Brad Woodhouse

Political Beginnings

Woodhouse worked on his first political campaign that year, volunteering for Rep. David Price’s (D-N.C.) re-election race. After Price won, Woodhouse worked in personnel in Gov. James Hunt’s (D-N.C.) office. Hunt won re-election in 1992 after serving as governor from 1977 to 1985. Woodhouse worked in a handful of different jobs during his time in the governor’s office. He was legislative liaison to the Employment Security Commission and legislative liaison to the North Carolina Chamber of Commerce.Whorunsgov.com Interview with Brad Woodhouse on March 17, 2009   

In 1997, Woodhouse moved to Capitol Hill, getting a job with Rep. Bob Etheridge (D-N.C.). He worked as a legislative assistant for agriculture, small business and environmental issues before eventually becoming Etheridge’s press secretary before Etheridge’s 2000 re-election campaign. In 1992, Woodhouse left Etheridge to manage former Clinton White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles’ (D) nationally-watched Senate campaign against Elizabeth Dole (R) for the seat of retiring Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.). Though the Bowles campaign was unsuccessful, Woodhouse caught the attention of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which hired him to be communications director for the 2004 election cycle.Van Dongen, Rachel and Cillizza, Chris, “Shop Talk: Tale of Two Flacks,” Roll Call, Jan. 17, 2002

After that, Woodhouse worked briefly in then-Sen. Jon Corzine’s (D-N.J.) Senate office before Corzine announced his candidacy for New Jersey governor in early 2005. At that point, Woodhouse became communications director for Americans United to Protect Social Security, a group fighting President George W. Bush’s proposal to allow people to put some of their Social Security funds into private accounts.Whorunsgov.com Interview with Brad Woodhouse on March 17, 2009

Americans United for Change

That group was active from February 2005 to October 2005, when the president’s proposal died. At that time, Americans United to Protect Social Security became Americans United for Change (AUC), and Woodhouse became a political consultant for Hildebrand-Tewes Consulting, run by Democratic operatives Steve Hildebrand and Paul Tewes. Woodhouse worked as a consultant for the next two years, but he worked almost exclusively with AUC on a variety of other issue-oriented campaigns. So when President Karen Olick stepped down early in 2007, Woodhouse was a natural successor.“Career track: More emails, not less,” The Hotline, Feb. 20, 2007

In June 2008, Woodhouse took leave from AUC to work in the DNC’s communications shop. His job was “basically to prop up and run a war room,” which he did from June through the November presidential election. Chris Cillizza of The Washington Post said: “Woodhouse’s hiring is the latest sign that Obama’s campaign is working to install operatives of their own choosing in key roles across the party to ensure that the brand the Illinois Senator has built during the primary season is preserved in the general election.”Cillizza, Chris, “Woodhouse to DNC,” WashingtonPost.com, June 29, 2008

After the presidential campaign, Woodhouse returned to Americans United and began to run issue campaigns to help the president pass his $800 billion stimulus package. “I came back, and I thought that’s where I was going to be,” Woodhouse said. “I didn’t apply for any jobs in the administration.”Whorunsgov.com Interview with Brad Woodhouse on March 17, 2009 

But some people had other ideas. Jen O’Malley Dillon, who became the DNC’s executive director in January, asked Woodhouse to come aboard as communications director.Cillizza, Chris, “Woodhouse to DNC (Again),” WashingtonPost.com, Feb. 23, 2009

Organizing for America

When Obama came to Washington, he brought with him a massive political apparatus that Democratic operatives want to employ in the service of the president’s agenda.

The group, dubbed Organizing for America (OFA), is housed at the DNC and boasts an e-mail list of 13 million people plus thousands of volunteers. “There has never been a resource like this available to any party,” Woodhouse said.Whorunsgov.com Interview with Brad Woodhouse on March 17, 2009

Early in 2009, e-mails from campaign manager David Plouffe and Mitch Stewart, the director of Organizing for America, asked Obama supporters to call lawmakers to lobby for the president’s budget and agenda.Nicholas, Peter and Hook, Janet, “Obama tries hard sell on his agenda,” Los Angeles Times, March 17, 2009

The DNC’s first goal was to get the president’s budget passed. “Somewhere down the line, there will be substantive efforts on health care, education, reducing dependence on foreign oil,” Woodhouse said, describing the budget as “a down payment.”Whorunsgov.com Interview with Brad Woodhouse on March 17, 2009 In lobbying for the stimulus, DNC strategists used not only OFA’s infrastructure, but also internet ads, letters to the editor, meetings with members of Congress, petition drives and more.

Social Security

In a certain sense, Woodhouse’s DNC work is very similar to what he did with Americans United. Woodhouse joined that group early in 2005 to fight President George W. Bush’s proposal to allow people to take money dedicated to Social Security and invest it themselves. It was a plan almost universally opposed by Democrats, but Americans United ran a campaign to convince Republican congressmen it was a bad idea.

While Bush traveled the country doing town-hall meetings about Social Security, Americans United followed him to organize protests and rallies. The group ran TV ads and earned media and encouraged citizens to call their congressman. “It was a campaign just like you would expect in any political campaign,” Woodhouse said.Whorunsgov.com Interview with Brad Woodhouse on March 17, 2009