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Silicon Valley, the new lobbying monster

From crypto to A.I., the tech sector is pouring millions into super PACS that intimidate politicians into supporting its agenda.

When trial lawyers wanted to increase the state’s caps on medical-malpractice jury awards, they brought in Lehane, who helped send voters flyers that looked like cadaver toe tags, and produced ads implying that doctors might be performing surgery while drunk. Lehane has the lean build of someone accustomed to athletic self-torture—he runs daily, often fifteen miles at a stretch, typically while sending oddly punctuated e-mails and leaving stream-of-consciousness voice mails—and he has a boyish crooked front tooth that offsets the effect of his receding hairline. When Andreessen and crypto executives joined a Republican congressional retreat in Jackson Hole this past summer, attendees expressed fury over the fact that Fairshake had spent money on ads supporting the Democratic candidates in the Arizona and Michigan Senate races—contests that might well decide which party takes control of the chamber.

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