Romney Hires Bush White House Political Czar

George W. Bush with Ed Gillespie
George W. Bush with Ed Gillespie
Politico:

Moving to broaden his campaign organization beyond his close-knit cadre of advisers, Mitt Romney is bringing on former Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie as a senior adviser, POLITICO has learned.

Gillespie will be a sort of strategist without portfolio to the likely GOP presidential nominee, offering counsel on planning for the Tampa convention, the candidate’s message and a general election strategy for a campaign that is already moving beyond the primary.

Gillespie joined the Bush White House as a top political operative — officially “counselor to the president” — in June 2007. Later that year, after Karl Rove jumped ship, Gillespie took over political operations at the White House, a job that, as had also been the case with Rove, he unofficially shared with Roger Ailes, president of Fox News. Here’s how the New York Times described Gillespie back then:

Unlike his predecessor, Dan Bartlett, who spent his entire adult life working for Mr. Bush, Mr. Gillespie not a presidential intimate, but neither is he a stranger.

In 2000, he was a member of the Gang of Six, a group of strategists for the Bush-Cheney campaign. That same year, he joined with Jack Quinn, a former White House counsel to Mr. Clinton, to found Quinn Gillespie & Associates, his lobbying firm. He earned a reported $4.75 million when he sold his share of the firm to join the White House, but he could easily pass through Washington’s revolving door yet again, earning even more after Mr. Bush leaves office.

Mr. Gillespie’s critics say he traded on his contacts to get rich. “He’s so entwined with the Bush money machine,” said Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen, a watchdog group.

Gillespie was last in the national news when he partnered with Karl Rove in setting up American Crossroads, the right-wing fundraising organization that poured millions from secret donors into campaigns for tea party candidates in 2010.

Connect:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.