Anne Wexler | |
|---|---|
 Wexler at the White House in 1978 | |
| Director of the Office of Public Liaison | |
| In office September 1, 1978 –January 20, 1981 | |
| Children | 4 |
| Education | Skidmore College (BA) |
Anne Levy Wexler (February 10, 1930 – August 7, 2009) was an influential American Democratic political consultant, public policy advisor, and later the first woman to head a leading lobbying firm in Washington, D.C.
She was born as Anne Levy on February 10, 1930, in Manhattan, the daughter of Leon R. Levy, a prominent architect who designed the New York Coliseum. Her first involvement in politics was ringing doorbells for Harry S. Truman as a history major at Skidmore College.
She married ophthalmologist Richard Wexler two weeks after her 1951 graduation. As a housewife in Westport, Connecticut, she described herself as having "all the Jewish princess stuff—a lovely home, a full-time maid, lots of vacations" before she started becoming involved in politics. [1]
In the 1960s, Wexler began her political career by serving on the Westport Zoning Board of Appeals and by helping John Fitzgerald organize a Congressional campaign against the pro-Vietnam war Democratic incumbent Donald J. Irwin. [2] She organized the Connecticut effort for Eugene McCarthy's 1968 presidential campaign, and served on the rules committee at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, where she was the primary author of the committee's minority report, whose recommendations on reforms in choosing delegates were later accepted. [1]
She managed the 1970 United States Senate campaign in Connecticut for Democrat Joseph Duffey, a Democrat who came in second to Republican Lowell P. Weicker Jr., with incumbent Thomas J. Dodd coming in third. [1] Bill and Hillary Clinton, then students at Yale Law School, were recruited among the campaign's volunteer workers. (Mrs. Clinton, while running for president in 2008, credited Wexler with providing her first political job.) [3]
After a divorce from her first husband, in September 1974, Wexler married Duffey, who would later head the National Endowment for the Humanities and the United States Information Agency. [1]
Working for Common Cause in 1971, Wexler headed a short-lived voting rights effort before directing the 1972 presidential campaign of Democrat Edmund Muskie. When Muskie dropped out of the race, she led a voter registration campaign for Democratic nominee George McGovern, who was defeated by Richard Nixon in the general election. [1]
Rolling Stone magazine hired Wexler as an associate publisher in 1973, where her duties managing political reporting included overseeing the notoriously unconventional Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson, who would sometimes stay at the Duffey-Wexler residence while in Washington, D.C. [1]
During the 1976 presidential election, Wexler worked for the Jimmy Carter campaign and served on his transition team after Carter's victory over Gerald Ford. Being responsible for screening candidates for top-level positions, she recommended the little-known Juanita M. Kreps as the first woman to become United States Secretary of Commerce. Wexler herself then became undersecretary of the Department of Commerce. [1]
Wexler later moved to the White House, succeeding Midge Costanza as special assistant to President Carter for public outreach within the White House Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs. In that role, she set up meetings with the President with hundreds of business and opinion leaders, working to get their support for Carter's agenda as part of an effort she described as intended to "create lobbyists" by "educating people on the substance of the issues". [1] [4] [5] Assisted by her efforts, Carter was able to secure passage of the Torrijos-Carter Treaties that would lead to the end of U.S. control over the Panama Canal, as well as deregulation of the airlines, trucking industry and newly found natural gas. [1]
Then-White House Deputy Chief of Staff Hamilton Jordan described her in 1978 as "the most competent woman in Democratic politics in this country". [1]
Immediately after the Carter administration ended with the election of Ronald Reagan to the presidency in 1980, Wexler established what would become one of the leading lobbying firms in Washington, Wexler & Walker Public Policy Associates, [1] [6]
Described by The Washington Post as "the first woman to own a lobbying firm", she later recalled her entry into a field that "was completely male dominated". [3] She ensured that the firm had a bipartisan base, bringing in Ronald Reagan friend Nancy Clark Reynolds and hired former Republican congressman (and Newt Gingrich ally) Robert Smith Walker of Pennsylvania after he left office in 1997. [1]
The firm's clients included General Motors and the government of Australia, which honored her as an Officer of the Order of Australia for her meritorious service. Her firm was acquired by Hill & Knowlton in 1990, within which it operated independently. [1]
Called the "Rolodex Queen" for the number and scope of her contacts, and lauded by Washingtonian magazine as "easily the most influential female lobbyist" in the capital, she credited her success to fulfilling the lobbyist's responsibility of guiding legislators through the pros and cons of complex legislation, a process that "government officials are not comfortable making ... by themselves." [1] [7]
She died at the age of 79 on August 7, 2009, in her home in Washington, D.C. from cancer. [3] Wexler had had breast cancer since being diagnosed in 1981. [8] She was survived by her second husband, Joseph Duffey; two sons from her first marriage, David and Daniel Wexler; stepsons, Michael and David Duffey; and four grandchildren. [3]
Hilary Rosen is the former head of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). She was a columnist for The Washington Post, became the first Washington editor-at-large and political director of The Huffington Post, and has provided political commentary for CNN, CNBC, and MSNBC.
