Skip to content

Wendy Davis Hires Top Democratic Operative

Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis announced Monday that top Democratic operative Karin Johanson will manage her 2014 gubernatorial campaign.

Johanson is a prominent national Democratic operative who had recent success with another statewide female candidate: Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin.

Johanson is a former staffer to House Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md. In 2006, she served as the executive director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee under then-Chairman Rahm Emanuel.

Johanson is currently a managing partner at The Dewey Square Group.

Staffing Up

In the past few weeks, Democratic and Republican campaigns have increased their staffs in anticipation of the 2014 cycle. The congressional campaign hiring spree includes:

Rep. Colleen Hanabusa, D-Hawaii, hired John Salsbury as her new campaign manager. Hanabusa is running in the Senate primary against appointed Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz. Salsbury most recently worked for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, where led labor efforts to support Hanabusa’s House campaign.

DNC Committeewoman Erin Bilbray, who is challenging Republican Rep. Joe Heck in Nevada’s 3rd District, hired Bradley Mayer as her campaign manager. She also brought on Mark Mellman as her pollster, Ann Liston as her media consultant and Achim Bergmann as her direct mail consultant. Rhonda Foxx will serve as her finance director.

Montana Lt. Gov. John Walsh, who is running in the open-seat race to replace retiring Democratic Sen. Max Baucus, hired Dan Kully and Brandon Hall of Kully Hall as media consultants. Andrew Maxfield of Harstad Strategic Research will serve as Walsh’s pollster, Michelle Mayorga will serve as his campaign manager, and Aaron Murphy will serve as an adviser.

Chad Mathis, a Republican orthopedic surgeon and one of several candidates running to succeed retiring Republican Rep. Spencer Bachus in Alabama’s 6th District, recently hired Phillip Stutts as his general consultant. Matt Sauvage will serve as Mathis’ campaign manager; Candace Cooksey will serve as political director; Brent Barksdale will do his media; Brett O’Donnell will do policy and messaging; John Diez of Magellen Strategies will do polling; Cory Adair will serve on the digital web team; and Brian Jodice will do digital strategy.

DNC Gets Out the Vote

Attorney Pratt Wiley joined the Democratic National Committee last week as its new director of voter protection.

Most recently, Wiley served as the national regional voter protection coordinator for the Obama campaigns in Ohio, Michigan, Virginia, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire.

Prior to the 2012 campaign, Wiley was a corporate attorney at Nutter, McClennen & Fish in Boston.

RNC’s Youth Appeal

The Republican National Committee announced last week that Elliott Echols joined the committee as its new national youth director.

Echols was formerly regional political director for the College Republican National Committee and state chairman for the Georgia Association of College Republicans, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Targeted Victories

Zac Moffatt of Targeted Victory announced last week that his digital firm picked up several new clients.

They include the College Republicans National Committee, Rep. Paul D. Ryan’s Prosperity PAC, the Republican Party of Florida, Texans for Greg Abbott, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee and the America Rising PAC.

He also named some of his new hires:

Chief operations officer: Joe Lahr

Senior director of data structure and targeting: Jeff Mason

Data platforms director: Pete Sheridan

Data science and research director: John Andrews

Client strategy director: Rebecca Heisler

Development and design director: Caitlin Checkett

Targeted engagement director: Tom Adams

Fundraising strategy director: Mike Senich

Client strategy director: Tad Rupp

Field strategy director: Ryan Burchfield

Kyle Trygstad contributed to this report. Please send news of developments in the political industry to shoptalk@rollcall.com and follow us on Twitter @RCShopTalk.

Recent Stories

Capitol Lens | O’s face

Mayorkas impeachment headed to Senate for April 11 trial

Muslim American appeals court nominee loses Democratic support

At the Races: Lieberman lookback

Court says South Carolina can use current congressional map

Joseph Lieberman: A Capitol life in photos