Randy Scheunemann | |
|---|---|
| Born | Randall James Scheunemann January 12, 1960 |
| Alma mater | University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Tufts University |
| Political party | Republican |
Randall James "Randy" Scheunemann [1] (born January 12, 1960) is an American neoconservative lobbyist. He is the President of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, which was created by the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), of which he is a board member. He was Trent Lott's National Security Aide and was an advisor to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Iraq. He is a paid lobbyist for the country of Georgia and was 2008 presidential candidate John McCain's foreign policy aide.
Scheunemann moved with his parents to the neighborhood of River Hills, in Burnsville, Minnesota in 1965.
Scheunemann attended public school in Burnsville, Minnesota: Sioux Trail elementary school (1966–1972), John Metcalf Junior High School (1972–1975) and finally Burnsville High School (1975–1978) from which he graduated in 1978.
Scheunemann has a degree from the University of Minnesota, and did graduate work at Tufts University. He moved to Capitol Hill in 1986, working in the office of Republican Senator Dave Durenberger. In 1993, he moved onto the staff of Republican Senator Bob Dole, as a foreign policy advisor. He left Dole's staff to work for Republican Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott. [3]
In 1998, Scheunemann went to work for the public relations firm Mercury Group. [3]
During the 2002 and early 2003 campaign by the George W. Bush administration to generate public support for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Scheunemann had a close association with Iraq exile Ahmad Chalabi. [4] [5]
Until May 2008, Scheunemann was co-owner of a two-person Washington, D.C. lobbying firm, Orion Strategies, LLC. [6] The firm has lobbied on behalf of the Open Society Policy Center, the Caspian Alliance, Lockheed Martin, BP, and the National Rifle Association of America, among foreign governments such as Latvia, Taiwan, Croatia, and Macedonia. [7]
He is a member of the board of directors of the International Republican Institute. [8]
While the foreign affairs advisor to Republican presidential candidate John McCain, Scheunemann was also a registered foreign agent (lobbyist) for the Republic of Georgia. [9] [10]
On April 17, 2008, McCain spoke on the phone with Georgia President Mikheil Saakashvili about the situation in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, two troubled provinces that are considered part of Georgia but have been de facto independent since 1990. That same day, McCain issued a public statement condemning Russia and expressing strong support for the Georgian position. Also on that same day, Georgia signed a new, $200,000 lobbying contract with Scheunemann's firm, Orion Strategies. Scheunemann remained with Orion Strategies until May 15, when the McCain campaign imposed an anti-lobbyist policy and he was required to separate himself from the company. [11]
In mid-July 2008, The Sunday Times linked Scheunemann to Stephen Payne, a lobbyist covertly filmed as he discussed a lobbying contract and offered to arrange meetings with Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and others, and recommended donations to the George W. Bush Presidential Library. Payne said Scheunemann had been "working with me on my payroll for five of the last eight years." [12] In late October 2008, Politico regarded Scheunemann as a potential pick as the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs if John McCain defeats Democratic candidate Barack Obama. [13]
A day after the election, a CNN article claimed that Scheunemann had been fired by the McCain campaign a week earlier for "trashing" campaign staff and "positioning himself with Palin at the expense of John McCain's campaign message." [14] A later article, however, stated that Scheunemann had not been fired, but that many of McCain's top staff wanted him fired and removed his access to his campaign email and Blackberry. [15]
Scheunemann has been focusing on his consulting firm called Orion Strategies, [16] not to be confused with the strategic communications firm Orion Strategies that is based out of West Virginia. In 2013 Scheunemann was involved in a verbal altercation with Richard B. Spencer on a chairlift at Whitefish Mountain Resort. Later in 2013 the two men were involved in another altercation at the Big Mountain Club at the resort, and had to be separated by staff. Scheunemann told staff that he would assault Spencer if he saw him again. Both men resigned from the club following the second incident. [17] [18]
Chester Trent Lott Sr. is an American lobbyist, lawyer, author, and politician who represented Mississippi in the United States House of Representatives from 1973 to 1989 and in the United States Senate from 1989 to 2007. Lott served in numerous leadership positions in both chambers of Congress as one of the first of a wave of Republicans winning seats in Southern states that had been solidly Democratic. Later in his career, he served twice as Senate Majority Leader, and also, alternately, Senate Minority Leader. In 2003, he stepped down from the position after controversy due to his praising of Senator Strom Thurmond's 1948 segregationist Dixiecrat presidential bid.
