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Charles R. Black Jr. (born October 11, 1947) is the Founding Chairman of Prime Policy Group, a public affairs firm which is a subsidiary of
Burson-Marsteller Burson Cohn & Wolfe is a multinational public relations and communications firm, headquartered in New York City. In February 2018, parent WPP Group PLC announced that it had merged its subsidiaries Cohn & Wolfe with Burson-Marsteller. The comb ...
Global Public Relations. Prime Policy Group was formed with the merger of Martin B. Gold's Gold & Liebengood with the Washington, DC-based lobbying firm he co-founded—
Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly (often simply Black, Manafort) was a lobbying firm based in Washington, D.C. and formed in 1980 by Roger Stone, Paul Manafort and Charles Black. History As Black, Manafort & Stone, the firm was one of the fir ...
—with Paul Manafort, Roger J. Stone, and Peter G. Kelly. In 2010, Black was inducted into the
American Association of Political Consultants The American Association of Political Consultants (AAPC) is the trade group for the political consulting profession in the United States. Founded in 1969, it is the world's largest organization of political consultants, public affairs profession ...
(AAPC) Hall of Fame. Black is a "longtime Washington lobbyist" who "worked in every Republican presidential campaign" since 1972. He worked for Ronald Reagan's three presidential campaigns in 1976, 1980 and 1984 and was a senior political adviser to the 1992 re-election campaign of George H. W. Bush. He served as chief campaign adviser for Senator John McCain in the 2008 presidential election and was an informal adviser to Governor Mitt Romney's presidential campaign during the
2012 presidential election This national electoral calendar for 2012 lists the national/ federal elections held in 2012 in all sovereign states and their dependent territories. By-elections are excluded, though national referendums are included. January *3–4 January ...
. In 2016, Black worked as a campaign adviser for Governor
John Kasich John Richard Kasich Jr. ( ; born May 13, 1952) is an American politician, author, and television news host who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1983 to 2001 and as the 69th governor of Ohio from 2011 to 2019. A Republican, Kasic ...
in the
2016 presidential election This national electoral calendar for 2016 lists the national/ federal elections held in 2016 in all sovereign states and their dependent territories. By-elections are excluded, though national referendums are included. January *7 January: Kiri ...
.


Education

Black earned a BA in Political Science from the
University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...
in 1969 and a JD from American University's school of law in 1974.


Political campaigns

Black says that he fell in love with politics when he worked on the presidential campaign of Republican Barry Goldwater as a high school student in 1964. In 1972, he was a campaign worker in the first senatorial campaign of Jesse Helms running against
Nick Galifianakis Nick Galifianakis may refer to: *Nick Galifianakis (politician) (1928–2023), American congressman *Nick Galifianakis (cartoonist) Nick Galifianakis () is an American cartoonist and artist. Since 1997, he has drawn the cartoons for the national ...
. Black co-founded the
National Conservative Political Action Committee The National Conservative Political Action Committee (NCPAC; pronounced "nick-pack"), based in Alexandria, Virginia, was a New Right political action committee in the United States that was a major contributor to the ascendancy of conservative Repu ...
(NCPAC) with Terry Dolan and
Roger Stone Roger Jason Stone (born Roger Joseph Stone Jr.; August 27, 1952) is an American conservative political consultant and lobbyist. Since the 1970s, Stone has worked on the campaigns of Republican politicians, including Richard Nixon, Ronald Rea ...
. Black went on to work for a succession of Republican presidential campaigns from 1976 to 1992, including those of Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush. His first hire on the Reagan campaign was
Lee Atwater Harvey LeRoy "Lee" Atwater (February 27, 1951 – March 29, 1991) was an American political consultant and strategist for the Republican Party. He was an adviser to US presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush and chairman of the Repub ...
, whom he met during the course of his work with the
Republican National Committee The Republican National Committee (RNC) is a U.S. Political action committee, political committee that assists the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party of the United States. It is responsible for developing and promoting the Republi ...
in 1972. Later Black served as the National Spokesperson for the RNC. He re-emerged as an adviser to
George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
's campaigns in 2000 and 2004, and was often quoted as White House spokesperson. He has been described as an "iconic Republican operative." Black was Senator John McCain's chief strategist in the 2008 presidential election. In a June 2008 '' Fortune'' magazine interview, Black said that McCain's "knowledge and ability to talk about" the "chaos lurking in the world", specifically the "unfortunate event" of Benazir Bhutto's assassination in December "reemphasized that cCainwas "the guy who's ready to be Commander-in-Chief. And it helped us." Black also "conceded with startling candor" that "another terrorist attack on U.S. soil" "would be a big advantage to cCain During the 2016 presidential election Black was Governor
John Kasich John Richard Kasich Jr. ( ; born May 13, 1952) is an American politician, author, and television news host who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1983 to 2001 and as the 69th governor of Ohio from 2011 to 2019. A Republican, Kasic ...
's campaign advisor.


Lobbying activity

In 1980 he co-founded the Washington, DC-based lobbying firm Black, Manafort and Stone (BMSK) with principals Paul Manafort, Roger J. Stone and Peter G. Kelly who joined the firm later. Black's lobbying firm became one of "Washington's most influential". In a 2008 interview with ''
The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
'', Black defended BMSK against campaign ads made by
MoveOn.org MoveOn (formerly known as MoveOn.org) is a progressive public policy advocacy group and political action committee. Formed in 1998 around one of the first massively viral email petitions, MoveOn has since grown into one of the largest grassroot ...
opposing John McCain. The ads asserted that Black "made millions lobbying for the world's worst tyrants". Black described how his lobbying firm "ran every potential foreign client by the State Department and/or the White House in whatever administration was in power and asked whether the scope of the work fit with American foreign policy goals." During the Reagan administration, then-President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos was one of Black's clients until Marcos "tried to steal the election" and "Reagan pulled the plug... MSKresigned the account the same day". When
Zaire Zaire (, ), officially the Republic of Zaire (french: République du Zaïre, link=no, ), was a Congolese state from 1971 to 1997 in Central Africa that was previously and is now again known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Zaire was, ...
's
Mobuto Sese Seko Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Wa Za Banga (; born Joseph-Désiré Mobutu; 14 October 1930 – 7 September 1997) was a Congolese politician and military officer who was the president of Zaire from 1965 to 1997 (known as the Democratic Republic o ...
was his client, the "State Department was encouraging obutoto hold parliamentary elections and MSKfirm advised Sese Seko on how to conduct such elections." However, when Mobutu rejected the election results and became a dictator, BMSK resigned. By 2008, BMSK & Associates was owned by Burston Marsteller, and was run by Mark Pennit. BMSK's CEO was R. Scott Pastrick who was a former treasurer of the Democratic National Committee and a supporter of
Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...
's. Prime Policy Group is the result of the merger of two lobby firms in Washington in 2010, Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly & Associates Worldwide and Timmons and Company. Prime Policy Group represents large companies, trade and industry associations, foreign governments, state governments and municipalities, including Airbus and Google.


References


External links


Charles R. Black Jr.
– Chairman of Prime Policy Group *
Profile
at
SourceWatch The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) is a progressive nonprofit watchdog and advocacy organization based in Madison, Wisconsin. CMD publishes ExposedbyCMD.org, SourceWatch.org, and ALECexposed.org. History CMD was founded in 1993 by prog ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Black, Charles R. Jr. 1947 births American lobbyists College Republicans Living people University of Florida College of Liberal Arts and Sciences alumni Washington, D.C., Republicans People from Wilmington, North Carolina