Summary — what happened
Southwest Strategies is not elected to anything. It is the public-affairs firm that San Diego's land-use combatants retain when they need City Hall to say yes. Across 1,001 database connections it filed 428 lobbying contacts touching 27 different elected officials of both parties between 2012 and 2025 — Todd Gloria (D, 36 contacts), Chris Cate (R, 31), Kevin Faulconer (R, 28), Scott Sherman (R, 27), Mark Kersey (R, 27), and Jennifer Campbell (D, 24) the densest — while holding consulting retainers from 88 distinct clients, among them the developers and operators behind every signature land fight of the era: Cisterra Development (the 101 Ash / 7th-&-Market downtown block), Midway Rising / Zephyr Investors (the Sports Arena), the San Diego Padres, Westfield (UTC), and HomeAway/Expedia (the short-term-rental war). EC603 DB
The same firm that lobbies officials also raises and gives money to them, and its giving hedges across both parties. Of $193,686.81 in disclosed lifetime contributions, the single largest lifetime recipient is the Republican Party of San Diego County — $69,313.81 across 46 gifts (2009–2019) — followed by the San Diego County Democratic Party — $18,000 (2018); the rest fans out across dozens of bipartisan committees and candidates of both parties, from Chris Ward (D) to John McCann (R). Giving DB It institutionalized the revolving door: in April 2015 Wahl hired Diana Palacios, then Councilman Scott Sherman's deputy chief of staff, and by April 2016 — as soon as she was legally eligible to lobby — she was attending meetings in the Mayor's office lobbying Mayor Faulconer and her own husband, Faulconer chief of staff Stephen Puetz, on behalf of firm clients including the Padres. LaPrensa OBRag-Ash DB And the firm itself became an investable asset: in December 2022 Palladium Heritage, the first investment of the ~$3 billion private-equity house Palladium Equity Partners, took an undisclosed stake. Palladium DB
The firm's fingerprints sit on all three marquee dispositions of San Diego public land. On the Sports Arena, Southwest Strategies was Midway Rising's registered city lobbyist in every quarter from the 2022 Q3 selection ($18,000) through 2024 Q4 — and had serially lobbied the same lease for the competing bidders (ASM/AEG, Central Management, Brookfield) before the winner emerged. On September 13, 2022 the City Council selected Midway Rising for ~48 acres of public land (~$4 billion) on a 7–1 vote (NO: Campillo; absent: Moreno), after Zephyr principals Brad and Stefanie Termini had given $100,000 to a pro-Gloria independent-expenditure committee (2019) and Zephyr had given $10,000 to the 2020 committee that lifted the coastal height limit blocking the project. EC603 Arena Minutes-S510 DB On 101 Ash, Wahl met privately with the City Attorney and Mayor Gloria's senior aides to advance a Cisterra settlement while having raised hundreds of thousands for the same officials. UT-Ash OBRag-Ash Inferred: that the firm's access produced any of these outcomes is a characterization of a documented pattern — sustained, cross-party, multi-administration lobbying-and-giving that coincides with the outcomes — not a finding of causation, and no ethics body has ruled on it.
Timeline
The firm is founded. Christopher Wahl and Alan Ziegaus establish Southwest Strategies, a San Diego public-affairs firm. Wahl is co-founder and CEO. [DB conn 186]
The Republican-party pipeline. Southwest Strategies gives $69,313.81 across 46 contributions to the Republican Party of San Diego County — its single largest lifetime recipient. [DB conn 203639]
A revolving door opens at the top. After Kevin Faulconer wins the mayoralty, Stephen Puetz is named the Mayor's chief of staff.
Wahl hires the deputy chief of staff. Southwest Strategies hires Diana Palacios while she is deputy chief of staff to Councilman Scott Sherman; she later takes the married name Diana Puetz. [DB conn 2726]
101 Ash lobbying expands. Wahl and the firm expand lobbying for the building owner's 101 Ash interests, meeting with Faulconer, Puetz, and senior aides Thompson and Villa.
