After one year in the Biden Administration, John Bivona has left his position as a White House liaison to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to work with Rasky Partners, a Boston-based public relations and public affairs firm with significant ties to the Biden family.
Bivona played a role in guiding the agency’s political appointees during the critical transition period and beginning of the new administration.
Bivona is currently listed as the Senior Vice President at Rasky Partners and will serve as the head of the Rasky Partners’ Washington D.C. office.
Bivona’s career has been focused on Democrat party politics. He worked with Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign for president where he served as a field staffer. Bivona has held a number of political positions including time with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and as campaign manager for Alex Sink’s congressional bid in Florida during the 2014 election cycle.
During the 2020 Biden presidential run, Bivona “was the Deputy South Director for the Biden-Harris campaign, where he advised the campaign on personnel, field and spending efforts in pivotal states before being entrusted to run the campaign’s presence during the high-profile Georgia presidential recount.
With Rasky Partners, Bivona will help “clients advance their policy, funding, and reputation objectives, while overseeing Rasky’s rapidly expanding government relations practice and the firm’s DC office.”
Rasky Partners was founded by Larry Rasky, a longtime advisor to Biden, who passed away in March 2020. Rasky worked on Biden’s 1988 and 2008 presidential campaigns as a senior communications aide. During Biden’s 2020 presidential bid, Rasky led a pro-Biden Super PAC called “Unite the Country”
In 2018, Rasky Partners worked for the Bangladesh Nationalist Party as a subcontractor for Blue Star Strategies. Blue Star was the firm who advised Burisma Holdings in Ukraine when Hunter Biden served on Burisma’s board.
Reportedly, Rasky was prepared to provide $1 million in financing for Hunter Biden’s and James Biden’s purchase of Paradigm Global Advisors in 2006.
Rasky was also a registered foreign agent for the government of Azerbaijan. Rasky Partners lobbied on behalf of Azerbaijan and was paid $94,500 per month. Rasky told Politico he quit working for Azerbaijan in August 2019.
Another notable Rasky client included Raytheon Technologies Corporation, a Massachusetts-based defense contractor whose business units include Pratt & Whitney and Collins Aerospace.
It was announced in 2016, during the Obama-Biden Administration, that Polish Defense Minister Antoni Macierewicz agreed to a $5 billion deal with Raytheon to upgrade Poland’s missile defense system. In 2017, Raytheon was awarded a $302 million deal with the Saudi Arabian government to upgrade their national defenses.
President Biden recently appointed two officials to positions in the Pentagon with ties to Raytheon.
