After last night's win in Pennsylvania, Clinton's campaign head Terry McAuliffe is bragging over gaining $10 million in 24 hours from donors. Well, that sounds great until we look at the fine print: Senator Clinton not only had $10 million in past due bills, but spent $5 million in ad buys in the Keystone State alone.
Now that's not upfront cash that was spent, but money will come back to them in the form of an invoice for services rendered and thus a new debt.
And that $5 million does not even include the possible $1 million in staff costs the campaign rang up in the state, so we're at $6 million. The point is, the campaign's net gain from donors is only $4 million and look out, the Guam Caucuses, Indiana and North Carolina are up next.
Like the delegate math that places her constantly behind Senator Obama, Senator Clinton will not be able to raise enough money to totally offset her campaign debt.
Showing posts with label mark penn. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mark penn. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Friday, January 04, 2008
Clinton Campaign Head Mark Penn Says He Will Use Same (Racist) Strategy Against Obama in NH
Some people never learn and Clinton Campaign head Mark Penn is one of them. Read this new account in the LA Times Blog. Either Penn's not playing with a full deck or is tone-deaf, but whatever the case, he does not understand the new America. He just does not get it. He thinks America will buy a strategy already considered racist in many corners and failed in Iowa. Read the text...
Clinton aides hint now things'll get nasty - LA Times Blog
While you were sleeping, the chartered jet of the third-place finisher in the Iowa Democratic caucus winged its way from Des Moines to Manchester, N.H. And it sounds like some decisions were made on that plane that may alter the course of that party's presidential race.
At her concession speech in Des Moines Thursday night Hillary Clinton was all gracious and determined and smiling. But hours later on that flight someone named Mark Penn, who happens to be her chief political strategist, ominously told a gaggle of reporters, including The Times' Peter Nicholas, that the campaign's focus needs to shift now onto, you might have guessed, someone named Barack Obama.
The Illinois senator happens to be the first-place finisher in those same caucuses and now Clinton, once the inevitable Democratic nominee, is playing catch-up. Things could get nasty with some pretty sharp media contrasts made in coming days, it would seem. "This has been very much a referendum on her,'' said Penn. "And people will take a harder look at the choice and the kind of president who will be needed in these times.''
Penn hinted that the Clinton campaign may be poised to mount a more aggressive campaign in New Hampshire than in Iowa. "Time and again in the Democratic primaries," he said,....
"you've seen people latch onto the new, seemingly fresh candidate only to then take a sobering look at the choice they have when it comes down to the end of it. I think you're going to see that again.''
He claimed that Obama's record is comparatively unexplored and he suggested the news media should ask itself about taking a closer look at Obama's history. "Does everyone know everything they need to know about Barack Obama?'' Penn asked. "That's a decision you're going to have to make. I think at this point his record is not very well known. And she is really well-known. She's fully vetted, fully tested. And I don't think that process has occurred with Barack Obama.''
For weeks now Clinton aides have been threatening on and off the record to use some bad stuff against their chief opponent. First, two of them told conservative columnist Robert Novak the Clintons had very damaging information on Obama, but they weren't going to use it. Then her New Hampshire co-chair, Billy Shaheen, said, not that any Democrat would use Obama's admitted youthful drug use against him, but boy, would the Republicans have a field day with that later this year.
Early this morning Penn told Nicholas he didn't believe Obama was positioned to win in New Hamsphire, which votes Tuesday. "The only thing Obama has going for him in New Hampshire," Penn added, "is some sense of momentum. Let's see whether or not that sustains itself ... when people really focus in on the choice of picking a president.''
Some adjustments need to be made in the Clinton strategy, Penn admitted. Clinton's strongest appeal in Iowa, he said, was with older voters. Now, she must reach across generational lines. "I think her appeal as we move forward can be broader than it was (in Iowa),'' Penn said. "And I think that will happen.''
The architect of the Clinton campaign claimed she is still positioned to win the nomination and he sought, as every political strategist would at a time like this, to play down the Iowa setback. "This is a bump in the road," he said. "No question about that. But we're in a very, very strong position to move forward and tackle the challenges that this presents.''