Lobbying her own husband. As soon as she is legally eligible to lobby city officials, Diana Puetz begins attending lobbying meetings with Wahl in the Mayor's office — lobbying Mayor Faulconer and her husband, chief of staff Stephen Puetz — on behalf of firm clients including the San Diego Padres. (She is later VP of Public Affairs for the Padres.) [DB conn 2726]
The other-party hedge. Southwest Strategies gives $18,000 to the San Diego County Democratic Party — its second-largest lifetime recipient, mirroring the Republican-party pipeline. [DB conn 203640]
$100,000 into a pro-Gloria committee. Zephyr Investors principals Brad and Stefanie Termini each give $50,000 ($100,000 combined) to "San Diegans from Every Community in Support of Todd Gloria for Mayor 2020," a Laborers Local 89–sponsored independent-expenditure committee — before the Gloria administration drives the Sports Arena selection in which Zephyr (via Midway Rising) is the winning bidder. [DB conns 203563/203564]
Clearing the height limit. Zephyr Investors gives $10,000 to "Penny for Progress, Yes on Measure E," the 2020 committee that lifts the 30-foot coastal height limit blocking dense Midway-district development. [DB conn 2836]
Lobbying the same lease for every bidder. Southwest Strategies is the registered Sports Arena–lease lobbyist for the competing bidders in turn — ASM Global / AEG (2020 Q3 $17,000), Central Management (2021 Q1 $1,000), and Brookfield Properties (2021 Q3–2022 Q2, peaking at $13,000 in 2022 Q2) — before the winner is chosen. [DB ev 27533]
Wahl at the settlement table. Wahl meets privately with City Attorney Mara Elliott, her top lieutenants, and two senior Gloria aides to try to settle the 101 Ash litigation — while having raised hundreds of thousands for Gloria and Elliott and having served on an informal group committed to electing Gloria in 2020. [DB ev 82]
The City hands over 48 acres, 7–1. The City Council selects Midway Rising (Zephyr/Brad Termini + Legends + Chelsea Investment; the Kroenke Group joins as an equity investor in 2023) to redevelop ~48 acres of City-owned Sports Arena land (~$4 billion, ~2,000 deed-restricted affordable units) and approves the Exclusive Negotiating Agreement (Item S510, Res. R-314340). Roll call: YES (7) — LaCava, Campbell, Whitburn, Montgomery Steppe, von Wilpert, Elo-Rivera, Cate; NO (1) — Campillo; absent — Moreno. [DB conns 203899–203907]
The winner's permanent lobbyist. Southwest Strategies (Wahl; lobbyist Jeffrey Meyer) is Midway Rising's registered city lobbyist on the Sports Arena lease in every quarter from 2022 Q3 — the $18,000 selection quarter — through 2024 Q4, ≥$39,000 itemized, lobbying officials including COO Jay Goldstone, Real Estate Assets Director Penny Maus, and EDD Director Christina Bibler. [DB ev 27533, conn 180124]
The firm becomes an asset. Palladium Heritage — the first investment of Palladium Equity Partners (~$3B AUM) — takes an undisclosed stake in Southwest Strategies. Wahl remains CEO. [DB conn 2591]
The client is fined. The San Diego Ethics Commission fines Midway Rising $5,000 for concealing ~$203,000 in political-consulting payments to Dan Rottenstreich until after the selection; Rottenstreich's wife Brigette Browning, head of the San Diego–Imperial Counties Labor Council, had publicly lobbied the Council to select Midway Rising without disclosing the marital and financial tie. (The fine is on the client, not on Southwest Strategies.) [DB ev 27535]
Rebrand. Southwest Strategies rebrands as Bodewell Group. [DB conn 168]
The client book (thematic)
Across the record the 88 distinct clients cluster in the interests most affected by City Hall land-use and contracting decisions — real-estate development, hospitality and lodging, gaming, professional sports, utilities, and the short-term-rental fight. The signature engagements:
- Cisterra Development — 101 Ash / 7th-&-Market. The downtown-block developer at the center of the 101 Ash lease-to-own scandal; Wahl's settlement lobbying ran through the City Attorney and the Mayor's office. DB UT-Ash
- Midway Rising / Zephyr Investors — the Sports Arena. Registered lobbyist every quarter from the 2022 Q3 selection through 2024 Q4; the firm had also lobbied the same lease for the losing bidders. EC603 DB
- San Diego Padres. A consulting client; the engagement that Diana Puetz lobbied on from inside the Mayor's office, and that she later joined as VP of Public Affairs. LaPrensa DB
- Westfield (UTC) — Regency Centers / Costa Verde. Long-running commercial-real-estate consulting retainers. [EC603 ev 25020] DB
- HomeAway / Expedia — the short-term-rental war. A platform client in the same STR fight that ran through the City Council 2018–2026. DB
Inferred: the concentration of one firm's book in development, lodging, gaming, and short-term rentals characterizes Southwest Strategies as a land-use and public-land specialist, not a finding about any individual client. The "88 clients" figure counts distinct database entities on consulting and lobbying-representation records after a 2026 deduplication pass; see Caveats.
