Glossary — Tap to Flip
The Merger That Built the Firm
Lincoln Hill Partners exists in its current form because of a single event: an October 4, 2021 merger between two pre-existing firms, Lincoln Hill Partners and Utah Policy Advocates. The firm's own press release from that day names four principals directly — not four people starting a firm from scratch together, but two established operators combining their books of business under one name.
The Four Principals
Lincoln Shurtz
Registered lobbyist since 2002 (Legislative Insight Consulting) and separately Business Owner of Lincoln-Hill Partners since May 2021. Former Army tank commander; Director of Government Relations for the Utah League of Cities and Towns for 12 years before founding his own firm.
- Helped create MIDA and the Falcon Hill Aerospace Research Park — currently an active MIDA lobbyist (1/20/2026–present)
- 100+ clients since 2013: Northrop Grumman, General Motors, Oracle, Aetna, Molina, Intermountain Healthcare
- Client list also includes data-center operators (Aligned Data Centers, Vast Data Centers), Flock Safety, T-Mobile, and civil-liberties groups (ACLU of Utah, Equality Utah, Human Rights Campaign)
- Runs his own individual PAC and co-founded both Lincoln Hill PAC and Lincoln Hill Partners PAC
Casey Hill
Registered lobbyist since 1/18/2013, same address as Shurtz (68 E 300 N, Salt Lake City). Former SVP at EnergySolutions (2012–2019) — the company became his continuous lobbying client the following year and remains one today.
- Closely tied to Election Hive LLC, the campaign-management firm processing money for Stuart Adams, Spencer Cox, and Derek Brown
- Controls Gathering Inc., a signature-gathering company that has taken in $150,000+ (2024–2025)
- 80+ lobbying clients: Qualtrics, Salesforce, Netflix, Snap, Roblox, Lenovo, Ivory Homes, plus a wide municipal/county government client list
- Co-founder, Lincoln Hill Partners/PAC
- Also runs his own corporation, Red Hill Strategic Inc. (filed under his full name, Joseph Casey Hill, with his wife Kysha Hill as a Director) — see the Red Hill naming section below
Derek Brown
Practiced law at Sidley & Austin LLP in Washington, D.C. before the merger; the firm's release frames his role as legal/regulatory counsel. He co-founded Lincoln Hill PAC on 4/27/2022 — and remained listed as a Director/Officer even after being elected Attorney General.
- Controls Integrity Strategies LLC, which donated $10,000 to Lincoln Hill PAC using a dissolved Illinois entity's address
- Documented 2024–2025 total received from this network: $294,000+, including $114,000+ from Election Hive alone
- As Attorney General, he holds the state's chief law enforcement office
Chase Everton
Ran Utah Policy Advocates as Managing Partner for four years (Aug 2017–Oct 2021) before it merged into Lincoln Hill Partners — he brought an existing firm and client book into the merger, not just himself. Earlier career: Utah Republican Party Political Director, then Government Relations at 1-800 Contacts.
- Lobbying clients include Meta Platforms (since 2017), Utah Jazz, Silicon Slopes Commons, Kane Creek Preservation and Development, Flock, and Qualtrics
- Worked alongside Derek Brown at Michael Best Strategies' Salt Lake City office years before the 2021 merger — an existing professional relationship, not a new one formed by it
- His own lobbying client, 1-800 Contacts, directly followed his employment there — he began lobbying for a former/concurrent employer
The Red Hill Naming Maze
Four separate entities named some variation of "Red Hill" show up across this research. None of the four are confirmed connected to each other — but the names are close enough that they're worth listing side by side, precisely so they don't get accidentally merged.
| Entity | Who / Where | Connection to this network |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hill Strategic Inc. | Casey Hill's own corporation, Salt Lake City (wife Kysha Hill, Director) | Directly Casey Hill's |
| Red Hill Public Strategies / Strategic | Scarborough, Maine | Gave Lincoln Hill PAC $30,000 total — the actual donor, unrelated address/state |
| Red Hill Realty LLC | Coalville, UT (member Paul Brown) | None found — different first name from Derek Brown, real estate not lobbying, formed in 2001 |
| Red Hill AQ LLC | West Jordan, UT — see below | None found (yet) — a watchlist entity, not a donor to anything so far |
Red Hill AQ LLC
Formed July 2024. Sole member is a Wyoming entity, Red Hill Group LLC, based in Sheridan. Both the Utah and Wyoming filings use the same commercial registered agent (Registered Agents Inc.), and both were organized by the same company: Prime Corporate Services, a Murray, UT business-formation firm. No individual owner's name appears on either state's public record. It has not appeared as a donor or recipient in any transaction data reviewed.
