The Relationship Between Consultants and the Democratic Party

A popular attack on the DNC and Democratic state-level party organizations lately has been that the consultants “run” the party. Of course, you hire consultants to help chart your path forward, so to a certain level this is true. It’s not true though in the way that those using it believe it is.

Not all “firms” are equal. Most political staffers who plan to hang around long enough will eventually form an LLC of some kind. Some times it’s just them, some times they have partners, either way it makes a lot of sense for a political staffer to have a company. First, it offers them legitimacy. Second, many political staffers are paid as contractors, because the job has a term of life- and so having an LLC saves them money on taxes. Third, they sometimes need a way around “exclusive services” clauses, and this offers them an option. Finally, there is the utility of having a company- sometimes you have a specific skill, be it social media, writing field plans, or doing direct mail, and you want to do that skill aside from whatever campaign you are officially working on, possibly with other partners who are also off doing their own thing. There are lots of reasons that political staffers would have a “firm,” and would therefore get paid there, especially if you are working for a state or national party.

Much of the party’s money they receive isn’t for them, it’s for the campaigns running under them. Presidential campaigns will usually run their payroll and much of their operation through the state parties and DNC, as will statewide candidates for Senate and Governor. The DSCC and DCCC tend to run their funding for campaign operations on the ground through the relevant state party. Legislative caucuses will sometimes do so as well. Most of the money that state parties “raise” and then “spend” on consultants was never meant for their operations, and is being spent on the behalf of campaigns running in their states. Campaigns simply can’t absorb the kind of employment costs they would otherwise have to pay for. The consultants being paid are hired by the campaigns.

Almost all direct mail is run through the party. State and national parties have the ability to pay non-profit costs for bulk mail, and campaigns save tens of thousands of dollars every year by using that rate. State parties send the mail out and pay for it, and campaigns reimburse them. While state parties “receive” that money, they can’t use it on other things. They are paying mail consultants for work on the behalf of others.

Now, all of this may seem odd to someone on the outside, and it is. It is not some sort of scheme though to send the hard-earned donations of millions of Democrats around the country to a bunch of rich, greedy consultants. While that may be a convenient narrative for people who want to demonize “the establishment” in hopes that it can fall and they can take over, it’s just a story that is made up outside of reality.