Edmund Sixtus Muskie was an American statesman and political leader who served as the 58th United States secretary of state under President Jimmy Carter from 1980 to 1981, a United States senator from Maine from 1959 to 1980, the 64th governor of Maine from 1955 to 1959, and a member of the Maine House of Representatives from 1946 to 1951. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for vice president in the 1968 presidential election.
Stephanie Marie Herseth Sandlin is an American attorney, university administrator, and politician from the Democratic Party. She represented South Dakota's at-large congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 2004 until 2011. Sandlin was first elected to Congress in a special election on July 12, 2004, and was reelected three times before losing to Republican Kristi Noem in 2010. She was the youngest female member of the House, and the first woman elected to the House from South Dakota. Before her 2007 marriage to Max Sandlin, she was known as Stephanie Herseth. She is a Democrat and a member of the Herseth family of South Dakota.
Betsey Ross Wright is an American lobbyist, activist, and political consultant who worked more than a decade for Bill Clinton in Arkansas. She served as chief of staff to Governor Clinton for seven years. As deputy chair of the 1992 Clinton presidential campaign, Wright established the rapid response system that was responsible for defending Clinton's record in Arkansas and promptly answering all personal attacks on the candidate. During the 1992 campaign, Wright coined the term "bimbo eruptions" to describe rumors alleging extramarital affairs by Clinton. In the 1990s, Wright was an executive for the Wexler Group, a lobbying firm in Washington, D.C. She currently resides in Rogers, Arkansas.
Joseph Daniel Duffey was an American academic, educator, anti-war activist and political appointee. He was the Democratic Party's candidate in the 1970 U.S. Senate election in Connecticut, losing to Republican Lowell Weicker. He later served as the Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs; the chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities; the director of the U.S. Information Agency; and the president or chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the University of Massachusetts system and American University.
The K Street Project was an effort by the Republican Party (GOP) to pressure Washington lobbying firms to hire Republicans in top positions, and to reward loyal GOP lobbyists with access to influential officials, an arrangement known as crony capitalism. It was launched in 1995 by Republican strategist Grover Norquist and then-House majority whip Tom DeLay. It has been criticized as being part of a "coziness" between the GOP and large corporations which has allegedly allowed business to rewrite government regulations affecting their own industries in some cases, such as with Dick Cheney's energy task force.
Lanny Jesse Davis is an American political operative, lawyer, consultant, lobbyist, author, and television commentator. He is the co-founder and partner of the law firm of Davis Goldberg & Galper PLLC, and co-founder and partner of the public relations firm Trident DMG. From 1996 to 1998, he served as a special counsel to President Bill Clinton, and was a spokesperson for the President and the White House on matters concerning campaign-finance investigations and other legal issues.
