Annie Weir & Thomas Fitzgerald
Annie Weirs fundraising firm was part of Kathryn Garcias New York City mayoral campaign that almost broke through, and her team helped Democrats keep or pick up several state Senate seats on the way to winning a supermajority last year. She has also worked with Long Island candidates, including Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone.
Key clients: Kathryn Garcia for New York City mayor, Brad Hoylman for Manhattan borough president Anna Kaplan, Michelle Hinchey, Andrew Gounardes and Laura Ahearn for state Senate
Biggest accomplishment: Our firm was thrilled to work with Kathryn Garcia on her mayoral campaign. While she may not have won the primary, New Yorkers are better for having had her voice and experience in the race. And as a Quinn campaign veteran as well, perhaps next time we will break that glass ceiling at Gracie Mansion!
Peter Brown & Chris Miller
Founding Partners, BrownMillerGroup
Key clients: Jessica Ramos, Elizabeth Crowley, Dawn Smalls, Tiffany Cabán, Nader Sayegh, Grace Lee, Shawyn Patterson-Howard, Jovia Radix, Joseph Ruggiero
Biggest accomplishment? Our work with grassroots progressive insurgents including Mount Vernon Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard near-wins with Queens DA candidate Tiffany Cabán and public advocate candidate Dawn Smalls issue advocacy wins with TenantsPAC’s wins for New York tenants and being chosen by the city of New York to run the U.S. Census outreach canvass.
Ben Allen Max Kramer Tucker Green & Michael Kenney
A go-to fundraiser for Democratic candidates in New York, Tucker Green recently took on a new client: Gov. Kathy Hochul, who is looking to secure a full term in office after replacing Andrew Cuomo this year. Greens growing firm, which has a new 5,000-square-foot office in midtown Manhattan at East 44th Street and Madison Avenue, also has a political advertising and outreach subsidiary called Conscious Voter Contact, which now brings in more revenue than fundraising. The firm has worked for state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan, state Sens. Liz Krueger and Tim Kennedy, Suffolk County District Attorney Tim Sini and former Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas.
Key clients: Gov. Kathy Hochul, Rep. Kathleen Rice, Nassau County Executive Laura Curran, Maya Wiley for New York City mayor, Jumaane Williams for New York City public advocate, David Weprin for New York City comptroller, Tali Farhadian Weinstein for Manhattan district attorney New York City Council candidates Julie Menin and Richard Lee state Sens. Todd Kaminsky and Kevin Thomas
Biggest accomplishment: Building out our digital advertising shop and running digital ad campaigns on campaigns across the city and state.
Recommended Reading: Dumbest Group Of Voters
What You Need To Know About Opposition Research
Research is a critical part of any political campaign. Determining your weaknesses and your opponents weaknesses can make the difference in your election.
Recently, I sat down with two of the best researchers in the business, Ben Jones of Jones Mandel and Sonia Van Meter of Stanford Campaigns.
This is a bit longer post than we usually do, but we think youll find it as fascinating as we did.
Sonia Van Meter is the Managing Partner of Stanford Campaigns. She moved to Austin in 2003 graduate school at the University of Texas at Austin, but soon found she preferred activism to academia. She joined Stanford Campaigns in 2009, she has worked hundreds of campaigns and IEs all over the country.
Benjamin Jones is the CEO and co-founder of Jones Mandel. Based in Seattle, WA, he is a veteran strategist with 26 years of experience working with candidate campaigns, issue groups and a handful of like-minded corporations. Ben and his team at JM have helped elect six current U.S. Senators, six current Governors, numerous U.S. House Members and many local leaders.
Whats your biggest research coup?
What makes a great hit?
How is your business changing now that people are bringing more research in house?
Whats the most common thing you flag a piece of creative for?
Whats your advice for young prospective candidates about how to keep their noses clean, and what about your digital footprint?
Kasey Obrien & Liz Bennett
Last year, Middle Seat Consulting positioned Jamaal Bowman to be the only House challenger in New York to knock out an incumbent in the Democratic primary, following in the footsteps of another client, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The Washington, D.C., firm is hoping to keep the trend going next year, backing Rana Abdelhamids 2022 challenge of Rep. Carolyn Maloney. The progressive-minded firm also worked on the Biden-Harris campaign.
