Every year the AAPC selects individuals whose careers and activities can serve as inspirations to us all, especially to students and young professionals looking for examples of leadership, longevity and accomplishment. Induction into the AAPC Hall of Fame is the highest honor that the working members of the profession can bestow upon a colleague.
2019
Donna Lucas
Donna Lucas has earned a reputation as a smart, strategic and successful communications consultant and business woman. Since opening Lucas Public Affairs in 2006, Donna has grown the firm into a team of accomplished public affairs professionals who work collaboratively with clients to explain the complexities around many of the major public policy challenges facing the state – and what can be done to address those challenges.
Alex Castellanos
Alex Castellanos is one of the Republican Party’s best-known and most successful media consultants and strategists. Castellanos has served as communications consultant to seven U.S Presidential campaigns, has helped elect more than a dozen U.S. Senators and Governors, and enjoys nearly four decades of political consulting experience, both in the United States and abroad.
Jim Margolis
Jim Margolis has been successful in helping candidates, corporations, advocacy groups, foundations and government agencies develop strategic communications and advertising programs that impact people’s lives and help change the world. As a founding partner of GMMB, Jim served as a senior advisor to Barack Obama in both the former President’s campaigns for the White House, leading each cycle’s half-billion dollar advertising effort and helping direct the campaign as part of the core strategic team.
2018
Joseph Gaylord
Joeseph Gaylord ranks among the nation’s most experiences political consultants. His 45 years of experience have given him a unique perspective and expertise in strategic message development, media, grass roots, party coalition building, and campaign organization.
Minyon Moore
Minyon Moore is considered one of the nation’s top strategic thinkers with extensive experience in political and corporate affairs and public policy. Minyon joined Dewey Square Group as a principal in 2002 and heads the State and Local Affairs and Multicultural Strategies practice. Clients from Fortune 100 companies to non-profit start-ups have turned to Minyon for her skills in developing effective strategies to address emerging consumer markets. She specializes in building coalitions and brand awareness strategies for corporations while effectively addressing their state and local public policy issues.
Greg Stevens
Greg Stevens was an award-winning producer with over thirty years’ experience in politics, public affairs and journalism. During his career, Greg created and produced advertising for some of America’s most prominent political leaders.
2017
Gale Kaufman
Gale Kaufman is widely acknowledged as the preeminent Democratic issue-based initiative consultant in California. Kaufman has led some of the State’s most significant and successful initiative campaigns since opening her campaign management firm, Kaufman Campaign Consultants in 1987 – a true trailblazer as one of the few female full-service campaign consultants in the country.
Richard A. Viguerie
Richard Viguerie transformed American politics in the 1960s and 1970s by pioneering the use of computerized direct marketing in the political and ideological spheres. His innovative skills and marketing strategies helped build the conservative movement, which then contributed to the election of Ronald Reagan as the first conservative president of the modern era.
Paul Tully
Paul Tully fought tirelessly for Democratic candidates, including in eight consecutive Presidential campaigns. As the National Political Director of the DNC, his efforts and acumen were critical to Bill Clinton’s 1992 victory. Paul inspired and trained a generation of activists on messaging, targeting, and how to run winning campaigns that respected the needs, opinions, and aspirations of voters.
Allen Hoffenblum
Allan Hoffenblum was a widely respected election-guide publisher who was one of the most influential players in California politics for more than a generation. Politicians, journalists, and business and labor leaders relied for years on Hoffenblum’s nonpartisan California Target Book as the most comprehensive guide to the never-ending battles over the state’s congressional and legislative seats.
2016
Eddie Mahe, Jr.
Starting at the grassroots in New Mexico and getting his national stripes through training under the legendary Ray Bliss as a county and state executive Director, he worked most of the country for the NRSC and the NRCC.
Hal Malchow
Hal Malchow is the former Chairman of MSHC Partners, a firm that helped pioneer the use of statistical modeling and control group experiments in politics.
2015
Robert Shrum
Robert M. Shrum is an American political consultant, who has worked on numerous Democratic campaigns.
Lionel Sosa
Lionel Sosa is a Hispanic-American advertising and marketing executive and political consultant.
2014
David Garth
Regarded as a grandfather of modern political advertising, David Garth was a political strategist who worked on over 150 campaigns.
George Gorton
For over thirty years, George Gorton has helped lead national campaigns in Russia, Panama, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Canada and The United States.
Ellen Malcolm
As the founder of EMILY’s List, Ellen Malcolm helped revolutionize politics by leveling the political playing field for women candidates.
Lyn Nofziger
Franklyn “Lyn” Nofziger was an American journalist, conservative Republican political consultant and author.
2013
David Axelrod
David Axelrod is a political consultant and strategist recognized for creating a winning campaign strategy for U.S. President Barack Obama.
David Plouffe
David Plouffe is a a pioneering force in the field of politics, technology and grassroots leadership.
Arthur Finkelstein
Arthur Finkelstein is a well-known Republican political consultant who successfully steered the campaigns of numerous national and international leaders.
V. Lance Tarrance, Jr.
V. Lance Tarrance, Jr. is a leading Republican pollster and political strategist who has conducted hundreds of public opinion studies for national corporations, foundations and elected leaders.
Posthumous Honorees:
Lee Atwater
Harvey LeRoy Atwater, known universally as Lee, was one of the Republican Party’s best political tacticians.
Robert M. Teeter
Robert M. Teeter served as a Republican strategist for President George H.W. Bush.
2012
Paul Begala
Paul Edward Begala is an American political consultant and political commentator.
James Carville
Chester James Carville, Jr. is an American political commentator and media personality who is a prominent figure in the Democratic Party.
Karl Rove
Karl Christian Rove is an American Republican political consultant and policy advisor.
2011
Roger M. Craver
Morris S. Dees
2010
2009
Nancy Todd
Nancy Todd is a political consultant and president of Nancy Todd, Inc., an international strategic consulting firm based in Sarasota, FL. Todd’s specialty is controversial issues which have occurred worldwide over the last 30 years.
2008
Ray Strother
Raymond Strother is a pioneer in media consulting and has worked in more than 300 campaigns for governors, senators, house members and candidate for president. He has published two books, an autobiography called Falling Up and a novel, Cottonwood. He is a past president of the AAPC.
2007
Joe CerrellPolitical consultant Joseph R. Cerrell, who played a vital role in the presidential campaigns of Democratic candidates including John F. Kennedy, died on Dec. 3, 2010. He was 75.
Dick Woodward
2005
2003
2002
2001
1999
1998
Bob Goodman
1992
Matt ReeseLegendary political consultant Matthew Reese died on December 1, 1998, at the age of 71. His political career started in 1948, when he helped Huntington’s Maurice “Bernie” Burnside get elected to Congress.
