Origins
The practice of consulting has several early antecedents. President William McKinley's closest political advisor Mark Hanna is sometimes described as the first political consultant.
In California in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, Whitaker and Baxter established and grew the first true consulting firm, Campaigns, Inc., which focused exclusively on political campaigns. However, political consulting blossomed with the increasing use of television advertising for campaign communications in the 1960s. It was in that period that Joseph Napolitan claims to have become the first person to describe himself as a political consultant (Perlmutter, ed. Manship Guide to Political Communication, pg19).
In the subsequent years, political consulting has grown in importance and influence and extended its reach to campaigns at all levels of government in the United States, and beyond. Many consultants work not only for campaigns, but also for other political organizations, including parties and political action committees, sometimes through independent expenditures; some also do public relations and research work for corporations and governments.
Read more about this topic: Political Consulting
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