Candidates Turn to Clinton Advisers
Who are the top economic advisers of the leading Democratic presidential candidates? Well, naturally enough, many of the same experts who were the top economic advisers of the last Democratic president. The following is a list provided by the top five campaigns.
Retired general Wesley Clark: Brookings Institution economist Henry Aaron, former Treasury secretary Robert Rubin, former White House chief economic adviser Gene Sperling, Washington attorney Ron Klain, former White House economist Jon Orszag and former Clinton national economic adviser Laura Tyson. Clark aide Mark Fabiani said the candidate’s advisers also speak to other campaigns.
Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman: former deputy Treasury secretary Stuart Eizenstat; Charles Schwab chief David Pottruck; venture capitalist John Doerr; Robert Shapiro, vice president of the Progressive Policy Institute and former undersecretary of commerce; Nao Matsukata, former director of policy and planning for the United States Trade Representative; former deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget Sally Katzen; former deputy director of the White House National Economic Council Tom Kalil, and longtime Lieberman legislative director Bill Bonvillian and budget adviser Chuck Ludlam.
Massachusetts Senator John Kerry: former deputy Treasury secretary Roger Altman; George Washington University law professor Jon Molot; former assistant Treasury secretary Les Samuels; Peter Stamos, a financier and former chief of staff for Senator Bill Bradley; former deputy secretary of labor Kitty Higgins; former secretary of labor Robert Reich; former Federal Reserve vice chairman Alan Blinder; Gene Sperling; Ron Klain, and Laura Tyson.
Missouri Rep. Richard Gephardt: financier Felix Rohatyn; Northeastern University economist Barry Bluestone; consultant Lawrence Chimerine, a former chief economist of Chase Econometrics; University of Texas at Austin political economist James Galbraith; trade and Latin America expert Harley Shaiken; Mike Wessel, a longtime Gephardt aide on tax, trade and labor, and James Wetzler, a tax expert who is a director of the accounting firm Deloitte & Touche.
Former Vermont governor Howard Dean: Dean’s policy director, Jeremy Ben-Ami, declined to name his candidate’s advisers. “The Dean campaign is working with a lot of former Clinton administration economic officials from OMB, the National Economic Council, the Council of Economic Advisors and Treasury,” he wrote in an e-mail. “We are also regularly consulting with academics and economists on Wall Street. “Many of these people are talking to several campaigns and are not advising us exclusively.”
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