In the cruel world of American politics, a dutiful staffer will toil long into the night mulling over phone banking lists and reviewing profiles of high-power donors. He exchanges his personal life for 6 a.m. conference calls and his car becomes a billboard in transit. His diet consists of stale coffee and an endless supply of nicotine. An unenviable existence, to say the least, but one that is endured in hopes of seeing his boss declared victorious on election night and of seizing the resulting opportunities that lay ahead.
For David Axelrod, those opportunities were beyond imagine. As Barack Obama’s top campaign adviser, Axelrod carefully formulated the strategy and framing that ultimately earned the far Left U.S. Senator from Illinois the Democratic Party’s nomination and eventually, the White House. Such a feat was to be rewarded even more handsomely than previous campaign managers, who typically cram themselves into strategic, though often unwelcome, roles in the new administration.
President Obama bestowed upon Axelrod the title of “Senior Adviser” for his fledgling administration. After all, the president certainly made no secret of his plans to fill the White House with his Chicago-based allies. Axelrod joined the ranks of Windy City natives, such as then-Congressman Rahm Emanuel, who later became the White House Chief of Staff, and his brother, Dr. Ezekiel “Zeke” Emanuel, who was tasked with crafting health care reform legislation for the Administration. As if hanging out with his hometown buddies wasn’t enough of an incentive, Axelrod was encouraged by his national agenda-setting role and a $200,000 annual salary.
Despite all the perks of living a politico’s dream of further expanding his sphere of influence, Axelrod appeared dissatisfied by the substantial pay cut of shifting from the private to public service sector. According to a November 2008 Politico report, the political strategist’s firm collected more than $35 million in profits since 1998 for their extensive lobbying and consulting work, $2.5 million of which came from Obama’s presidential campaign, and Axelrod would be forced to decide whether to take a leadership role in the most liberal White House in American history, or to stick with his firm in Chicago.
Luckily for David Axelrod, he never actually had to make that choice. Axelrod began his work in the White House, but did not entirely abandon his booming consulting company. Certainly, this seems like a bit of a dilemma of ethics, with one man receiving a taxpayer-funded salary, while also maintaining private sector-based income in the same field. But in typical Obama Administration fashion, this sort of moral conundrum would not deter the President’s senior adviser, who sought to capitalize on the country’s current hot button issue: health care reform.
While Axelrod worked behind the scenes to craft policy that would lead to a government overhaul of the medical industry, his firm in Chicago lobbied special interest groups to earn massive media contracts that would help dictate political discourse during the debate. According to an August 19, 2009 Associated Press report, President Obama’s efforts to push his health care reform agenda have created a “financial windfall in the election offseason to Democratic consulting firms that are closely connected” to the President and Axelrod.
These coalition groups are currently running “at least $24 million in pro-overhaul ads” with the help of GMMB, a consulting group led by a “top Obama campaign strategist” and AKPD Message and Media, the firm owned by none other than David Axelrod. Michael Axelrod, David’s son, now manages the day-to-day affairs of his father’s AKPD Message and Media, aided in part by his employee, David Plouffe, Obama’s presidential campaign manager.
One of their biggest clients, Americans for Stable Quality Care, is comprised of political and financial heavyweights like the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), American Medical Association (AMA), FamiliesUSA and PhRMA, the last promising to pony up $150 million to promote the President’s health care reform agenda.
While the Associated Press concedes that there is “no evidence that Axelrod directly profited from the group’s ads,” they also admit that he will draw $2 million from the firm over the next four years. The larger issue, Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, contends, is a “network of relationships and overlapping interests” that could become a “problem as Obama tries to win the public over on health care and fulfill his promise to change the way Washington works.”
Indeed, candidate Obama repeatedly condemned such “inside baseball” dealings, lamenting that this sort of behavior leads to the American people distrusting lawmakers to govern responsibly. Even if Axelrod is not, as he claims, directly profiting from these contracts, is it not political patronage for his firm, and really, his son, to enjoy profitable deals with longtime Obama cohorts, like the SEIU?
And even despite attempts of both David Axelrod and AKPD to distance themselves from each other, AKDP and GMBB, a partner firm in the health care reform media blitz, both “proudly proclaim their connections to Obama on their Web sites.”
AKPD has a full page on Axelrod that includes pictures of Obama. In one photo, Obama hugs Plouffe on election night.
“We are deeply honored to have been part of Barack Obama’s historic campaign to change America and the world,” GMMB says on its Web site. GMMB’s partners include Jim Margolis, a senior strategist for Obama’s presidential campaign.
Fox News reports that leading lobbying law expert Kenneth Gross is not at all shocked by this relationship, finding it to be only natural for such a profitable favor to be given to AKPD and GMMB.
“To victor go the spoils. The health care message is very much like a campaign message and it’s not surprising they would use the same vendor that knows the substance of the administration’s issues,” Gross said.
It seems that the two consulting groups have even more explaining to do, as it is apparent they have profited tremendously from David Axelrod’s political affiliations on a national level (Associated Press).
Both GMMB and AKPD also have worked for Democrats this year. The Democratic National Committee paid AKPD at least $106,000 for polling, media production, communication consulting and travel costs from February through April. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee paid GMMB roughly $75,000 from February through June for ads. And GMMB took in at least $9,000 this year from Senate leader Reid’s political action committee for communications consulting.
Republicans argue that such patronage is deplorable and should serve as a cause for alarm for the American people (Fox News).
But House Republicans insist PhRMA had a hand in hiring the firms — and continue to question the motives of both the drug lobby and the White House.
“Out of all the firms Pharma could choose to do their media work, they chose David Axelrod’s firm, which still maintains Axelrod’s son on the payroll and owes Axelrod himself $2 million,” House Republican Conference spokesman Mike Lloyd wrote in an e-mail.
“It’s hard to believe the public can be assured that David Axelrod isn’t influenced by any of this in the course of the health care debate. For an administration that promised ‘change’ and to be above even an appearance of impropriety this does not even come close to passing the smell test,” Lloyd wrote.
When President Obama proclaimed that he wanted to bring about “change,” what he really meant was that he wanted more of the same, just with liberals at the helm. He got his wish with David Axelrod.
