THE WELL NEWS: “After a Decade on Capitol Hill, Brad Howard Steps Out on His Own”

WASHINGTON — After a decade on Capitol Hill, most recently as chief of staff for former Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., and communications director of the Blue Dog Coalition, Brad Howard knew it was time for change.

“It was time to move into the private sector,” he said during a recent conversation with The Well News.

“The question was how to do it,” he said.

After briefly landing at the Vogel Group, the bipartisan lobbying shop based here in D.C., Howard said a different vision of his future began to crystallize.

“When you run an operation like Stephanie Murphy and I built together — choosing the staff, establishing the policies and values and then watching it succeed — there’s just … something so special in that,” he said.

“Ultimately I concluded, I wanted to try that again,” he said.

Howard’s new company, Corcoran Street Group, is built on the premise that there’s a better way to do lobbying, one “that blends with my unique background in communications.”

“Basically, I realized what I wanted was to have a lobby-heavy shop that could augment its efforts on behalf of clients with a little creative communications campaign boost,” he said.

Long known as a “key powerbroker for House moderates,” Howard enjoyed a number of perks during his years in the Capitol, including being granted rare walk-on status on the floor of the House by former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

While things are different in the private sector, he said his passion for policy and politics continues to drive his professional life.

“When you work on Capitol Hill, especially if you’re a Democrat, you have this sense that every hour you stay after 5 p.m. and every morning that you get in at 7 a.m., you’re putting in that extra effort to effect positive change,” Howard said.

“I mean, you really do feel that sense of helping people and serving your country … and that’s a powerful feeling,” he said.

“The private sector is a little different,” he added. “You don’t have the same, direct sense of public service, but at the same time, you know that most companies — the entities that are now your clients — are out to do good by the customers and their shareholders. That’s the capitalist model.

“So what I’m doing now is basically an acknowledgement that everyone deserves representation in Congress. And what I do is help our clients craft a strategy that helps them serve their customers,” he said.

As he spoke, it was hard to miss the excitement in Howard’s voice. When that was brought to his attention, he laughed.

“You know, I honestly think that’s because I’m in kind of a perfect situation,” he said. “I still get to do politics and I still get to do policy, and I also get to do comms work. So for me, it’s just the perfect blend of all the things I love.”