The Committee for the Liberation of Iraq (CLI) was a non-governmental organization which described itself as a "distinguished group of Americans" who wanted to "free Iraq from Saddam Hussein".
Ralph Eugene Reed Jr. is an American political consultant and lobbyist, best known as the first executive director of the Christian Coalition during the early 1990s. He sought the Republican nomination for the office of Lieutenant Governor of Georgia but lost the primary election on July 18, 2006, to state Senator Casey Cagle. Reed started the Faith and Freedom Coalition in June 2009. Reed and his wife JoAnne Young were married in 1987 and have four children. He is a member of the Council for National Policy.
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The Podesta Group was a lobbying and public affairs firm based in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1988 by brothers John and Tony Podesta and has previously been known as Podesta Associates, podesta.com and PodestaMattoon. John Podesta left the firm in 1993, and Tony Podesta left the firm on October 30, 2017, after finding out about increased scrutiny of the firm. It has essentially ceased to exist since then. The firm reorganized in January 2007 after chairman Tony Podesta split with former business partner Dan Mattoon.
On February 21, 2008, in the midst of John McCain's campaign in the 2008 Republican Party presidential primaries, both The New York Times and the Washington Post published articles detailing rumors of an improper relationship between John McCain and lobbyist Vicki Iseman.
Vicki L. Iseman is an American lobbyist working for the firm Iseman & Szelinga. As a lobbyist for the firm Alcalde & Fay she gained national media attention in February 2008, and again in May 2022, due to her involvement in the John McCain lobbyist controversy.
Charles R. Black Jr. is an American lobbyist and businessman, who is the Founding Chairman of Prime Policy Group, a public affairs firm which is now a subsidiary of Burson Cohn & Wolfe. Prime Policy Group was formed with the merger of Martin B. Gold's Gold & Liebengood with the Washington, DC-based lobbying firm he co-founded—BMSK—with Paul Manafort, Roger J. Stone, and Peter G. Kelly. In 2010, Black was inducted into the American Association of Political Consultants (AAPC) Hall of Fame.
John Weaver is an American political consultant. He worked on the John McCain presidential campaigns of 2000 and 2008. In between, he worked for a time for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. He was also the chief strategist for the 2016 presidential campaign of Republican John Kasich.
Richard H. Davis Jr. is an American political consultant. He previously served as a partner and chief operating officer of Pegasus Capital Advisors L.P., a private equity firm specializing in sustainable development projects. He was a managing partner of the business development and public affairs consulting firm Davis-Manafort, located in Alexandria, Virginia. He was the national campaign manager of John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign. In that capacity, he oversaw the development and implementation of all campaign strategy and policy development. Davis also served McCain as national campaign manager for his 2000 presidential campaign.
Stephen Prentiss Payne is an American lobbyist from Houston, Texas. He has also served as a governmental, energy, international affairs, and international business development consultant, corporate and political adviser, foreign diplomat, businessman, fundraiser, and former adviser to two of the United States Department of Homeland Security's Advisory Committees—the Secure Borders and Open Doors Advisory Committee (SBODAC) and the Essential Technology Task Force (ETTF), in connection with which he held a U.S. security clearance.
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.
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Richard R. Burt is an American businessman and diplomat who served as United States Ambassador to Germany and was a chief negotiator of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. Prior to his diplomatic career, Burt worked as director of a non-governmental organization and from 1977 to 1980 was a national security correspondent for The New York Times.
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Corey R. Lewandowski is an American political operative, lobbyist, political commentator and author who is politically associated with Donald Trump. He was the first campaign manager of Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and was fired by Trump during the Republican Primary. He later became a political commentator for One America News Network (OANN), Fox News and CNN.
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