Former aide to Biden, Branstad now on Huckabee’s team

An Iowa political insider is signing on to Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee’s presidential campaign.  The release is copied below. It curiously makes no mention of Eric Woolson’s first work for a presidential candidate.  Woolson left the Waterloo Courier in 1987 to work as press secretary for Delaware Senator Joe Biden’s Iowa effort.  Biden, as you may recall, dropped out after admitting to using a British politician’s words without attribution,  Woolson left Iowa, worked in Biden’s DC office for a while, the negotiated a return to the Waterloo Courier where he resumed covering the statehouse before moving to the paper’s editorial pages.  He left, as you see below, to become Governor Terry Branstad’s press secretary.

LITTLE ROCK, AR —  Governor Mike Huckabee’s ‘Hope for America’ Political Action Committee (HAPAC) has hired Eric Woolson to coordinate his legislative, grassroots and public relations efforts in Iowa and a handful of other states, it was announced today.

“Keeping our majority is absolutely critical to our party’s future.  I am very pleased that we were able to draft such great local talent as Eric Woolson to help us build our grassroots team in Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and Minnesota,” Huckabee said.

Huckabee, who is currently the second-most senior governor in the United States, said Woolson will help direct HAPAC’s efforts to preserve Republican majorities at the state and local levels, particularly in the Hawkeye State.Woolson, 47, a 20-year veteran of the Iowa press corps before embarking on his public relations and political consulting career, said his top priority will be to maximize HAPAC’s influence in races in the 2006 cycle. “We’ll be looking for opportunities where we can have the greatest impact.”

Woolson previously served as Iowa press coordinator for George W. Bush during the 2000 presidential campaign and was a part of communications teams at the Republican National Conventions at Philadelphia and New York in 2000 and 2004.  He also served as communications director and chief spokesman for four-term Iowa Governor Terry Branstad during his final three years in office. 

In 2002, Woolson founded The Concept Works, a public, media and government relations and crisis management firm. The Concept Works has offices in West Des Moines and Bettendorf, Iowa, and serves corporate, nonprofit and political clients.