Biden Advisor’s Firm Received Thousands From Labor Nominee Marty Walsh, Report Says

Secretary of Labor nominee Marty Walsh paid Biden Senior Advisor Anita Dunn’s political consulting firm $90,000 between September and December of 2020 leading up to his nomination, the Washington Free Beacon reported.

The Boston Mayor’s campaign paid the $90,000 to SKDKnickerbocker, a well-known political consulting firm favored by several prominent Democrats including President Joe Biden, according to a report by the Washington Free Beacon. Biden’s campaign paid the firm 2.2 million over the course of his 2020 presidential campaign.

Labor Pick @marty_walsh Paid @JoeBiden-Linked Firm Tens of Thousands Prior to Nomination

Via @CAndersonMO and @MatthewFoldihttps://t.co/SPALRvs1vK

— Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) January 21, 2021

The report also revealed that then-California Secretary of State Alex Padilla awarded the firm a lucrative $35 million dollar contract amid pushback from the state’s chief financial officer, prior to Governor Gavin Newsom appointing Padilla to fill Vice President Kamala Harris’s vacated Senate seat.

According to publicly disclosed campaign finance statements from the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance, Walsh’s campaign made two payments of $18,000 to SKDK in September 2020, totaling $36,000. The campaign then proceeded to make similar monthly payments of $18,000 to the firm through the end of 2020, bringing the campaign’s total payments to $90,000.

“I’ve hired SKDK to prepare for what is ahead for 2021 while I’m focused on doing my job as mayor”, said Walsh in a statement to the Boston Globe.

A rep for SKDK commented that the firm was “proud to have provided strategic consulting and communications support to Marty Walsh’s reelection campaign for Mayor of Boston,” and that Dunn “was on leave from the firm when Mayor Walsh hired SKDK and did not work on the campaign at any point,” according to the report.

Walsh hired the firm, despite the firm’s lack of consulting experience in Massachusetts, according to the Free Beacon.

Mayor Walsh’s campaign and the Department of Labor have not responded to requests for comment.