Kwatra has extensive contacts in Govt., Labor groups.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: The re-election team for New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has hired Neal Kwatra as the campaign’s chief strategist.
Kwatra’s hiring comes amidst big moves by Cuomo’s camp to launch a strong and effective campaign that leads to Cuomo’s re-election, which is widely expected, by a decisive margin that could set him up well for the 2016 Presidential elections. To that end, Cuomo has also re-hired Joe Percoco, who led Cuomo’s successful 2010 campaign, to be his campaign manager.
Additionally, Global Strategy Group’s Jeffrey Pollock will be campaign pollster, political consultant Phil Singer will be the campaign’s senior adviser, and AKPD Message and Media partner Michael Donilon has been hired as the campaign’s media consultant.
Kwatra is the former chief of staff of New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, and has spent his career amassing a considerable number of contacts in both government and labor groups. His rolodex is cited as a key reason for Cuomo wanting Kwatra in his camp, not to mention that Kwatra has deep ties with the Democratic Party and liberal-minded groups throughout the state.
“Everything in life is organizing, building relationships, understanding what motivates people and figuring out the power dynamics,” Kwatra said last year, in an interview with Crain’s New York Business, regarding work he did to help Schneiderman win a stalemate with California Attorney General Kamala Harris regarding a mortgage settlement she was drafting with big banks.
Schneiderman and Kwatra thought Harris was letting the banks off easy. Kwatra got unions and advocacy groups to petition Harris until she finally relented and came to (mostly) agreeable terms.
Born in Queens but raised in New Jersey, Kwatra was raised by parents from India, and became a vocal proponent of various social causes during his time at Rutgers University in the mid-1990s, where earned his B.A. in political science and journalism. While studying, Kwatra took up the causes of janitors and casino workers in St. Louis, lobbying to get them fairer wages and better benefits.
From 1998 through 2007, Kwatra was with Unite Here, a work force and union organization in New York City, where Kwatra was the Deputy Director of the Department of Strategic Affairs. After that he became the Political Director of the New York Hotel and Motel Trades Council, before becoming Schneiderman’s chief of staff.
Last year, Kwatra became the founder and CEO of Metropolitan Public Strategies, a consulting company that helps campaigns organize their outreach efforts through PR work, social media, and other avenues. The company has led successful campaigns for the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office, Vote Yes on Proposal 1, and campaigns to expand gaming in New York.
3 Comments
This is astounding: this website MUST have a hidden camera in my toilet bowl, because this guy’s face looks EXACTLY like the back of my scrotum!
Not for nothing, but this guys face is a dead ringer for what was in the bottom of my toilet this morning.
WHOA is that dude hideous. Seriously, looks like something that tumbled out of my ass this morning.