Jeff (Jeffrey) Ballabon is an American media executive and formerly a lobbyist, a lawyer, and political and Orthodox Jewish community activist.
He is a lawyer and graduate of Yale Law School, with degrees in Jewish law from Ner Israel Rabbinical College and in literature from Yeshiva University. He served as counsel to Senator John Danforth of Missouri and to the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. He interned briefly at the State of Israel's Ministry of Justice, where he worked on several matters, including the formulation of Israel's Basic Law on Human Dignity and Liberty.
He subsequently ran the public policy and communications departments for Court TV, Channel One News and Primedia.[1] In the 1990s, during the era of extremely high profile trials, like the O.J. Simpson murder trial, Ballabon was a leader in the campaign to allow US court proceedings to be televised.[2]
The Forward labeled Ballabon one of the "50 Most Influential Jews in America," called him "the architect of Bush's 2004 re-election effort in the Orthodox community."[3]
Ballabon is a key point of contact for the Jewish community with Christian leaders, as well. "If you're looking for a New Yorker with deep ties to the Christian right-you know, the folks running America-Mr. Ballabon is your man. Which is odd, first of all, because he's not Christian, but an ultra-Orthodox Jew from Long Island. And, second, because he's spent most of his career as the lobbyist for New York media companies, including Court TV and Primedia." The New York Observer.[4]
As a fundraiser for the 2004 Bush campaign, he co-chaired a dinner which "raked in $4 million."[2]
From May 2007 to February 2009, he was a member of The Livingston Group, a Washington, D.C.-based lobbying firm. From 2004 to 2009 he also ran Ballabon Group,[5] a New York City-based issue campaign consultancy advising clients on government relations, crisis management and media strategy.
In October 2007, in reaction to the announcement of the Annapolis Conference he was retained to mount a response to the threatened division of Jerusalem and he founded the Coordinating Council on Jerusalem.
In February 2009 CBS announced that Ballabon was joining as a Senior Vice President, Communications for CBS News. In this role he oversees "all media relations and public affairs for CBS News, including strategy and planning, day-to-day publicity, internal and external communications, and coordination with CBS Interactive regarding CBSNews.com."[6]