Key clients: Joe Biden for president,Rana Abdelhamid for Congress, Tahanie Aboushi for Manhattan district attorney, Justice Democrats
Biggest accomplishment: Middle Seat led digital fundraising efforts for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortezs reelection campaign, helping raise nearly $20 million in the 2020 cycle.
Read Also: ‘donald Trump People 1998’.
Scott Levenson Sebastian Levenson Thomas Musich & Ana Rodrigues
Before Scott Levenson launched The Advance Group three decades ago, he worked on the campaigns of the Rev. Jesse Jackson for president, David Dinkins for New York City mayor and Mark Green for New York City public advocate. Now, along with his son Sebastian Levenson and key staffers Thomas Musich and Ana Rodrigues, he helped the Bronxs Vanessa Gibson and Queens Donovan Richards win pivotal primaries for borough president.
Key clients: Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, Vanessa Gibson for Bronx borough president Farah Louis, Selvena Brooks-Powers, Kamillah Hanks and Ari Kagan for New York City Council
Biggest accomplishment:The reelection of Donovan Richards as Queens borough president and election of Vanessa Gibson as Bronx borough president.
David Mansur & Allegra Scheinblum
Partners, Culver Place Strategies
Culver Place Strategies is led by openly LGBTQ fundraising consultants David Mansur and Allegra Scheinblum. Among their clients are a number of congressional, state legislative and district attorney candidates.
Key clients: Jerrold Nadler, David Carlucci, Perry Gershon, Melissa Mark-Viverito , Mimi Rocah, John Brooks, Monica Martinez, James Skoufis, James Gaughran, Liz Krueger, Dan Quart, Carmen De La Rosa, Robert Cornegy, Melinda Katz, Letitia James, Eric Gonzalez, Darcel Clark
Read Also: Democrats Switching To Republican
Bradley Tusk & Chris Coffey
Early on this cycle, it looked like former presidential candidate Andrew Yang might be the next mayor of New York City, and Tusk Strategies was going to be perhaps the biggest reason why. Company founder Bradley Tusk, who had engineered then-New York City Mayor Michael Bloombergs 2009 reelection victory, teamed up with Yang, and his staff held key positions, including Chris Coffey as co-campaign manager. However, the Yang campaign eventually fizzled and finished fourth place in the Democratic primary.
Key client: Andrew Yang for New York City mayor
Ronn Torossian Ceo 5w Public Relations
The founder of 5WPR, a top 20 independent American PR firm is the rare NY Republican PR Agency owner. A native New Yorker, Torossian is a regular op-ed columnist for conservative news outlets including Newsmax, Frontpage Magazine, Truth Revolt and others, and has worked for many of the leading Evangelical churches in the United States.
Torossian has been named the PR Executive of the year on numerous occasions, won awards from Ernst & Young and has an office with 150 employees in New York City, directly across the street from Fox News. His agency also represents Sinclair Broadcasting, the largest independent broadcaster in the United States.
Well respected for his aggressive nature in crisis PR situations, he started his career working for the conservative Likud Party in Israel, and today is active with the Republican Jewish Coalition so apparently 5WPR has a Republican PR Firm owner.
You May Like: Trump Republicans Are The Dumbest Voters
How To Pick The Right Political Consulting Firm
Most candidates pick a consultant they have already worked with. Pete Buttigieg, for his 2020 Presidential nomination has Mike Schumhl as his campaign manager. Schumhl had previously run Buttigiegs Indiana Mayoral campaign. He had also served as his chief of staff.
Similarly, Obama had his trusted advisors David Axelrod and David Plouffe for both his winning elections.
Both these examples highlight a few critical requirements for your consultant. The consultant you pick should be:
Such a combination is usually tough to find. Also, compounded by a consultants Dont Blame Us attitude, choosing whom to trust can get very tricky.
We had people who obviously didnt have, necessarily, my best interest in mind. I think for them it was a job. A lot of money was made, and a lot of advantage was taken
After all, you dont want to wind up like Carson. Despite having one of the best fundraisers in the 2016 elections, he still couldnt win the primaries because he felt his political consultants didnt steer him right.
Can You Win Without A Political Consulting Firm
Despite the wealth of information and tools political consultants arm you with, it is still possible to win an election without their insights.
The most recent example is Donald Trump. For his Republican Nomination, he spent less than all the other candidates and went on to become the President. And the kicker? He did not hire a political consultant firm!
