February 23, 2006
On Transparency In Political Consulting
The decision by the Steelworkers union to badger Dem consultants working for Rep. Henry Cuellar has lifted the curtains on a debate about transparency that many in the consulting world have urged for years.
Doug Bailey, a legendary Republican consultant and the Hotline's founder, sees transparency as a step toward accountability. If consultants sign up candidates knowing that their decision will be subject to analysis and even to pressure by party activists and the media, "It causes consultants to make decisions on who they work for based not only on finances but on beliefs."
Says Bailey: "They make a judgment call on something more than money because they're going to be held accountable for it. They ought to act is if everything they do ought to be known by the public. If they don't want it ot be known by the public, why are they doing it?"
Virtually everybody in politics has their own brand of apostasy. And most consultants have had one night stands with strange bedfellows. Labor unions in New York supported Republican Mike Bloomberg while Dem firms (like Global Strategy Group, a target of the Steelworkers' anti-Cuellar campaign) slaved away on the traditional Dem campaign of Fernando Ferrer.
And the very fact that Cuellar has D consultants is a signal that he's trying to wear the clothes of a Democrat. (Remember what party many of Bloomberg's consultants belonged to?)
Bailey spent 20 years as an ad-maker and media strategist. "I came to the conclusion that it's the quality of the person that you're working for rather than the particular stands on the particular issues that matter. If you are reluctant to work for somebody because if somebody other people found out about it you wouldn't get other jobs, then what are you working for that person for?"
There is a difference between outing somebody and organizing a campaign to hurt their business. (We're not saying that the latter tactic is never valid, only that transparency and accountability are context-dependent.)
Says Bailey: "If the effort is to make it difficult for those consultants ever to get another job and to work aggressively to that no campaign ever hires those consultants again, that's probably going too far."
But, he says, "I think it is appropriate for consultant to have to live with the consequences of their decisions."
Says USW official Gary Hubbard, "The USW is always willing to try bold approaches in elections that reflect fierce persistence and commitment to our members' political values. We need to make an example of Cuellar so that Ciro Rodreguez is elected."
In the same vein, will the Steelworkers, too, be held accountable for the candidates they've supported and firms they've hired?
Consider this, too: it's easy to find out who works for whom. But transparency is near-impossible when consultants themselves subcontract work to third parties, who often possess the greater potential conflicts of interests. Many political consultants brag about their political clients but refuse to disclose their corporate clients. [MARC AMBINDER]
Posted at 04:14 PM
Comments
Doug, Gail Russell Chaddock of the CSMonitor urged me to contact you now that the mid term elections are over. I will be out of the country until Dec 15th but would like to hear from you and meet early next year.
I polled 11% as a ex-Reagan Appointee Reform Party Candidate and garnered 5 of the 7 Colo Dist 4 daily newspapers.
www.eric4congress.org
Thanks
Eric Eidsness | 11.08.06 11:39 AM
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