Two W.H. aides form consulting firm - POLITICO.com Print View

Two W.H. aides form consulting firm By: Jeanne Cummings February 16, 2011 02:59 PM EST White House spokesman Bill Burton and Sean Sweeney, a former aide to then-White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, will leave the administration this Friday to form their own political consulting firm, sources told POLITICO. The departure of the two influential insiders comes at a time when many administration officials are repositioning themselves for the 2012 presidential campaign, which will be headquartered in Chicago. Burton and Sweeney have decided to base their new business in Washington, but they, too, are expected to be active in the 2012 cycle. The soon-to-be partners have yet to determine the scope and nature of their consulting practice, except to rule out lobbying, sources said. For Burton and Sweeney, the new political consulting business is in some ways a continuation of an alliance that began when both worked at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee under Emanuel – yet another aide who has left the White House last year and is now running to become Chicago’s mayor. David Axelrod, the former White House political director, is the most high profile aide who has decamped for Chicago, and he and Deputy White House Chief of Staff Jim Messina are already there preparing to rebuild the campaign machinery. Patrick Dillon, an Iowa political insider who was deputy White House political director, has also relocated to Chicago, where he joins his wife, former Democratic National Committee executive director Jennifer O’Malley-Dillon. O’Malley-Dillon has been tapped to serve as deputy campaign manager. That group is expected to be joined later this month by Julianna Smoot, the White House social secretary, who is expected to reprise her role as the campaign’s finance director. Under Smoot’s stewardship, Obama became the most successful presidential fundraiser in history. Burton announced his resignation on the same day that new White House Press Secretary Jay Carney held his first White House briefing. Carney, who had been chief spokesman for Vice President Joe Biden, replaced Robert Gibbs, who left the administration last week and is expected to become a primary voice for the re-election effort on political talk shows. Burton had also been a candidate for that job. In a statement issued Wednesday, Burton said that “while I have felt a real fulfillment in this position — from the walls of this building to the shores of Honolulu — painting the new baby’s room this past weekend gave me clarity about a house I might want to spend a little more time in” once his first child is born this spring. He added that more specifics about the firm will be released after both aides leave the White House, including “things like name, location and where one buys those comfy ergonomic office chairs.” One hole in the Obama re-election operation is the creation or designation of a group outside of the official campaign apparatus that can oversee an independent advertising campaign to rebut a coalition of Republican groups poised to spend millions to unseat the president. After the midterms, Axelrod signaled that the White House would welcome that kind of support – an about-face from 2008 when Obama discouraged independent players, even friendly ones. Several sources, however, said Obama’s allies are still mulling what type of group would serve in that role, how it would be structured and what its mission would be. Both Burton and Sweeney have long been active in Democratic politics. Sweeney began his career in 1998 working on New York Sen. Chuck Schumer’s first campaign and he went on to become an adviser to Hillary Clinton when she ran for the Senate in 2000. In 2006, he served as political director at the DCCC while Burton was its communications director. During their tenure, the Democrats retook control of the House. In 2007, Burton took the job as national press secretary for the Obama campaign. After the election in 2008, he became a deputy White House spokesman. When Emanuel gave up his House seat to become Obama’s chief of staff, Sweeney also moved inside the West Wing to serve as his senior aide. He stayed on as an adviser to Interim Chief of Staff Pete Rouse, who took the job when Emanuel left for Chicago. Sweeney’s job description recently changed again when newly appointed Chief of Staff Bill Daley brought his own chief of staff to Washington. © 2011 Capitol News Company, LLC

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