Take a look at how thoroughly he swept the elections:
When compared to the other candidates, Trump did not spend spectacularly on media ads. His ground-game wasnt on point, campaign infrastructure non-existent, and his targeting couldve used help.
But he still won the race, because as a candidate, he leveraged public opinion and nailed campaign messaging!
Of the factors that decide elections, consultants rank a distant fifth. Whats most important, not surprisingly, is the candidate himself.
The myth about political consultants, newrepublic.com
Don’t Miss: Gillette Stadium Pro Shop Hours
We Win Elections And Awards
We won 5 Pollie Awards from the American Association of Political Consultants. These are considered the Oscars of the political advertising industry. Over 400 firms submitted over 2,700 entries and we were one of the relatively few honored.
- We also won two awards for Portland City Councilmember Dan Ryans campaign Best Use of Television For Small Budget Local Campaign for Brother Tim and Best Use of Direct Mail for a Small Budget Campaign for COVID. Ryan upset a long-term politician after having been behind 54-36 in our own polling.
- Our advertising for the Montana Federation of Public Employees won an award for the Best Mail for an Independent Expenditure Campaign for Governor, where we overcame 3:1 in outside spending to win the Democratic nomination.
- Finally, we won an award for Best Mail for a Small-Budget Independent Expenditure Campaign for our work for the New Jersey Education Associations 527 Committee, Garden State Forward. We replaced three incumbent school board members with three first-time candidates.
Were excited for these victories! Wed love to partner with you on your next campaign and win more elections and national honors.
Privacy Issues And Investigations
The use of personal data collected without knowledge or permission to establish sophisticated models of user’s personalities raises ethical and privacy issues. CA operated out of the United States its operations would be illegal in Europe with its stricter privacy laws. While Cruz was outspoken about protecting personal information from the government, his database of CA has been described as “political-voter surveillance“.
Regarding CA’s use of Facebook users, a speaker for CA indicated that these users gave permission when signing up with the provider, while Facebook declared that “misleading people or misusing information” is in violation of Facebook’s policies. In 2015, Facebook indicated that it was investigating the matter. In March 2018, Facebook announced that it had suspended the accounts of Strategic Communication Laboratories for failing to delete data on Facebook users that had been improperly collected.
Alexander Nix suggested that data collection and microtargeting benefits the voters because they receive messages about issues they care about. However, digital rights protection groups raised concerns that private information is collected, stored, and shared while individuals are “left in the dark about ” and have no control.
You May Like: How Many Republicans Presidents
We’re Experts In Digital Politics
Founded in 1998 by digital pioneer Becki Donatelli, Campaign Solutions made history by raising the first-ever online donation in politics on our proprietary eDonation platform. Since then, we’ve gone on to build an award-winning team offering unparalleled expertise in political strategy, online fundraising, advertising, social media, web design and development, data targeting, mobile solutions and more. We’ve raised over $100,000 per day, every day, for our clients for over 20 years and have served as digital consultants for multiple presidential campaigns, several national conventions, and hundreds of Senate, House, gubernatorial, and local races.
At our core, we believe that politics and the Internet both fundamentally revolve around people, and spend our days obsessing over how to better connect clients with the people who support and care about them.
We’re a culture of innovators, creators, dreamers, and doers who are convinced that the work we do every day helps make our clients better and more prepared. We have the experience to make it happen, having advised campaigns from the state house to the White House, as well as ballot initiatives, PACs, political organizations, and corporate and non-profit entities.
Public Affairs & Strategic Communications
Cornerstone Public Affairs offers strategic counsel from experienced, senior-level professionals to develop and deploy your message in an ever-changing, non-stop media environment. We offer a full suite of public relations services targeted for key audiences or engineered for a broader audience with efficiency and impact.
Also Check: Patriot Square Condos For Sale
Doug Goodyear Ceo Dci Group
When he co-founded DCI Group in 1996, it was a single-client startup. Now it has grown to become one of the countrys largest independently-owned public affairs firms.
DCI Group has several industry associations and Fortune 500 corporations as their clients.
Goodyear first became active in politics in the 1980s in Colorado, where he served as the state GOP political director. In 88, he managed the New Jersey U.S. Senate campaign of Pete Dawkins. Goodyear is an avid baseball fan and helped bring major league baseball to Denver in 1990. He graduated from Tufts University.
