Ron Lahr: Strategery Is No More
Huckleberries Online conducted the following 5 Questions phone interview with Ron Lahr, who, along with Jeff Ward, owned the public relations company formerly known as Strategery:
Huckleberries: I've heard you're planning changes with your political PR company, Strategery?
Ron Lahr: That's correct. Jeff Ward and I decided to address the attacks on a perceived conflict of interest between the Reagan Republicans and Strategery by separating the two. So Jeff is now president of the Reagan Republicans again, and I'm not on the board at all. I'm buying him out of Strategery. He's no longer an owner of Strategery or is he any longer an employee
- Huckleberries: So what does that mean in terms of how you operate?
- Lahr: I get to pick who the candidates are who we offer to work with, rather than it being a team decision. Any time you have a partnership and you're making decisions jointly, there are compromises. One person wants to work with one candidate and one wants to work with another. In the past, we weren't always unanimous on which candidates to work with.
- Huckleberries: The name Strategery has some baggage. Are you going to keep it?
- Lahr: No. Strategery was Jeff and me working together. I'm going to use a different name for just me. It's going to be Umbrella Consulting.
- Huckleberries: Will there be a change in the type of candidate that Umbrella Consulting works with as opposed to the type that the Reagan Republicans did?
- Lahr: I expect the candidates will be similar to those in the last primary. I don't know beyond that. I'm not looking beyond this cycle.
- Huckleberries: Does this break on the PR side indicate any problems on the Reagan Republicans side?
- Lahr: No. It was really something we've been talking about for a year. We really felt we should respond to that (conflict-of-interest) attack, originally leveled by (Larry) Spencer. I'm still a member of the Reagan Republicans. I send out the group's email. I support what they do but I don't attend every meeting.
- Huckleberries: Are you working with any candidates now?
- Lahr: The only people I've signed up with, as of this second, are Ed Morse and Pat Whalen.
Question: Will Ron Lahr have difficulty re-inventing his political PR firm?