Kinda makes you remember that long internal memo that someone named Mike Henry wrote to Clinton last spring. At the time he was her deputy campaign manager. And he wrote: “My recommendation is to pull completely out of Iowa and spend the money and Senator Clinton’s time on other states. If she walks away from Iowa, she will devalue Iowa — our consistently weakest state.”
At the time the campaign disavowed that leaked document.
But that was last spring. And this is now.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Thomas B. Edsall, Huff Post - Mark Penn Lawsuit May Harm Clinton Campaign
Earlier. I reported on Mark Penn's health care company ties and how they have provided a problem for Senator Clinton's credibilty during the Presidential Run. Here's a new development.
Pollster vs Pollster: Nasty Polling Company Lawsuits Threaten to Become Diversion for Clinton Campaign
July 9, 2007 11:49 PM
Judges and juries will decide who is right and who is wrong in the legal battle between Mark Penn, Hillary Clinton's chief adviser, and a group of former employees of Penn's polling firm.
Regardless of the outcome, the lawsuits themselves reveal the corporate underbelly of Penn, Schoen and Berland, a company that celebrated the dissolution of its partnership with spying, double-crosses, back-biting, broken promises, and bitter legal accusations.
At a time when Democratic primary voters are particularly suspicious of electronic eavesdropping and wiretaps by the federal government under the Patriot Act, Penn's involvement in corporate spying, legal or not, is likely to hurt his political standing.
No one emerges from these dueling lawsuits with clean hands.
In a nutshell, Penn is accusing two former business associates, Michael Berland and Mitchell Markel, of violating a non-compete agreement they had with PSB by setting up their own polling and market research firm. One of those former associates has counter-sued, charging that Penn and his subordinates electronically invaded his BlackBerry email in order to illegally monitor private messages.
PSB, a highly profitable political and business consulting firm once owned by Penn, Douglas Schoen and Berland, became a major political force after President Bill Clinton anointed Penn as his chief pollster and strategist in the 1996 re-election campaign. Since then, Penn has played the same role in Hillary Clinton's two successful Senate campaigns, and in her current presidential bid.
Over the past six years, PSB has undergone major corporate restructuring. In 2001, it was acquired by Burson-Marsteller, a giant public relations company, which, in turn, was taken over by an even larger conglomerate, WPP.
Penn stayed on, and has since become CEO of Burson and continues to be president of PSB. Schoen and Berland left at the end of 2006, after fulfilling an agreement to stay with PSB for five years. Court documents show that Berland was paid $15.5 million for his shares.
At this point, the tale gets messy.
On April 7, 2007, Markel, a PSB vice president, resigned, telling the Chief Operating Officer, Jonathan A. Gardner, that he was going into the family's bagel business, according to a written statement Gardner filed in federal court in New York.
Markel also took with him his Cingular BlackBerry, telling Gardner that he had purchased it, according to Gardner. Even though "I did not agree with him [Markel], I allowed him to keep the device but required him to change the telephone number associated with the device," said Gardner.
Less than a month and a half later, however, Gardner became deeply suspicious: "I received a chain of emails in which Markel responded to an email directed to his PSB address, even though he was no longer with PSB." Gardner summoned PSB's technology chief, Merrill Raman. Raman then discovered that even though Markel's PSB "network and email credentials had been disabled," he was still connected to PSB's "RIM/Cingular account," according to Gardner's sworn account.
Raman then counterattacked, and secretly bugged Markel's BlackBerry. "Raman immediately set up a 'blind carbon copy' (bcc) of Markel's outgoing mail on the RIM/Cingular account. This ensured that as long as Markel's BlackBerry device was connected to PSB's RIM/Cingular account, all emails sent from his Blackberry would be bcc'ed to" an email address created by Raman, according to Gardner. In other words, a copy of all of Markel's outgoing email, unbeknownst to him, went to PSB.
Gardner additionally decided to examine the personal computer Markel had used while working at PSB. There, according to his statement to the court, Gardner found what he claimed was a plan by
Markel and Berland for Markel to set up a company, Global Insights & Strategies, which would go after PSB's clients, in direct violation of non-competition agreements applying to all PSB employees for a
year after leaving the firm.
