One campaign consultant is looking to solve a long-standing industry pain point: Once the cycle is over, newly minted office holders will often dump their campaign firm for a public affairs shop more issue-focused.
Long-time Alabama-based consultant David Mowery recently tackled this challenge by hanging a new shingle, called Pathfinder Public Affairs, positioned squarely at the “intersection of government affairs and public relations.”
“It differentiates us from just being a campaign shop because what I noticed is that a lot of people, even people that I’ve helped get elected, will go into office, get some kind of big public policy idea, and call somebody that does public affairs instead of calling me,” he said. “And so it’s a play to step into that arena.”
Together with partners John Schremser and Micah Morano, Mowery has already signed a “couple of pretty big clients,” he said. And that was before the firm even had a website – it does have one now.
In terms of pricing services, Mowery said he called around to friends at large corporations and even spoke to fellow consultants, such as Mark McKinnon, to get a sense for what’s competitive.
“I just did a bunch of research,” he said. “I called people and said, ‘if you hired us to do this, what would that look like?’ And they were like, ‘we have several consultants that do this depending on what the job is and … this is the type of money that we would pay’. I was like, ‘oh, wow, okay.’ It was more than I thought.”
The higher retainers weren’t the only motivation. Mowery also sees the shift into public affairs as a chance to smooth out the notoriously hard revenue cycle of his business.
“Everybody in elections complains about this — the boom and bust cycle,” he said. “In the public affairs universe, whether you win or you lose, the entity doesn’t have to pack up their business and go home if enough people decide that they don’t like them that day.”
Mowery also sees it as a chance to apply his skills in a new arena. “I’ve learned all these great lessons in the campaign world —now I’ll apply them to something that’s a little bit more sustainable and less dependent on the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune with the electorate.”
