A political operative with ties to Billings, Montana is teaming up with fellow Baucus staff alum Jim Messina, who managed President Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign.
Ty Matsdorf, like Messina, attended the University of Montana and previously worked for Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT).
Politico Playbook has this:
FIRST LOOK — “Messina going private, but client is still Obama,” by Anna Palmer and Byron Tau, with John Bresnahan : “Jim Messina, campaign manager for President Obama’s 2012 reelection bid and one of the most influential figures in Obama world, is opening a consulting firm [The Messina Group] to represent progressive groups and Democratic campaigns. Messina will also remain chairman of Organizing for Action, the nonprofit successor to Obama for America … Messina told POLITICO that he will only be a consultant – not a lobbyist. … ‘I am going to advise political campaigns and organizations that want to build on the lessons we learned in the Obama campaign – digital savvy and grass-roots focus,’ Messina said … ‘I am not going to take any clients that conflict with OFA … What I want to do with my work is just work with people and causes that I believe in. And OFA will be the most important thing that I do. … I looked at a variety of options, and I think my own firm gives me the most flexibility moving forward and allows me to only work on the things that I want to work on’ … While the focus is not corporate representation, Messina may take on for-profit clients as well. …
“Messina will be joined in his new firm by Obama veterans Ty Matsdorf and Tara Corrigan. Matsdorf served as the ‘war room director’ of American Bridge, a Democratic-allied super PAC. He headed the communications operation for the Obama campaign in Nevada. Corrigan is a former White House staffer who first started working for Team Obama in 2007. She was the ‘second employee’ on Obama’s 2012 campaign after Messina and served on the transition team. Anne Filipic, deputy to White House Office of Public Engagement director Jon Carson, recently took a job at a health care nonprofit called Enroll America, which will encourage Americans to take advantage of Obama’s health care law.”
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So, what is “Organizing for Action” (OFA)? It is basically what moderates and conservatives are criticizing as President Obama’s “permanent campaign.”
Here’s what Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI)told radio host Hugh Hewitt earlier this month:
PAUL RYAN: Well, I’m hearing very little, and I think the decisions they’re making are political decisions. I think what we’ve come to learn is that we’re experiencing a permanent campaign. The President is in a permanent campaign mode, seems to be more comfortable with that in what I would call a governing mode, because if you were truly governing, you would be making decisions. You would be leading. You would be putting policy proposals on the table. But by not bringing a budget to Congress as he’s required, waiting for others to go first, and withholding your budget, that strikes me as more of a campaign/political-like decision than a real leadership or governing decision. And so I expect a campaign kind of document if and when he does propose a budget.
Breitbart.com has more on OFA and the perma-campaign:
As President Barack Obama delivered the State of the Union address, activists involved in his new non-profit advocacy group, Organizing for Action, gathered in local meetings around the country to watch and cheer him on. The new 501(c)4 organization, which is an offshoot of his re-election campaign, aims to support the president’s policies and to project the power of the White House beyond Washington into local communities and media.