JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — It’s not every day that a 27-year-old former staffer gets one of the state’s largest businesses as his client, but that’s exactly where Danny Pfeifer of Catalyst Group found himself a few years ago. Fresh off an unsuccessful re-election bid with then-Senator Jim Talent, Pfeifer found himself in an enviable position.
“It’s just such a fortunate opportunity for me to have gotten,” Pfeifer said. “After [Talent] lost, I got a call from a VP at Emerson Electric. They offered me a chance to come on and do government consulting in-house or to take them on as a contract lobbyist. I decided to take them as a client and from there, things just grew.”
Pfeifer, a graduate of University of Missouri – Kansas City, spent time volunteering on campaigns in college. He worked for the Bush/Cheney ticket in 2000 before working on Talent’s first race against Jean Carnahan for the Senate. Pfeifer also spent some time in 2004 helping an old friend, current Attorney General Chris Koster, in his race for the state senate. Pfeifer called Koster one of his closest friends and a “mentor.”
“I met Chris Koster when I was 18,” Pfeifer said. “My father was tragically murdered when I was 18, and at the time [Koster] was the prosecuting attorney in Cass County where I lived and grew up. Through that experience, we met and we would become friends. It was [Koster] who later encouraged me to go work for [Talent’s] campaign.”
With some experience under his belt and a wealth of positive recommendations to state political heavy-hitters, Pfeifer was soon lobbying on behalf of Emerson Electric and looking to grow his new business. Soon, he founded Catalyst Group and hired other lobbyists. Less than a decade later, some of the state’s largest interests are clients of Catalyst.
Ford, Jackson County, and Emerson Electric are just a few of the clients Pfeifer represents in Missouri’s legislature. But Pfeifer’s firm also has a specialty and a presence in Washington D.C. because of it.
“We have a little bit of a broader presence in D.C. than maybe a lot of firms because we also have clients with the 50 state’s attorney generals,” Pfeifer said. “It’s mostly regulatory, but we do have some clients that with that work have us working either with all the attorney generals or other state legislatures as well.”
Pfeifer says he benefitted from good relationships with lawmakers established while working on campaigns, as well as help from fellow lobbyists like John Bardgett. Catalyst made some waves in the Capitol earlier this year when it was announced that the AFL-CIO had retained the organization, along with former Republican House Speaker Steve Tilley, to lobby for the labor giant against Right-to-Work legislation.
“We are a political lobby with a political background,” Pfeifer said. “But our client list is diverse. I imagine in selecting us one of the things the AFL-CIO considered was our relationships with some very conservative lawmakers and organizations that maybe have a different opinion on that.”
Pfeifer remains in the Kansas City area with his wife, Maria, and their three children. While he spent his early political career as a staffer, he says he can’t imagine doing anything other than what he does now.
“I wake up in the morning and I love what I do,” Pfeifer said. “I can’t see myself wanting to do anything else.”
Collin Reischman was the Managing Editor for The Missouri Times, and a graduate of Webster University with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism.
