David Plouffe

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David Plouffe

David Plouffe (pronounced Pluff) is the campaign manager for Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign. A long-time Democratic Party campaign consultant, he is a partner at the party aligned campaign consulting firm AKP Message & Media, which he joined in 2000. ^[1]

1 Life and Career
2 Manager of the 2008 Barack Obama Presidential Campaign
3 Notes
4 External links

[edit] Life and Career

Raised in Delaware, Plouffe attended the University of Delaware.

Plouffe's first national political work was working as Deputy Field Director in Senator Tom Harkin's successful 1990 U.S. Senate race. He later worked as a State Field Director for Harkin's unsuccessful 1992 Presidential campaign. In the same year he successfully managed Congressman John Olver's first reelection bid in Western Massachusetts. In 1994 Plouffe managed Delaware Attorney General Charles M. Oberly's unsuccessful U.S. Senate campaign against US Senator William V. Roth Jr.. Plouffe in 1995 worked as Campaign Director for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in 1995. In 1996 Plouffe managed Bob Torricelli's successful campaign to fill Bill Bradley's seat in the United States Senate. From 1997 to 1998 Plouffe served as Democratic leader Richard Gephardt's Deputy Chief of Staff.

In 1999-2000, as executive director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Plouffe led a national campaign that raised a record $95 million for House races across the country.

In the winter of 2000, Plouffe joined AKP Message & Media. He left briefly to serve as a strategist for Dick Gephardt in his unsuccessful Presidential bid. He returned to the firm and became a partner in February 2004. Beginning in 2003, Plouffe and fellow AKP&D Media partner David Axelrod worked on the Barack Obama's 2004 Illinois Senate campaign, beginning his association with Senator Obama. Plouffe worked with Axelrod on the successful 2006 campaign of Deval Patrick for Massachusetts governor.

[edit] Manager of the 2008 Barack Obama Presidential Campaign

David Plouffe is the campaign manager for Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign. He is credited with designing the campaign's overarching plan, which focused on winning the Iowa caucus and maximizing the number of pledged delegates, as opposed to focusing on primary states and the popular vote. He is credited by The New Republic for Obama's success in the first caucus in Iowa and for crafting an overall strategy to prolong the primary past Super Tuesday. The Chicago Tribune writes, "Plouffe was the mastermind behind a winning strategy that looked well past Super Tuesday's contests on Feb. 5 and placed value on large and small states." ^[2] His business partner, Axelrod praised him, "My partner David Plouffe has done the most magnificent job of managing a campaign that I've seen in my life of watching presidential politics. To start something like this from scratch and build what we have built was a truly remarkable thing."^[3]

Plouffe also maintains discipline over communications in the campaign, including controlling leaks and releasing information about the campaign on its terms. Averse to publicity himself, Plouffe's control over the internal workings of the Obama campaign successfully avoided the publicly aired squabbles that frequently trouble other campaigns.^[2]