New Google D.C. chief will face more hostile turf

Google

GaplekNews--There’s an opening for one of the most plum tech gigs in Washington — the head of Google’s D.C. shop — and the search giant’s decision on a successor to Alan Davidson could speak volumes about the company’s strategy to contend with mounting problems in the nation’s capital.

Speculation is already swirling over whom Google might hire to replace Davidson, who opened the company’s Washington operation six years ago as a one-man shop in shared rental space.

Will the company tap a Republican as it seeks to shed its reputation as a liberal stalwart? A big-name former lawmaker or administration official with Mitch McConnell or Nancy Pelosi on speed dial? A tech policy wonk? Or, perhaps, all of the above?

Sources told POLITICO that the search giant has already begun talking, if only informally, with potential replacements. Davidson, whose formal title has been director of public policy for the Americas, told colleagues Monday that he will soon begin a sabbatical to “explore other opportunities.”

A computer scientist and lawyer who was hired away from a public interest group, Davidson became the face of the once-quirky search company’s Washington shop in a more innocent time for Google — before regulators started investigating it for antitrust violations and prosecutors fined it for running illegal online pharmacy ads.

Now that the landscape for Google has shifted to decidedly more hostile terrain, some tech industry insiders speculate that Google might look to hire a blockbuster figure with the stature to command attention from regulators and lawmakers. But experienced lobbyists say that strategy bears risks.

“Hiring someone with a name is just a bad idea unless that person has experience running a large operation, a multinational government affairs or public policy lobbying operation, and maybe someone who’s battle-tested and field-tested on Capitol Hill when under a lot of pressure,” said one tech lobbyist. “They’d have to find someone who can fit the Google mode.”

Though Davidson held the job for six years, his departure still came as something of a surprise.

One tech lobbyist, who was in Menlo Park, Calif., last month for a fundraising event led by Senate Democrats, said Davidson, who was also there, “spoke of Google’s long-term policy plans, so there was little to no indication to me whatsoever of his departure.”

Google declined to comment for this story. Politico