Who it lobbied (top officials, both parties)
| Official | Party | Contacts | Span |
|---|---|---|---|
| Todd Gloria | D | 36 | 2012–2025 |
| Chris Cate | R | 31 | 2015–2022 |
| Kevin Faulconer | R | 28 | 2012–2020 |
| Scott Sherman | R | 27 | 2012–2020 |
| Mark Kersey | R | 27 | 2013–2020 |
| Jennifer Campbell | D | 24 | 2018–2025 |
| Lorie Zapf | R | 23 | 2012–2018 |
| Vivian Moreno | D | 20 | 2015–2025 |
| Chris Ward | D | 18 | 2016–2020 |
| Stephen Whitburn | D | 16 | 2020–2025 |
27 distinct officials in total (21 Democrats, 6 Republicans), spanning two mayors and four City Council cohorts. DB
The party hedge (thematic)
The firm gives to both county parties and across the partisan field:
- Republican Party of San Diego County — $69,313.81 (46 gifts, 2009–2019). Largest lifetime recipient. Giving [DB conn 203639]
- San Diego County Democratic Party — $18,000 (2018). Second-largest. Giving [DB conn 203640]
- Chris Ward (D) for Assembly — $12,000 (combined committees). Largest single candidate recipient. Giving DB
- Lincoln Club of San Diego County — ~$12,214; BIA of SD County PAC — $4,720; San Diego Regional Chamber PAC — $1,000. The business-and-development PAC layer. Giving DB
- Direct to Todd Gloria — ~$11,430 across city and Assembly committees (2016–2020).
Inferred / correctiona prior database edge had mis-coded a ~$160,000 figure as a single direct Gloria donation; enumeration shows that figure was the firm's distributed lifetime aggregate, not one check — direct SW-Strategies-to-Gloria giving is ~$11,430. Giving DB
Key players (callback index)
- Southwest Strategies (now Bodewell Group) — the subject; the San Diego public-affairs firm of record on every lobbying and consulting filing; rebranded February 2026.
- Christopher Wahl — co-founder (2000) and CEO; the prolific political fundraiser and lead lobbyist at the center of the 101 Ash settlement negotiations and the Sports Arena lease.
- Alan Ziegaus — co-founder (2000).
- Diana Palacios / Puetz — hired April 2015 from Councilman Sherman's office; by April 2016 lobbying the Mayor's office and her husband; later VP of Public Affairs for the Padres — the firm's living revolving door.
- Stephen Puetz — Faulconer's chief of staff (2014–2020); the official lobbied by his own wife on the firm's behalf.
- Cisterra Development — 101 Ash / 7th-&-Market client; the firm's downtown-block engagement.
- Midway Rising / Zephyr Investors (Brad Termini) — Sports Arena client; winner of ~48 acres of public land; Termini gave $100,000 to a pro-Gloria IE in 2019.
- Palladium Heritage — the private-equity house that bought a stake in the firm in 2022.
Caveats
- Aggregated receipts; two donation totals. The $134,453.81 figure is the sum of the 32 contribution records wired as database connections; the $193,686.81 / 55 committees figure is the firm's full disclosed outbound giving enumerated across all NetFile filing agencies (id-deduplicated, 2000–2025), with $10,850 more in California Cal-Access state records. Both are aggregated, not itemized per-check; the larger enumeration is the firm's complete footprint, the smaller is the connection-backed subset.
- "88 clients" counts distinct database entities, not filing strings. The roster reflects a 2026 deduplication pass that merged mis-typed and variant client records into canonical organizations; it counts entities on consulting and lobbying-representation records (71 organizations plus 17 counterparties that remain person-typed pending final retype).
- The $5,000 Ethics fine was on the client, not the firm. The San Diego Ethics Commission fined Midway Rising (the client) $5,000 for concealing consulting payments to Dan Rottenstreich; Southwest Strategies was not the fined party. No ethics body has fined Southwest Strategies on these matters.