How Tightly the Network Overlaps
Individually, each man has his own client roster.
Scott Ryan Smith — the $80,000 Match
S. Ryan Smith — Qualtrics co-founder, and owner of the Utah Jazz and Utah Mammoth — personally gave Lincoln Hill PAC $80,000. That gift landed 12 days after an identical $80,000 donation from Fides LLC, an entity solely owned and managed by Lincoln Shurtz. Qualtrics became a registered Casey Hill lobbying client the following January.
Fides LLC's own Certificate of Organization states its purpose as: "Political advisory and consulting." Shurtz is his own registered agent, at the same Holladay address tied to its donations.
The Corporate Structure Behind the Names
Two separate Utah corporate-registry findings, put together, change how the public "four-principal merger" story reads. Both Lincoln Hill entities were administratively dissolved the same summer — and one of them names three specific people as its Directors of record.
Lincoln Shurtz's entity
formed 12/14/2020
Purpose: 'Political advisory and consulting'"] -->|"filed as Applicant and Registered Agent, 1/11/2021
(months before public merger)"| B["'Lincoln Hill Partners'
Assumed Name / DBA
NOT an independent partnership"] B -.->|"publicly announced 10/4/2021"| C["Merger narrative:
Shurtz + Hill + Brown + Everton"] D["Lincoln Hill PAC
Utah nonprofit corporation
formed 4/26/2022"] -->|"registered agent"| E["McCauley and Associates
Mike McCauley's own firm"] D -->|"Directors of record"| F["Casey Hill"] D -->|"Directors of record"| G["Lincoln Shurtz"] D -->|"Directors of record"| H["Derek Brown
sitting Attorney General"] D ==>|"Administratively Dissolved
7/20/2023"| I["Still raised/spent
$627,000 total, 2022-2026"] B ==>|"Administratively Dissolved
7/2023 (same summer)"| J["Still filed/spent every year since
+496% the year after dissolving"] classDef entity fill:#F2F0EC,stroke:#d8d4cc,color:#141414 classDef person fill:#141414,stroke:#B8860B,color:#F4E9DD classDef flag fill:#fdf3ea,stroke:#b5651d,color:#141414 class A,B,D,E entity class F,G,H person class C,I,J flag
Chase Everton is not listed as a Director of Lincoln Hill PAC. Both dissolutions and the DBA filing are from Utah Division of Corporations records.
The Two PACs
The four principals above didn't just found one PAC together — there are two, plus Shurtz's own individual PAC, all moving money through overlapping recipients.
