From the Crain's Chicago Business Newsroom

Dems invite Axelrod to ad party

Local boy creating messages for DNC
July 29 14:03:00, 2004
By Paul Merrion
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BOSTON—Chicago political advertising guru David Axelrod will be playing an important behind-the-scenes role for the Kerry-Edwards campaign over the months ahead.
The key word is "for," as opposed to "in."
His newly renamed consulting firm, AKP Message & Media, is one of two political ad shops tapped by the Democratic National Committee to create millions of dollars worth of advertising that the party plans to promote as its standard-bearers, independent of ads run by the Kerry-Edwards campaign itself.
Of all the political conventions he’s attended, Mr. Axelrod says this has been one of the most hectic and least fun because he’s been engaged in constant meetings to flesh out the party’s advertising strategy.
"It’s a great thing for my firm," says Mr. Axelrod, a former political editor for the Chicago Tribune who has worked for many of the leading Democrats in the state and across the nation.
During the presidential primary, he did commercials for the presidential campaign of Sen. John Edwards, D-S.C., now the party’s nominee for Vice President, as well as the AFL-CIO and the Media Fund, an independent group of Democrat activists raising money for television ads to promote the party’s ticket.
"Because I’d been doing this work, we were in position to hit the ground running," says Mr. Axelrod. "We had a sense of where the national (party’s) mindset was."
By law, the Kerry-Edwards campaign can spend only about $75 million in federal funds between now and the election. President Bush is restricted to the same amount, but his limit doesn’t kick in until he accepts the party’s nomination at the Republican National Convention on September 2.
To avoid running short during the last months of the race, the Kerry-Edwards campaign plans to conserve its cash during August, while the Bush-Cheney campaign will be free to keep spending its own funds.
"It’s pretty clear that there’s a void" that the DNC hopes to fill, especially during August, with its own independent expenditures on television advertising in key battleground states, says Mr. Axelrod.
Under the new campaign finance law, independent groups can spend unlimited amounts on advertising as long as they don’t coordinate their messages with the presidential campaign.
Mr. Axelrod wouldn’t say how much the Democratic National Committee will spend, except to say that it will be "a meaningful campaign."
Not wanting to give Republicans any advance knowledge of the media strategy, he declined to say whether the ads will take a pro-Kerry or an anti-Bush tone.
"They’ll be pro-American," he says. "They’ll make the case for John Kerry, and they’ll make the case for change."
The party had about $60 million cash on hand as of June 30 and fundraising hasn’t let up. In addition, the Kerry campaign can transfer any unspent funds to the DNC ad effort after he accepts the nomination tonight.
While advertising agencies typically are paid according to the size of the advertising campaign, Mr. Axelrod says his fees are capped.
"It’s not the most lucrative contract" his firm has had, he adds. ‘The payoff to me would to be part of changing the course of the country, and if we can help in some small way to do that, it’s worth the deal we cut."