely On Your Beliefs Fund (ROYB).  In turn, Blunt's PAC was closely intertwined with DeLay's ARMPAC, the U.S. Family Network, the Alexander Strategy Group, and lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

During his tenure with Blunt, Hartley went on a junket sponsored by the American Turkish Council (ATC).  Phillip Morris, the company for whom Blunt's wife, Abigail Perlman lobbies, is represented on the ATC board.

According to a report in Roll Call, in January of 2004, Hartley was one of a handful of lobbyists, including Jack Abramoff, who attended a secret meeting with Rep. Tom DeLay at Abramoff's Signatures restaurant, to plan a strategy to extract larger sums of money from GOP-leaning K Street lobbyists. 

In March of 2004, when Jack Abramoff was forced out at Greenberg Trauring after disclosures by the Washington Post that he had bilked his Indian gaming clients out of millions of dollars in fees, Hartely recruited Abramoff to join Cassidy and Associates.

In 2005, the DOJ and FTC wrote Governor Matt Blunt urging him to veto a bill because it was anti-competitive and created an unfair advantage for the realtors. 

After Blunt received the letters from the DOJ and FTC urging a veto, the Missouri Realtors Association hired Hartley's firm for a one month contract for a fee of $50,0000. 

Hartley's firm was charged with urging Governor Blunt to sign the bill over the objection of the DOJ and FTC.  Blunt ultimately signed the bill.

Jared Craighead, a former staffer to Rep. Roy Blunt, and a former lobbyist at Cassidy & Associates under Hartley, served as Governor Blunt's Deputy Chief of Staff at the time Hartley was lobbying Blunt to sign the bill over the objection of the DOJ and FTC.

Here is a link to more background on the Hartley's $50,000 contract to lobby the Governor.

According to a profile of Hartley in The Hill, reprinted on the Cassidy & Associates website, as of November 2003, Hartley's daughter Hallie was employed at Alexander Strategy Group.  It is unclear whether she worked there while Hartley was working on the Hill for Blunt.

Other Alexander Strategy Group Alumni include Ed Buckham, Jim Ellis, Tony Rudy, and Christine DeLay.

During Hartley's tenure with Blunt's office, the Alexander Strategy Group was the recipient of several hundred thousand dollars in fees from Roy Blunt's leaderhip PAC, the Rely On Your Beliefs fund.