Reprinted from Campaigns & Elections, Decmber/January,
1994
Like the profession it represents, the American
Association of Political Consultants is comparatively young. Fifty-eight
interested participants met in New York City at the Plaza Hotel on January 31,
1969 to discuss the possibility of founding the AAPC. "You couldn't quite
fit us all in a phone booth." says Democratic pollster Bill Hamilton, past
president of the AAPC who was present at that first meeting, but, "it
started out with friends of Joe Napolitan." Napolitan, a Democratic general
consultant who had founded the International Association of Political
Consultants two months before, felt that an American association was needed.
Hamilton says that the "initial reason (for the founding) was that it was a
bunch of people who had a desire for camaraderie, but it become a real
organization fairly early."
The first meeting established the AAPC (not all attendees joined) and elected officers; President Joseph Napolitan, Vice-President F. Clifton White (a Republican strategist), Secretary Walter DeVries (a Democratic pollster out of North Carolina), and Treasurer Martin Ryan Haley (A new York City based generalist). The members decided early on to divide the leadership evenly along partisan lines, with their presidency alternating between Democrats and Republicans.
The presidency passed to Clif White, and a quarterly publication, Politeia, was started in March of 1971. When Democratic consultant Matt Reese took over as president in 1972, it boasted 100 members. The early presidents concentrated on cementing the structure of the organization and holding regular conferences to exchange ideas and stories. Phyllis Brotman, principal in a Baltimore, MD, media and public relations firm, succeeded Reese.
The late '70s were a difficult time for the AAPC. The organization lost momentum and membership. Republican public affairs consultant Roy Pfautch turned the organization around when he became president, transforming a deficit into a substantial surplus and tripled the membership.
Not only did Pfautch show a gift for fundraising, he decided to act on an idea that the membership had been considering for a while: He instituted the AAPC political advertising awards, later known as the Pollies, that are given every two years. More than 100 entries followed Pfautch's mimeographed call.
Joe Cerrell, who served as vice-president under Pfautch and succeeded him, says that "We're very proud of the fact that we brought some financial stability [to the AAPC].... I wanted to put us on a sound financial footing and make us a legitimate trade organization of professional people." They continued to increase in size and funds under Cerrell, who left a roughly $100,000 surplus when he left office.
Under Republican consultant Brad O'Leary, the organization hired its first paid executive director. He pushed for a substantial increase in membership and reinstituted a regular newsletter, which had fallen by the wayside due to financial difficulties. He coined the term "Pollie" for the AAPC awards, and added some flash to the 1988 Pollie Banquet in Washington by inviting Hollywood as well as political luminaries to see the institution of the Hall of Fame, and the induction of Clif White as its first honoree.
During Bill Hamilton's term, from 1991 to '92, Politea resurfaced from a long slumber (as the name of the organization's newsletter, somehow having lost an "i" along the way). Hamilton fostered a growing relationship with universities and new campaign schools. Over 1,200 entries were received for the 1992 Pollies, and Matt Reese and Republican Stuart Spencer were named to the Hall of Fame. Republican media consultant Tom Edmonds is the current president of the AAPC. He is particularly concerned with keeping the members and public informed on campaign finance reform and other industry developments.
The AAPC has been criticized for not taking a stronger stance on ethics. Although they have a code of ethics, no one has ever been disciplined by the organization for breaking it. The partisan and ideological division within the membership makes it difficult for the organization to act on such issues. "We've never come up with anything that's workable," says Napolitan. "What one individual or one group of individuals may consider perfectly proper and ethical, another group thinks is unethical and improper. Who is to say?"
The political consulting industry has particular difficulty in regulating itself because there is no established training and licensing process, and they are largely dealing with free speech issues. "There's a whole body of law... that applies to what we're doing here," says Edmonds, "We cannot restrict trade; we cannot restrict the First Amendment to the Constitution; we cannot penalize those who choose not to be AAPC members. We've go to be very, very careful that we don't put the organization in the position of being liable or trying to restrict or be exclusive in terms of who may practice in this profession and who may not."
Some feel that the AAPC -- which is dominated by middle-aged white males -- should be more ethnically diverse and include more women. Cerrell laments that, "I don't think that we've brought in as many minorities as we should." To combat this homogeneity, they have recently undertaken membership drives and expanded the board to bring on more newcomers to the profession and to better represent specialties within the field.
The association like the profession, is still developing. The AAPC is a fledgling trade association, without many of the trappings of the larger, more established groups. Despite early hopes for a permanent headquarters, the AAPC and its records have led a peripatetic existence, moving office with each new president. "All of us recognize we would like to do things overnight and become a profession overnight," says Hamilton, "But we've only been around really 30 years, as opposed to other professions which have had hundreds of years."
The AAPC now offers its members a forum to discuss professional concerns and interests across party and regional lines. They hold regular annual and regional conferences to discuss political issues, and give awards to the best political work of each cycle. Members have access to a resume bank, group health insurance, and public training seminars, offered in conjunction with Campaigns & Elections.
|
4201
Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 212 |