Lobbying in the United States describes paid activity in which special interest groups hire well-connected professional advocates, often lawyers, to argue for specific legislation in decision-making bodies such as the United States Congress. It is often perceived negatively by journalists and the American public; critics consider it to be a form of bribery, influence peddling, and/or extortion. Lobbying is subject to complex rules which, if not followed, can lead to penalties including jail. Lobbying has been interpreted by court rulings as free speech protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Since the 1970s, the numbers of lobbyists and the size of lobbying budgets has grown and become the focus of criticism of American governance.
Anita Dunn is an American political strategist serving as a senior advisor to U.S. President Joe Biden, having originally held the post from January 20, 2021, to August 12, 2021, and returning May 5, 2022.
Timmons & Company is an American lobbying firm based in Washington, D.C. After William Timmons left the Ford White House in 1975, he founded this company along with Tom Korologos, who had reported to Timmons as Richard Nixon's White House legislative liaison.
Steven J. Ricchetti is an American political aide serving as a Counselor to the President under President Joe Biden. He was the chairman of Joe Biden's 2020 presidential campaign. Ricchetti previously served as Chief of Staff to Vice President Biden during the Obama administration and Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations under President Bill Clinton. In between stints in Democratic administrations, Ricchetti has worked as a lobbyist.
Heather Miller Podesta is an American lawyer and lobbyist based in Washington, D.C. She is also a patron of contemporary art.
Holly Kinser is a Pennsylvania lobbyist, where she is the President of The Kinser Group. As a lobbyist for the City of Philadelphia, she is credited with driving legislation in the Pennsylvania General Assembly, including a rental-car and hotel tax, to help fund the construction of sports stadiums and to expand the Philadelphia International Airport. Details of her marriage and subsequent divorce to former Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives Bill DeWeese garnered significant coverage in the media.
Jane Frances Muskie was an American civic leader and writer who, as the wife of Edmund Muskie, served as First Lady of Maine from 1955 to 1959. She was an active campaigner for her husband, supporting his political career on both state and national levels while he served in the Maine House of Representatives, as Governor of Maine, as a United States senator, and as Secretary of State. During the 1972 United States presidential election, she was accused in the Canuck letter, a forged letter reportedly written by Donald Segretti and Ken W. Clawson that was published by William Loeb III in the Manchester Union Leader, of being "racially intolerant", a "drunkard", and using colorful language on the campaign trail. Her husband publicly rebuked the letter, calling Loeb a "gutless coward" in an emotional display that ultimately lost him the 1972 Democratic Presidential Primary. Muskie later spoke about the incident with her husband in an interview with The New York Times in 1986, saying that "now it's quite acceptable for a man to show his emotions.. President Reagan does it all the time."
Direct lobbying in the United States are methods used by lobbyists to influence United States legislative bodies. Interest groups from many sectors spend billions of dollars on lobbying.
Anthony Thomas Podesta is an American lobbyist best known for founding the Podesta Group. The brother of former White House Chief of staff John Podesta, he was formerly one of Washington's most powerful lobbyists and fundraisers.
The United States Senate election of 1970 in Connecticut was held on November 3, 1970. Incumbent Democratic Senator Thomas J. Dodd ran for a third term in office. After Dodd was censured in the Senate's first modern ethics case, he lost party support for re-election but stood as an independent. Republican U.S. Representative Lowell Weicker defeated Dodd and Democratic candidate Joseph Duffey.
The Glover Park Group was an American communications consulting firm headquartered in Washington, D.C. The company was founded in 2001 by former White House and Democratic campaign officials Carter Eskew, Michael Feldman, Joe Lockhart and Chip Smith. In January 2021, the firm merged with Finsbury and Hering Schuppener to form Finsbury Glover Hering, which itself later merged in December 2021 with New York City-based Sard Verbinnen & Co to form FGS Global.
Nancy Clark Reynolds was an American television journalist who went on to become a press secretary for Ronald Reagan and was a founder of the Washington, D.C. lobbying firm Wexler, Reynolds, Harrison & Schule.
Director of the Office of Public Liaison | ||
|---|---|---|
 | ||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
