David
Axelrod
Jewish US political consultant, * 1955 in New York
A. grew up in a middle-class Jewish household in Stuyvesant Town in
Manhattan. A.'s father was a psychologist, his mother a journalist at a left-wing
newspaper. His parents separated when he was eight. After attending Stuyvesant High
School in Manhattan, he attended the University of Chicago in political
science, where he met his future wife, business student Susan Landau. They were married in 1979.
At the age of 27, A. became the City Hall Bureau Chief and a political columnist for the Chicago Tribune.
In 1984 he joined the campaign of US Senator Paul Simon. He formed a political consultancy, Axelrod & Associates, in 1985. In 1987, he worked on the successful reelection campaign of Harold Washington, Chicago's first black mayor. This established his first experience in working with black politicians, and he later became a key player in similar mayoral campaigns of
blacks. A. is a longtime strategist for Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley. In 2004,
A. worked for the presidential campaign of John Edwards. In 2006, A. consulted for several successful
campaigns, also as the chief political adviser for Democratic Representative Rahm Emanuel
 .
A. and Barack Obama's ties reach back more than a
decade to 1992. A. served as the chief strategist and media adviser for Barack Obama's 2008 presidential
campaign. A. helped to craft the Obama campaign's main theme of "change."
A.'s elaborate use of the Internet has helped Obama to organize under-30 voters and build over 475,000 donors in 2007, most of whom were Internet donors contributing less than $100
each. In late April and early May 2008, Barack Obama's former pastor Jeremiah Wright criticized
A.'s influence on Obama.
A.'s political consulting services are operated through his firm AKP&D Message & Media. He also operates a second business from the same office, ASK Public Strategies, which creates strategy and advertising campaigns for corporate
clients.
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Letzte Änderung / Last update: 10.11.2008
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