The July 2 National Journal featured a story on Thorn Run's new Vice President, Gary Palmquist.
Gary Palmquist, a 20-year veteran of Capitol Hill, is the new vice president of Thorn Run Partners and will run their Los Angeles office. Most recently manager of legislative affairs at the National Federation of Independent Business, Palmquist has served as legislative director for Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Calif., and former Reps. Bob Clement, D-Tenn., and Ken Bentsen, D-Texas, all three of whom belonged to either the Blue Dog Coalition or the New Democrat Coalition.
"That's the kind of person that I enjoy working for - the pragmatic, pro-business Democrat who understands the challenges that entrepreneurs and business-owners face," Palmquist says. "I enjoyed working to find reasonable, pragmatic solutions that were in the middle and not based on rigid ideological distinctions."
Palmquist had a rambling childhood. "My family moved around quite a bit: New Jersey, a couple places in Ohio, a couple places in Texas." His parents divorced when he was 18, and "college became, in terms of parental support, just out of the question."
He earned his own way, working a full-time job in a bank mailroom while attending night classes at the University of Houston, where he met his wife. "It is tough, and you learn a lot about personal resiliency. It took me six years, but through my wife's support, and through hard work on my own, I was able to graduate from college."
While a student, he volunteered at the Harris County Democratic Party. When Bentsen, the group's chairman, was elected to Congress in 1994, Palmquist joined his staff as a peon. "They barely let me answer phones when I first started," he says. "I've always had a special place in my heart for people that are interns and trying to find their way. If somebody hadn't seen something in me, I'd be washing dishes somewhere."
Palmquist eventually attained the position of legislative director, a job he relished. "The great thing about working on the Hill is that you have an opportunity to learn a lot about specific issues, which is often dependent on what committees your boss works for. But as legislative director, you really learn a little bit about a lot of issues."
When Palmquist became a lobbyist for the National Federation of Independent Business in 2007, he found himself in a job more closely attuned to the economy. On K Street, "you have your issue portfolio, but then you're also in responsive mode to issues that are emerging," he said. The financial meltdown and subsequent economic recession "really changed the calculus in terms of the issues that we were highlighting."