Lincoln Hill PAC (2022–2026)
| Metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| Total in / out | $627,000 / $495,965.46 |
| Largest funder | Fides LLC (Shurtz) — $339,500 across 8 checks |
| Other major funders | Scott Ryan Smith $80,000; EnergySolutions $45,000; Legislative Insight Consulting $42,500; Integrity Strategies LLC (Brown) $17,500; HEMMCO LLC $5,000 (Dan Hemmert's own entity) |
| Notable personal payment | Maizee Thompson — $5,000 (Lincoln Hill Partners' own firm Associate) |
| Top recipients | Friends of Spencer Cox $80,000; House Speaker Leadership PAC $50,000; Derek Brown for AG $15,100 |
| Deleted entries | 16 |
$339,500"] --> PAC["Lincoln Hill PAC"] F2["Scott Ryan Smith
$80,000"] --> PAC F3["EnergySolutions
$45,000"] --> PAC F4["Legislative Insight Consulting
$42,500"] --> PAC F5["Integrity Strategies LLC
(Brown) $17,500"] --> PAC PAC --> R1["Friends of Spencer Cox
$80,000"] PAC --> R2["House Speaker
Leadership PAC $50,000"] PAC --> R3["Derek Brown for AG
$15,100"] PAC --> R4["Legislative Insight Consulting
$16,000 (round trip)"] classDef funder fill:#F2F0EC,stroke:#d8d4cc,color:#141414 classDef pac fill:#141414,stroke:#B8860B,color:#F4E9DD classDef recip fill:#fdf3ea,stroke:#b5651d,color:#141414 class F1,F2,F3,F4,F5 funder class PAC pac class R1,R2,R3,R4 recip
Lincoln Hill Partners PAC — dissolved, still filing
| Year | Total spent | Notable |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | $23,500 | UHREC $5,000, NUPAC $5,000, Adams Leadership PAC $2,000 |
| 2022 | $36,250 | Cox $10,000 (largest) |
| 2023 | $58,240 | Cox $7,500; HSLPAC $10,000; Jefferson Moss $1,000 direct personal payment |
| 2024 | $347,200 | +496% — Cox $57,500 (single $50K payment); HSLPAC $12,000; NUPAC $10,000 |
| 2025 | $200,000+ | HSLPAC $30,000; Derek Brown $20,000; Cox total 2022–25: $82,500+ |
| 2026 (partial) | ~$95,016 | HSLPAC $30,000; UHREC $8,000; Adams Leadership PAC $6,000 |
Two things from the full transaction-level export
Maizee Thompson — a Lincoln Hill Partners Associate, listed on the firm's own site — personally received $5,000 from Lincoln Hill PAC. Lincoln Hill PAC also sent smaller sums to Democratic recipients including then-House Minority Leader Brian King, Senate Minority Leader Luz Escamilla, the House Minority PAC, and Utah's Senate Democratic caucus PAC.
The vendors
Lux Events Inc ($18,007.76 across 3 payments) is LUX Catering & Events, a Salt Lake City catering company founded in 1995.
McCauley & Associates ($8,825 across 7 payments) is the accounting firm of Mike McCauley, who is Treasurer of Utah First PAC — Sen. John Curtis's federal leadership PAC — across multiple election cycles, and was formerly Treasurer of Rep. Burgess Owens' campaign committee ("Burgess 4 Utah"), which drew an FEC complaint (MUR 8066, closed in 2023, no violation found).
Chad Westover — CEO of University of Utah Health Plans — received $5,000 personally. He ran and lost in the 2024 Republican primary for Utah House District 42.
The Round Trip: Lincoln Hill Partners PAC and Lincoln Fillmore
Lincoln Hill Partners PAC funds Fillmore's campaign each cycle — for example, $1,000 on 11/18/2024. The following year, Fillmore's own campaign donated back to Lincoln Hill PAC: $1,000 (7/5/2023) plus $500 (12/27/2023), $1,500 total. Several other individual recipients funded by Lincoln Hill Partners PAC in 2022–2023 (Balderree, Weiler, Harper, Teuscher, Lee) later donated to Fillmore's campaign in 2024 — roughly $4,250 total.
Dan Hemmert
HEMMCO LLC, Dan Hemmert's own lobbying entity, gave Lincoln Hill PAC $5,000 in May 2024. Lincoln Hill Partners itself was a paying HEMMCO client (2/1/2023–8/3/2026).
Majority Whip
2016-2021"] --> B["Executive Director
Governor's Office of
Economic Development
2021-2022"] B --> C["Private Lobbyist, HEMMCO LLC
1/19/2023 - 8/3/2026"] C -->|"client"| D["MIDA
1/19/2023 - 8/3/2026"] C -->|"client"| E["Dakota Pacific, Alterra,
Zions Bancorporation,
Union Pacific, Meta"] C -->|"$5,000, May 2024"| F["Lincoln Hill PAC"] D ==>|"8/3/2026"| G["MIDA Executive Director
Resolution 2026-12
moved by Gary Harter"] H["MIDA approves Stratos
data center project
April 2026"] -.->|"two months later"| G classDef role fill:#F2F0EC,stroke:#d8d4cc,color:#141414 classDef client fill:#fdf3ea,stroke:#b5651d,color:#141414 classDef pac fill:#141414,stroke:#B8860B,color:#F4E9DD classDef event fill:#141414,stroke:#8C3B44,color:#F4E9DD class A,B,C role class D,E client class F pac class G,H event
His statement on taking the job (emailed, Salt Lake Tribune, 6/26/26): "I'm glad to take this on. MIDA does work that actually shows up in people's lives in such an impactful way, and my job is to make sure we do it well and do it in the open." His Election Hive bio was removed from the firm's website; Election Hive manages campaigns for Cox, Sen. Mike Lee, and Derek Brown.
