BerlinRosen Public Affairs: Mayor de Blasio’s PR Company
Two years ago there was a mayoral race in New York City. The winner Bill de Blasio took it by the proverbial landslide with a 50-point margin. The NY race for Mayor has not seen that big of a margin in a century. This started with de Blasio, a local NYC politician, during a time when the big news in the political arena was Anthony Weiner’s fall from sexting grace.
Many factors contributed to the win, but a big part fell to BerlinRosen Public Affairs. Their oversight of the campaign, speeches, messages, and keeping de Blasio’s comments focused and on point, all while getting him much needed unpaid media attention provided key components to the win.
Prior to becoming mayor, de Blasio served as NYC Public Advocate, and he represented the Brooklyn area on the NY City Council, until becoming the first Democrat as Mayor since Dinkins left the office in 1993.
BerlinRosen specializes in Democratic campaigns, including some high-level races. They also advocate for public policy. Their connections from the former group provide access to do great work clients in the latter group. But, they are very good at their work no matter which side of that coin faces up at a particular moment.
BerlinRosen has offices in New York City, Washington DC, and California. In 2013, along with the mayoral race, they were instrumental in Cornell University’s successful winning bid opening their Manhattan tech campus. They also helped with the national fast-food workers’ strike that year.
Many of the firm’s non-campaign clients are in the nonprofit sector, including the Elton John Aids Foundation, Philanthropy New York, The Center for Arts Education, Bend the Arc (a Jewish partnership for Justice), Food Bank for New York City, and Children’s Defense Fund. Some of the campaign and Union clients, other than de Blasio, include Congressman Gary Ackerman (NY), Mayor Ras Baraka (Newark), Congressman Joe Serrano (NY), Congresswoman Nydia Velasquez (NY), AFL/CIO Working America, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and United Auto Workers.
Jonathan Rosen and Valerie Berlin founded the company in 2005.
They now have more than 70 employees company-wide. Valerie brought 20 years’ experience to the partnership as an advisor to candidates, winning victories for campaign finance reform, women’s health, and getting progressive officials appointed and elected.
She also worked as a campaign manager and organizer. Jonathan was named by Crain’s New York Business in 2012 as one of the “40 Under 40” list of New York leaders. He also graduated from NYU School of Law.
