Recess Roastings: Top White House Advisor Stands to Benefit from Massive Pro-ObamaCare Ad Buy

Top White House Advisor Stands to Benefit from Massive Pro-ObamaCare Ad Buy

More Change You Can’t Believe as a Culture of Hypocrisy Permeates Dem-Controlled Washington

SPIN CYCLE: New Administration Vows Tough New Ethics Policy to Prevent Appointees Profiting from Issues Worked On

“The American people also deserve more than simply an assurance that those coming to Washington will serve their interests. They deserve to know that there are rules on the books to keep it that way. In the Executive Order on Ethics Commitments by Executive Branch Personnel, the President, first, prohibits executive branch employees from accepting gifts from lobbyists. Second, he closes the revolving door that allows government officials to move to and from private sector jobs in ways that give that sector undue influence over government. Third, he requires that government hiring be based upon qualifications, competence and experience, not political connections. He has ordered every one of his appointees to sign a pledge abiding by these tough new rules as a downpayment on the change he has promised to bring to Washington.” (White House statement on ethics and transparency orders, January 21, 2009)

RINSE CYCLE: Obama Chief Advisor In Line for Millions Thanks to Ad Buys Touting Administration Plan

Critics of President Obama’s health-care overhaul are zeroing in on his senior adviser David Axelrod, whose former partners at a Chicago-based firm are the beneficiaries of huge ad buys—now at $24 million and counting—by White House allies in the reform fight.

The unwelcome scrutiny, largely from Republicans, comes at an inopportune time as Obama seeks to shore up support for health care reform. It revolves around two separate $12 million ad campaigns advocating Obama’s health care plan that were produced and placed partly by AKPD Message and Media, a firm founded by Axelrod that employs his son and still owes Axelrod $2 million.

A separate firm, GMMB, is also handling the campaigns. Both AKPD and GMMB did millions of dollars of work on Obama’s presidential campaign, continue to tout their connections to the campaign and still maintain close ties to his inner circle.

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Financial disclosure records show that Axelrod, while preparing to take a job in the White House at the end of last year, sold AKPD for $2 million. And the records show that he sold a separate corporate public relations firm he founded called ASK Public Strategies for $1 million at the end of 2008.

AKPD is now owned by a group of consultants who helped steer Obama’s campaign, mostly while working at the firm, and ASK is owned Axelrod’s former partners there. Both firms will pay his buyouts in preset annual installments starting at the end of this year, terms that were settled on prior to Axelrod’s White House service.

AKPD officials declined to speak publicly about the arrangement, but a source familiar with the firm’s operations and finances said it is not reliant on the revenue from the Healthy Economy Now and Americans for Stable Quality Care campaigns to fulfill Axelrod’s annual payments, which the source described as “a fraction” of AKPD’s operating costs.

Additionally, the source said David Axelrod never discussed the coalitions’ campaigns with representatives from the firm or the coalitions themselves. The source added that Axelrod’s son Michael is a junior-level AKPD employee who has worked there for fewer than five years and is not involved in the coalitions.

It’s difficult to determine the clientele of ASK or AKPD, since neither are required to report them. But Axelrod’s disclosure statement shows that before he left the firms, both represented clients with business interests that stand to be affected by administration policy.

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Nonetheless, the selection of Axelrod’s former firm to push the president’s top initiative raises appearance questions, particularly since Axelrod’s son Michael still works there, said Bill Allison of the Sunlight Foundation, which advocates for stricter government disclosure and ethics rules.

“The big issue seems to me whether there is a quid pro quo with PhRMA,” said Allison, adding “there’s no evidence that Axelrod steered the business to the firm. But the fact that special interests like PhRMA and the American Medical Association working hand in glove with the White House picked a firm that is so close to the White House shows how incestuous Washington can be.” (“Axelrod’s ties targeted in health fight,” Politico, August 19, 2009)

To read the full article, click here: http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=30A84C8F-18FE-70B2-A8A2D3B0609CA63D

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