"Through these emails, I discovered that Berland had been working with Markel in a competitive business that was set up by Markel immediately following Berland's departure from PSB....[W]hile Markel was still an employee of PSB, Markel formed the new business and set up a website for it," Gardner said.
Emails collected from the computer and through the bcc address provided evidence, according to Gardner and PSB's lawsuit, that Markel and Berland were doing business with or soliciting work from at least five of PSB's clients, including the National Hockey League, Quest, and Estee Lauder.
In its lawsuit, PSB contends that Berland, Markel and two other former PSB employees engaged in "an orchestrated and illegal plot to sabotage PBS's business in New York by soliciting PSB's most significant clients."
PSB is asking the court to order Berland, Markel and Global Insights to stop all such solicitation, to award compensatory and punitive damages, and to force Berland to pay back $11.2 million of the $15.5 million he got for his shares.
Markel and Global Insights quickly came back with a countersuit demanding "equitable relief and damages" from PBS, Penn, Gardner and Raman for "illegal interception, use and disclosure of plaintiff's personal electronic communications without Plaintiff's knowledge or consent," in violation of the Federal Wiretapping Act and the New York Penal Code.
Markel contends in the suit that PSB had no grounds to invade his BlackBerry account, that "each and every email sent and received from Markel's BlackBerry since on or about April 18 was charged to Markel's personal Cingular account and paid for by Markel, [that from] April 18, 2007, Markel did not use any PSB account, Cingular or otherwise."
No trial date has been set for the two lawsuits, but the court battle is likely to take place in a few months, just as the early caucuses and primaries heat up. It is not a diversion welcomed by the Clinton camp.
Pollster vs Pollster: Nasty Polling Company Lawsuits Threaten to Become Diversion for Clinton Campaign
July 9, 2007 11:49 PM
Judges and juries will decide who is right and who is wrong in the legal battle between Mark Penn, Hillary Clinton's chief adviser, and a group of former employees of Penn's polling firm.
Regardless of the outcome, the lawsuits themselves reveal the corporate underbelly of Penn, Schoen and Berland, a company that celebrated the dissolution of its partnership with spying, double-crosses, back-biting, broken promises, and bitter legal accusations.
At a time when Democratic primary voters are particularly suspicious of electronic eavesdropping and wiretaps by the federal government under the Patriot Act, Penn's involvement in corporate spying, legal or not, is likely to hurt his political standing.
No one emerges from these dueling lawsuits with clean hands.
In a nutshell, Penn is accusing two former business associates, Michael Berland and Mitchell Markel, of violating a non-compete agreement they had with PSB by setting up their own polling and market research firm. One of those former associates has counter-sued, charging that Penn and his subordinates electronically invaded his BlackBerry email in order to illegally monitor private messages.
PSB, a highly profitable political and business consulting firm once owned by Penn, Douglas Schoen and Berland, became a major political force after President Bill Clinton anointed Penn as his chief pollster and strategist in the 1996 re-election campaign. Since then, Penn has played the same role in Hillary Clinton's two successful Senate campaigns, and in her current presidential bid.
Over the past six years, PSB has undergone major corporate restructuring. In 2001, it was acquired by Burson-Marsteller, a giant public relations company, which, in turn, was taken over by an even larger conglomerate, WPP.
Penn stayed on, and has since become CEO of Burson and continues to be president of PSB. Schoen and Berland left at the end of 2006, after fulfilling an agreement to stay with PSB for five years. Court documents show that Berland was paid $15.5 million for his shares.
At this point, the tale gets messy.
On April 7, 2007, Markel, a PSB vice president, resigned, telling the Chief Operating Officer, Jonathan A. Gardner, that he was going into the family's bagel business, according to a written statement Gardner filed in federal court in New York.
Markel also took with him his Cingular BlackBerry, telling Gardner that he had purchased it, according to Gardner. Even though "I did not agree with him [Markel], I allowed him to keep the device but required him to change the telephone number associated with the device," said Gardner.
Less than a month and a half later, however, Gardner became deeply suspicious: "I received a chain of emails in which Markel responded to an email directed to his PSB address, even though he was no longer with PSB." Gardner summoned PSB's technology chief, Merrill Raman. Raman then discovered that even though Markel's PSB "network and email credentials had been disabled," he was still connected to PSB's "RIM/Cingular account," according to Gardner's sworn account.