Derek Brown's Three Committee Names
Utah's own disclosure system shows Derek Brown operating under three differently-named committees across different years — confirmed directly against disclosures.utah.gov, not assumed:
| Committee name | Confirmed activity |
|---|---|
| Derek Brown for Attorney General | Received $15,100 from Lincoln Hill PAC (documented above) |
| Committee to Elect Derek Brown | Received $500 from SEL Inc (2/2/2024) and $1,000 from UMPAC (9/18/2025) |
| Committee to Elect Derik Brown (sic) | Received $1,000 from Lincoln Hill PAC (11/16/2023) — that exact misspelling is the real name on file with the state |
All three most likely trace to the same person across different points in his career, given inconsistent name entry in Utah's own filing system — but this hasn't been confirmed against the underlying filer ID, so it's presented here as three name-variants rather than three separate legal facts merged into one.
Sources
- Lincoln Hill Partners merger press release, October 4, 2021 (self-published, corroborated by principals' own LinkedIn profiles)
- Lincoln Shurtz, Casey Hill, Chase Everton lobbyist registrations, disclosures.utah.gov
- Lincoln Hill PAC and Lincoln Hill Partners PAC transaction histories, disclosures.utah.gov (DEX exports, 2021–2026), including a 7/10–8/11/2026 contributions report confirming the Diamante Vista and Fides LLC $8,000 subtotal, and a full 5-file/258-transaction raw export reconciling exactly to the $627,000 total
- Derek Brown for AG campaign finance disclosures, disclosures.utah.gov
- Salt Lake Tribune (Threads post, 5/19/2026) — confirms Shurtz and Hill's simultaneous O'Leary Ventures lobbying registration and Election Hive's role managing Adams/Cox/Brown campaigns
- Integrity Strategies LLC and Fides LLC corporate registration records, Utah Division of Corporations, including Fides LLC's own Certificate of Organization confirming its stated purpose as "Political advisory and consulting"
- Lincoln Fillmore campaign finance disclosures, disclosures.utah.gov
- Diamante Vista LLC, Allvest Information Services Inc., Red Hill Strategic Inc., Red Hill Realty LLC, and Red Hill AQ LLC — Utah Division of Corporations entity records (opencorporates.com and corporations.utah.gov)
- Red Hill Group LLC — Wyoming Secretary of State business entity filing (wyobiz.wyo.gov), Filing ID 2024-001488905
- McCauley & Associates, P.C. — Utah entity registry; Mike McCauley's Utah First PAC and Burgess 4 Utah treasurer roles per FEC/ProPublica itemizer data and FEC MUR 8066
- Chad Westover — Ballotpedia, LinkedIn, campaign website (chadforutah.com), OpenCorporates business entity records
- Derek Brown's three committee names — disclosures.utah.gov, individual expenditure searches across 2023-2026 report years
- SchoolAI (School AI Inc) — Bloomberg company profile, Built In, TIPS vendor profile
- Dan Hemmert / HEMMCO / MIDA — Hemmert's own LinkedIn, archived Election Hive bio (Wayback Machine), HEMMCO lobbyist registration (disclosures.utah.gov), MIDA board meeting minutes (utah.gov, Resolution 2026-12), MIDA's own team page (midaut.org/ourteam), Salt Lake Tribune (6/26/26), Cache Valley Daily (7/1/26)
- Lincoln Hill PAC corporate registration (Utah Entity #12822174-0140) and "Lincoln Hill Partners" Assumed Name/DBA filing (Utah Entity #12108082-0151) and Fides LLC's own registration (Utah Entity #12063536-0160) — all corporations.utah.gov