Founded In 2003 The Frost Group Is A Premier Political Consulting Firm Specializing In Campaign Pac And Non
With more than 30 years of collective experience, The Frost Group provides tailored strategies for each client, ensuring that we surpass each clients unique fundraising needs.
We are proud to have worked with over 50 Members of Congress, Senators, candidates, non-profits, and federal and super PACs. We have produced extraordinary results for our clients, raising over $200 million in less than 15 years. The Frost Group has played a key role in generating the financing to elect more than ten new Members of Congress and has helped three Senators make the jump from the House to the Senate. In 2016, we had the most successful candidates of any fundraising firm helping elect five new Members of Congress. In 2017, we set the pace for Freshman House fundraising, helping one of our clients out-raise all peers in both parties.
What makes The Frost Group shine is our unwavering commitment to personal attention, strategic planning, and professional execution. We have you covered on all aspects of fundraising: finance plan development and implementation, staff hiring and training, online fundraising, direct mail oversight, social media, and whatever it takes to make your finance operation run flawlessly.
Also Check: How Many Us Presidents Were Republican
Valerie Berlin & Alex Navarro
Principal and Co-founder Managing Director, BerlinRosen
CEOPortrait
BerlinRosen is known for electing Bill de Blasio as New York City mayor, but its client roster shows its not a one-trick pony. The political team helped Pete Buttigieg break through and has delivered for key Long Island candidates and New York City progressives like Jumaane Williams.
Key clients: Pete Buttigieg, Andrew Yang, Adam Schleifer, Perry Gershon, Carolyn Maloney, Tremaine Wright, Elijah Reichlin-Melnick, Rebecca Seawright, Jumaane Williams, Farah Louis, Rory Lancman, Steve Bellone, Madeline Singas, Sean Ryan, Rodneyse Bichotte, Laura Curran, Pat Ryan, Brad Lander
Walter Swett & Darren Rigger
Partners, Dynamic SRG
Meghan Kelly Timothy Greenfield Sanders
Walter Swett and Darren Rigger run Dynamic SRG, a Harlem-based operation that raises millions of dollars for city, state and federal candidates, which, they told City & State, lets them spend more time governing and less time fundraising.
Key clients: Gregory Meeks, Joseph Morelle, Carolyn Maloney, Mark Levine, Gustavo Rivera, Joseph Addabbo Jr., Anna Kaplan, Kevin Thomas, Zellnor Myrie, Inez Dickens, David Weprin, Danny ODonnell
You May Like: How Many Republicans In House
Nathan Smith Matt Rey Doug Forand & Marc Lapidus
When it comes to driving Democratic candidates to victory, Red Horse Strategies truly has as much horsepower as any consulting firm. Founded over a decade ago, the firm has worked with big-name clients such as Reps. Grace Meng and Nydia Velázquez, Westchester County Executive George Latimer and state Sen. Todd Kaminsky as well as 32BJ SEIU and, this cycle, New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Eric Adams. The firm is expanding beyond New York, including in Pennsylvania, Florida, California and Washington, D.C.
Key clients: Eric Adams for New York City mayor, Corey Johnson for New York City comptroller, Antonio Reynoso for Brooklyn borough president, Mark Levine for Manhattan borough president, Tali Farhadian Weinstein for Manhattan district attorney Rafael Salamanca Jr., Carlina Rivera, Francisco Moya, Eric Dinowitz, Crystal Hudson, Jennifer Gutiérrez, Linda Lee, Jenny Low, Austin Shafran, Josué Pierre and Tricia Shimamura for New York City Council
Joe Bonilla & Mike Allen
The consulting, communications and events company Relentless Awareness has been expanding its political work in recent years, primarily in and around the Capital Region. The firm, which has a new studio space right in downtown Albany, has worked for such clients as U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, Rep. Paul Tonko, state Sen. Neil Breslin, Assembly Member Patricia Fahy, Albany County District Attorney David Soares, Albany County Executive Dan McCoy and Albany County Family Court Judge Sherri Brooks.
Key clients: Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan, Rich Mooney for Rensselaer mayor
Biggest accomplishment:David Soares’ win was a highlight of 2020, where he fended off a challenger heavily supported by the WFP in the Democratic primary and especially during the height of COVID-19.
Don’t Miss: Who Is Up For Reelection In 2018 House
