Quinn Gillespie 10-Year Celebration Is D.C.’s Hottest Ticket; Party Crashers Not Bowed by White House Scandal
Quinn Gillespie & Associates (QGA), a top Washington, D.C. lobbying and communications firm, celebrated its 10-year anniversary Tuesday night with the city’s biggest event of the holiday season. Over 700 guests — congressmen, senators, White House staff, corporate executives, clients, members of the media — talked politics and more on the rooftop of the new .
Members of Congress seemed relaxed and cheerful, including the powerful House Majority Leader, Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.), Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), Rep. Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-Colo.).
On the winter-decorated, blue-lighted balcony, QGA Chairman Jack Quinn shook hands and back-slapped like the mayor of a small town. Wife Susanna Quinn introduced guests to one another, while they sipped drinks and looked out over the White House and Lincoln Memorial, glowing in the rainy night.
The party-crashing scandal at last month’s state dinner seemingly has not affected the culture of Washington partyers, as more than 350 people who were not invited RSVP’d to the event.
The firm had a “crashers” list for greeters to check. Most of the people on the list are low-level Capitol Hill staffers. Many guests were hoping that Michaela and Tareq Salahi would make an appearance with Bravo cameras in tow, but the now-infamous couple were no-shows.
On hand were former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and former Sen. John Warner (R-Va.). Key Hill staffers included Stacy Kerr, special assistant to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, with husband C.R. Wooters, director of member services for Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.); and Stacey Bernards, senior adviser to Hoyer.
Pols around town mixed in a holiday-spirit bipartisan way, including Sarah Feinberg, senior adviser to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel; lobbyist Chet Lott (with his father, Sen. Lott); Visa’s Kristin Solheim and Elmendorf Strategies lobbyist Shanti Stanton.
Business executives were out in force too: ’s Craig Walker and Google executive Wesley Chan; Jamie and Dave Dorros Paul Dougherty; Winston Lord; the Patton Group’s Jayne Sandman and Barbara Martin. Also enjoying the festivities were stylist Christopher Johnson; Johnny Wright, stylist to First Lady Michelle Obama; Sharon Bradley; George Salon’s Carl Ray and Rick Raines.
The media were heavily represented: Fox News’ Brit Hume (as the date of his daughter Virginia Hume, who works at QGA) and Bret Baier, with wife Amy the Washington Post’s Amy Argetsinger; Politico′s Jim VandeHei and Kiki Ryan; the Washington Times′ John McCaslin; Washington Life’s John Arundel and Tony Powell; CNN’s Ed Henry; CBS’s Christine Delargy; the Washington Examiner’s Tara Palmeri; FishbowDC’s Matt Dornic; MIX 107.3’s Tommy McFly; and UrbanDaddy′s Jeff Dufour.
QGA was founded by Democrat Jack Quinn, a former Clinton White House counsel, and Republican Ed Gillespie, who left the firm to be a senior adviser to President Bush. QGA has stayed on the top-10 lobbying list over the years, withstanding the political turnover from a Republican White House and Congress to the Democratic takeover on Capitol Hill and the Obama administration.
Click play below for a slideshow of photos from the event:
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