Raman then counterattacked, and secretly bugged Markel's BlackBerry. "Raman immediately set up a 'blind carbon copy' (bcc) of Markel's outgoing mail on the RIM/Cingular account. This ensured that as long as Markel's BlackBerry device was connected to PSB's RIM/Cingular account, all emails sent from his Blackberry would be bcc'ed to" an email address created by Raman, according to Gardner. In other words, a copy of all of Markel's outgoing email, unbeknownst to him, went to PSB.
Gardner additionally decided to examine the personal computer Markel had used while working at PSB. There, according to his statement to the court, Gardner found what he claimed was a plan by
Markel and Berland for Markel to set up a company, Global Insights & Strategies, which would go after PSB's clients, in direct violation of non-competition agreements applying to all PSB employees for a
year after leaving the firm.
"Through these emails, I discovered that Berland had been working with Markel in a competitive business that was set up by Markel immediately following Berland's departure from PSB....[W]hile Markel was still an employee of PSB, Markel formed the new business and set up a website for it," Gardner said.
Emails collected from the computer and through the bcc address provided evidence, according to Gardner and PSB's lawsuit, that Markel and Berland were doing business with or soliciting work from at least five of PSB's clients, including the National Hockey League, Quest, and Estee Lauder.
In its lawsuit, PSB contends that Berland, Markel and two other former PSB employees engaged in "an orchestrated and illegal plot to sabotage PBS's business in New York by soliciting PSB's most significant clients."
PSB is asking the court to order Berland, Markel and Global Insights to stop all such solicitation, to award compensatory and punitive damages, and to force Berland to pay back $11.2 million of the $15.5 million he got for his shares.
Markel and Global Insights quickly came back with a countersuit demanding "equitable relief and damages" from PBS, Penn, Gardner and Raman for "illegal interception, use and disclosure of plaintiff's personal electronic communications without Plaintiff's knowledge or consent," in violation of the Federal Wiretapping Act and the New York Penal Code.
Markel contends in the suit that PSB had no grounds to invade his BlackBerry account, that "each and every email sent and received from Markel's BlackBerry since on or about April 18 was charged to Markel's personal Cingular account and paid for by Markel, [that from] April 18, 2007, Markel did not use any PSB account, Cingular or otherwise."
No trial date has been set for the two lawsuits, but the court battle is likely to take place in a few months, just as the early caucuses and primaries heat up. It is not a diversion welcomed by the Clinton camp.
Sunday, July 08, 2007
Matt Drudge Fuck's Up - Misses Story On Senator Clinton
Today's Drudge Report contains a link entitled "Obama Aloof" which leads to Bob Novak's online publication, where the lead story is not that small issue, but a BIG STORY on Hillary Clinton and her chief strategist Mark Penn.
Mark Penn is also the CEO of a PR firm that has health care clients that back policies which run counter to Senator Clinton's.
Why did Drudge miss this? My theory is that conservatives like him are trying to promote Hillary Clinton because they think she has a better chance of loosing to a Republican challenger.
Bad form, Matt. Get your act together.
Mark Penn - Hillary Clinton's Strategist Also Has Tobacco and Drug Company Clients - Bob Novak
Bob Novak reported this in his online publication on Saturday, July 7th. This is an example of how Senator Clinton has representatives of the very healh care system she claims to want to change.
Hillary's Strategist
By Robert D. Novak
Saturday, July 7, 2007
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Hillary Clinton is facing increasing Democratic criticism for using Mark Penn as her presidential campaign's chief strategist while he also serves as CEO of Burson-Marsteller, the public relations giant with corporate clients whose policies run opposite to Clinton's.
Clients include Royal Dutch Shell (attacked by Clinton for "windfall profits"), as well as tobacco and pharmaceutical firms with records she has deplored. Penn was a key operative in President Bill Clinton's 1996 re-election campaign and continued as a second-term adviser.
A footnote: Penn criticized Bloomberg News, which has reported on conflicts between Burson-Marsteller and the Clinton campaign, for obtaining "several months" of Penn's internal blogs. On June 29, a former employee who started a rival firm filed suit in New York City against Penn for monitoring his personal e-mails.
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