^{Joel Kaplan joins FB's growing D.C. staff of high-powered pols}

As part of its ever maturing political strategy and increased presence in the nation’s capitol, Facebook has enlisted former Bush deputy chief of staff Joel Kaplan to lead their lobbying efforts. He is scheduled to start June 13. Kaplan, who will be Facebook’s new vice president for U.S. policy, is currently an executive vice president of public policy and external affairs at Dallas-based Energy Future Holdings Corporation, a company whose portfolio includes electric giants TXU Energy, Luminant and Oncor.

A graduate of Harvard University and Harvard Law, Kaplan joined the Bush administration in 2001, first as deputy director of the OMB and then as a special assistant to Bush on policy. In 2006, Kaplan moved up the ranks as Bush’s deputy chief of staff, filling Karl Rove’s spot in the development and implementation of policy agenda.

Kaplan became a true GOP player during the 2000 presidential election when he worked as a “policy advisor” for the Bush-Cheney campaign. Though he doesn’t list this particular role on his corporate resume, Kaplan was an active participant in the “Brook Brothers Riot” on November 22, 2000, when a horde of GOP operatives posing as disgruntled voters stormed the Miami-Dade canvassing headquarters in an effort to halt the vote recount effort.

^{Joel Kaplan coined the term Brooks Brothers Riot for the}

^{protest at Miami-Dade Canvassing headquarters in Nov. 2000}

Kaplan, along with Matt Schlapp and Garry Malphus, who also went on to prominent positions in the Bush Whitehouse, were part of an orchestrated mob that pounded on windows, chanted  “stop the fraud” and roughed up several election workers. The canvassing board voted later that night to suspend recount efforts.

Facebook has increased its D.C. staff from just a single individual in 2007, to 12 with recent additions. Other key team members include Vice President of Global Public Policy Marne Levine (snagged from the National Economic Council in 2010) and Director of Public Policy Tim Sparapani, formerly of the ACLU. Along with Kaplan, another former Bush official, Myriah Jordan, has signed on as Facebook’s new policy manager focused on lobbying Congress. Jordan currently works as general counsel to conservative North Carolina Senator Richard Burr.  

Spending on lobbying has increased as well - from $41,390 in the first quarter of 2010 to $230,000 for the same period this year - with efforts focused primarily on cyber security, patent reform, natural resources in Oregon (the site of its new data center) and foreign government restrictions on Internet access.

Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes said "It's imperative that we scale our policy team so that we have the resources in place to demonstrate to policymakers that we are industry leaders in privacy, data security and safety."

Notice Noyes does not say "privacy protection" here. Facebook is facing some serious legislative challenges to the way it handles users' personal information, and they have responded by lawyering up and ratcheting up lobbying efforts quickly. In the California legislature alone, there are two bills on the table. SB 761 is a do not track proposal and the other, SB 242, would require companies to keep users info private by default. Both would impact the modus operandi of Facebook dramatically if passed.

Facebook recently retained the popular GOP consultancy Fierce, Isakowitz & Blalock and has had the liberal lobbying firm Elmendorf/ Ryan on board since 2010.

This should be really interesting to watch.