Former Democratic Rep. Larry LaRocco (Idaho) may not have been successful in his bid for the open Gem State Senate seat in 2008, but he is returning to Washington, D.C., anyway.

[IMGCAP(1)]LaRocco, who runs his own consulting firm, LaRocco & Associates, is affiliating with the Livingston Group.

He will not have an office at the firm but expects to work on a case-by-case basis to help pitch clients and work with a team to service business.

“He will be an addition to our Western group and be able to bring in business from that part of the world,— said firm founder and former Rep. Bob Livingston (R-La.).

“Our business plan is to bring people with their own business and we joint-venture together to make a bigger, stronger entity,— he added.

LaRocco said the arrangement works just fine for him.

“This allows me to keep my small company intact but then team up with the Livingston Group on global issues or ones where there are larger clients and where we need bipartisan support to service,— LaRocco said.

LaRocco, who will be spending the majority of his time inside the Beltway, has already snagged some clients of his own, including USA Funds, a student loan guarantor.

This isn’t his first stint as a lobbyist. LaRocco worked at the American Bankers Association for five years. He most recently served as president of Fleishman-Hillard Government Relations before leaving for Idaho to run for office.

The addition of LaRocco comes just three months after Livingston added ex-Sen. Wayne Allard (R-Colo.) as a strategic partner. Allard, who spent six years in the House and retired after two terms in the Senate, also has his own firm, Wayne Allard Associates, in Colorado.

Having a Ball on the Mall. Just a year into its existence, the L’Enfant Society, the young professional group for the Trust for the National Mall, is calling all staffers and lobbyists to take up its cause of restoring the National Mall with a party. The group of people, primarily younger than 40, is throwing its inaugural black-tie gala, “Ball on the Mall,— on May 8 and is hoping to attract some 600 people to the outdoor event.

“Staffers on the Hill, young lobbyists, young people of all sorts play softball, go jogging around— the Mall, said John Cecchi, chairman of the L’Enfant Society. “It makes so much sense because they get so much from the Mall to start giving back.—

Cecchi, along with a 16-member executive committee, including lobbyists Cameron Gilreath of Time Warner and Michael Signorelli of Venable, expects to make a sizable donation to the National Trust from the proceeds of the event.

GOP Grammys. Heritage Foundation scholar Hans von Spakovsky recently brought home the Edwin Meese III Award, named for former President Ronald Reagan’s controversial attorney general.

The award, presented by the Republican National Lawyers Association, is given to “a Republican lawyer in recognition of a career of accomplishment and leadership for our country,— according to a statement by the group.

Past winners include former White House independent counsel Ken Starr and Bush administration Attorney General and former Sen. John Ashcroft (R-Mo.).

“This award recognizes those leaders who protect freedom and the rule of law while upholding Republican ideals in the face of adverse political challenges,— the RNLA wrote in a statement.

Von Spakovsky, a former member of the Federal Election Commission, played a leading role in last year’s scandal at the Justice Department, where he worked before arriving at the elections regulator.

Democratic opposition last year to his FEC nomination, led by then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), also became the primary reason that the agency closed for six months starting in January 2008.

K Street Moves. NAVA, the Association for Insured Retirement Solutions, has picked up Chris Paulitz as vice president of communications and public affairs. Paulitz, who spent 10 years on Capitol Hill, most recently served as Sen. George Voinovich’s (R-Ohio) senior adviser and communications director.

Facebook has hired Timothy Sparapani as its director of public policy in Washington, D.C. Before joining Facebook, Sparapani spent four years at the American Civil Liberties Union handling privacy issues.

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