Can Democrats finally quit the "consultant class"?

[marmar]

Can Democrats finally quit the "consultant class"?
Newly elected DNC Chair Ken Martin has promised to review the party's existing contracts with consulting firms

By Nicholas Liu
News Fellow
Published March 8, 2025 5:45AM (EST)


(Salon) As the scope of the Democratic Party's 2024 election loss sunk in and the inevitable recriminations began, the so-called "consultant class" emerged as the most unifying target of blame for a party otherwise divided on ideology, policy and personal quarrels. In a forum sanctioned by the Democratic National Committee for the national chair race in January, nearly every candidate pledged to scrutinize the DNC's contracts with consultants, with the stated goal of pruning the organization of those who have for decades helped guide the party's leaders and candidates in an era marked by embarrassing defeats and narrow victories that fell short of expectations.

The winner of that race, Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party chair Ken Martin, said at the time that “D.C. consultants” will “be gone when I’m there.” The DNC's contracts typically expire after each two-year election cycle, but many of them are then renewed as a matter of course; some consultants have even been on the DNC payroll since former President Barack Obama's first term. Now that he's been elected chair, Martin gets to decide whether to follow or break with that precedent. According to a DNC spokesperson, he intends to stand by his pledge, pending a close review of who on the payroll is worthy of staying or being thrown out.

....(snip)....

The use of the "D.C." label by Martin to characterize disfavored consultants evokes the image of a political swamp that can be found anywhere in the U.S., though its brackish waters are most thick where the federal government and swarms of lobbyists reside. Skoufis, who sometimes refers to those consultants as being part of the "cocktail circuit," defined them more specifically as mercenaries who earn lucrative contracts by "drifting from campaign to campaign, administration to administration, cable contract to cable contract, and advise the party’s political hub and candidates, and are often rewarded with more contracts and campaigns," even when the party loses.

....(snip)....

"They exist largely to protect their own power and keep making money," Usamah Andrabi, communications director for Justice Democrats, a group that supports progressive candidates, told Salon. "The party needs to pivot away from consultants who have conflicts of interest, who go around the revolving door to also work with corporations like Uber or McDonald's or Exxon Mobil or Goldman Sachs and represent their interests in the political world." .................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2025/03/08/can-democrats-finally-quit-the-consultant-class/

[FakeNoose]

1. This is very good news IMHO

There's a lot of backscratching going on in Washington DC and consultants for BOTH SIDES are in the thick of it. Normally I get disgusted when people talk about "both sides" doing stuff, but in the case of consultants, it's all true.

If political consultants, lobbyists and pollsters suddenly disappeared, we'd be living in a different world right now.

[Passages]

2. They did just fine during the last election.

We shall see soon enough.

[multigraincracker]

3. If you are interested in this subject, please read this book. When McKinsey Comes to Town.

The hidden influence of the world's most powerful Consulting firm..MBAs are screwing us all. We need to outlaw NDAs.