By Alexander Bolton,The Hill
Obama gives $6 Million to Clintons former pollster
Nearly $6 million in stimulus money was paid to two firms run by Mark Penn,Hillary Clinton’s pollster in 2008.
Federal records show that $5.97 million from the $787 billion stimulus helped preserve three jobs at Burson-Marsteller,the global public-relations and communications firm headed by Penn.
Burson-Marsteller won the contract to work on a public-relations campaign to advertise the national switch from analog to digital television. Nearly $2.8 million of the contract was issued to Penn’s polling firm,Penn,Schoen &Berland Associates,according to federal records.
Federal records also show that a former adviser to President Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign received nearly $70,000 from that contract to help alert viewers in difficult-to-reach communities that their televisions would soon no longer receive broadcast signals.
The adviser,Alfredo J. Balsera,who heads a public-affairs firm based in Coral Gables,Fla.,helped craft Obama’s Hispanic advertising message.