“ASK not . . .. ”
By LisaB on May 28, 2008 at 10:31 AM in Barack Obama, David Axelrod, Lobbyists
“I am in this race to tell the corporate lobbyists that their days of setting the agenda in Washington are over. I have done more than any other candidate in this race to take on lobbyists — and won. They have not funded my campaign, they will not run my White House, and they will not drown out the voices of the American people when I am president.”
— Barack Obama, Speech in Des Moines, IA, November 10, 2007
In this week’s edition of Newsweek, Michael Isikoff lays out the role David Axelrod, chief strategist for the Obama campaign, plays in a lobbying firm: ASK Public Strategies. Well, actually, Axelrod is a senior partner of said firm.
ASK is in the news — in this week’s issue of Newsweek, “Obama’s Lobbyist Connection” because of its less-than-transparent role in getting a rate increase for Commonwealth Edison in Illinois, all while maintaining the facade of a consumer advocacy position.
Axelrod has a political firm, but it DOES share office space with ASK, according to Isikoff.
We’ve been told Chicago politics is different from the old, nasty and corrupt Washington, DC variety and the heinous New York strain. That must be why there are two firms: ASK and the “political firm.” Maybe it’s just good old midwestern thriftiness that makes them share office space.
We all remember the power that David Axelrod has wielded in shaping Obama’s political persona. We know that Mr. Axelrod is doing the same for his corporate clients:
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