Google is attempting to boost its political firepower, hiring former Rep. Susan Molinari (R-NY) to head its DC office, Politico first reported on Thursday.
Molinari will begin her new job as Google VP of public policy and government relations in March, according to Politico. Molinari’s role will extend beyond the Beltway, though — she’s reportedly in charge of all political outreach for “the Americas,” or the entire Western Hemisphere.
“I am excited about Susan joining Google,” David Drummond, Google Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Officer said in a statement to CNN. “She’s a true trailblazer and her enthusiasm for our technology and its potential to change lives will be a real asset to our team in the Americas.”
Between 1990 and 1997, Molinari served three terms in the House representing New York’s 14th and later, 13th districts, which included Staten Island, replacing her father Guy Molinari. During that time, she was elected to the Republican Majority leadership, making her the highest ranking woman in Congress. She resigned to serve a brief stint as a CBS News Saturday Morning anchor, but was fired after just nine months. Since then, she’s gone on to found her own eponymous consulting firm, sit on the diversity advisory board of Toyota, and, most recently, star in a Romney campaign attack ad against Newt Gingrich, with whom she worked and famously butted heads.
The Washington Post’s Cecilia Kang helpfully points out that a big reason Google hired Molinari, aside from her obvious political chops, is that she’s a Republican.
As Kang explains:
Experts say that [Google Chairman Eric] Schmidt and other Democrats in the Washington office have drawn suspicion from lawmakers that the firm is benefitting from government favoritism.
Getting more Republicans on board could help Google better defend itself against bipartisan scrutiny in Washington.
And Google’s been getting a lot more of that lately from lawmakers and elected officials around the country, who are concerned about the company’s upcoming privacy policy change on March 1 (the change will consolidate over 60 privacy policies of Google products into one meta privacy policy). It’s also facing another investigation from the Federal Communications Commission, and questions after being caught evading security settings on Apple’s Safari browser to plant advertising tracking data on users.
Whether Molinari can help the company with any of these issues remains to be seen. Her announcement came as a surprise even to Anne Toth, Google’s head of privacy for its burgeoning Google Plus social network.
“I go on vacation and all kinds of stuff happens!” Toth wrote on her Google Plus profile on Thursday in response to the news of Molinari taking the new job.
There’s a Susan Molinari on Google Plus, too, but it doesn’t appear to be the former Congresswoman.
Carl Franzen
Carl Franzen is TPM Idea Lab's tech reporter. He used to work for The Daily, AOL and The Atlantic Wire (though not simultaneously, thankfully). He's never met a button that didn't need to be pressed. He can be reached at carl@talkingpointsmemo.com.
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