- Lobbying ≠ outcome. A disclosed lobbying contact records that the firm contacted an official on a client's issue; it does not establish that the official acted because of it. Votes are recorded separately; the link between the two is correlation.
- No quid pro quo alleged; characterizations are not legal findings. "Manufacturing consent," "permanent lobbyist," "revolving door," and "hedge" characterize a documented pattern — sustained, cross-party, multi-administration lobbying and giving — not allegations of illegality. The Termini and Zephyr contributions, the height-limit money, and the lobbying are each independently disclosed and legal; their coincidence with the Sports Arena outcome is documented, not adjudicated.
Reference key
- EC603 San Diego City lobbyist quarterly disclosures (Form EC-603), filed by Southwest Strategies LLC / Bodewell Group via efile.sandiego.gov; source of the 428 lobbying-contact records, the client roster, and the Sports Arena quarterly compensation. Primary pull of 98 filings / 37 EC-603 (CEO Christopher Wahl; lobbyist Jeffrey Meyer). https://efile.sandiego.gov (E-27533, E-339, E-337, E-25020)
- Giving Southwest Strategies outbound political-giving enumeration: NetFile Connect2 public API across agencies 32/129/50/307/16 (id-deduplicated) = $193,686.81 / 55 committees (2000–2025), plus Cal-Access bulk RCPT_CD contributor-side cross-check = $10,850. Dominant recipient Republican Party of San Diego County $69,313.81; San Diego County Democratic Party $18,000. (E-27368) → view in evidence search
- Palladium "Palladium Heritage Invests in Southwest Strategies, One of the Premier Public Affairs Firms" (PR Newswire / Palladium Equity Partners, 2022-12-01). (E-311; DB conn 2591) → view in evidence search
- LaPrensa "Lobbyist at Center of 101 Ash Scandal Hired Wife of Mayor's Chief to Help Lobby Mayor's Office" (La Prensa San Diego). The Wahl → Palacios/Puetz revolving-door account. (E-385; DB conn 2726) → view in evidence search
- OBRag-Ash "Omerta, San Diego Style — Rogues Gallery of 101 Ash Street Deal Players" (OB Rag). Cisterra/Wahl/Palacios/Puetz and the 2016 Gloria Cisterra motion. (E-384) → view in evidence search
- UT-Ash "San Diego city attorney, mayoral aides met with lobbyists over Ash Street litigation" (San Diego Union-Tribune, 2021-10-24). Wahl's private 101 Ash settlement meetings. (E-82) → view in evidence search
- Arena Sports Arena public-land synthesis: Termini $100,000 to the pro-Gloria LIUNA Local 89 IE (DB conns 203563/203564), Zephyr $10,000 to the Measure E height-limit committee (DB conn 2836), the Midway Rising selection, and the $5,000 Ethics fine on Midway Rising for the Rottenstreich/Browning concealment — corroborated by Voice of San Diego (2022-09-12; 2023-02-10), KPBS (2022-09-13), iNewsource (2022-11-10). (E-27535) → view in evidence search
- Minutes-S510 City of San Diego, Office of the City Clerk — Minutes of the Regular Council Meeting of Sept. 13, 2022, Item S510 (Res. R-314339 CEQA / R-314340 ENA); OnBase Agenda Online meeting 5219; corroborated by the City Hyland-imported roll-call (bill_votes bill_id 2). (E-27534; DB conns 203899–203907) → view in evidence search
- Bodewell Firm rebrand to Bodewell Group, February 2026. (DB conn 168) → view in evidence search
- DB MathPolitics database connection/evidence IDs as cited above. Key figures on organization 115: 1,001 connections (428 lobbying / 531 consulting [529 client→firm + 2 firm-as-client] / 32 donation / 4 employment / 2 ownership / 3 other / 1 contract); 27 distinct officials lobbied (21 D, 6 R); 88 distinct clients; donation connection total $134,453.81. Key connections: the party hedge (203639 Republican Party, 203640 Democratic Party), Wahl ownership/employment (186, 168), Palacios (2726), Palladium (2591), the Sports Arena selection and roll-call (203899–203907), and the Midway Rising lobbying registration (180124). → view in evidence search
Condensed AI fact sheet · The Southwest Strategies File, Part 1. Built from MathPolitics story thread 149. Chronological; every claim cited; inferences flagged.
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