Nathan Ballard

Nathan Finch Ballard (born May 1, 1969 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American political strategist, attorney, and media relations expert who specializes in crisis communications. He has been a spokesman for U.S. presidential candidates Senator John Kerry and General Wesley Clark, the U.S. Democratic Party, and U.S. labor unions.
Media relations
The San Francisco Chronicle calls Ballard a “spinmeister” with a reputation for “witty, often pun-filled and pointed quotes for the press on the topic of the day.”
Journalists have celebrated Ballard’s quotes in a San Francisco Chronicle article, “Nathan Ballard’s Greatest Hits,” Both Newsweek Magazine and the San Francisco Chronicle have awarded Ballard a “quote of the week.” In 2011, the San Francisco Chronicle awarded Ballard a “quote of the year.”
Crisis management
Ballard specializes in crisis communications. The Oakland Tribune calls him a “respected crisis communications expert.” The San Francisco Chronicle describes Ballard as a “crisis manager” and says “Ballard knows crisis.”

Ballard led crisis communications on the West Coast of the U.S. for Burson-Marsteller, a global public relations agency. The San Francisco Chronicle says that Ballard led communications during “a number of high-profile crises” including “the Olympic torch relay, the imprisonment of former Supervisor Ed Jew, two oil spills in the bay, a North Beach rock slide and a deadly tiger attack at the zoo on Christmas Day.” Ballard and Chris Lehane handled the crisis around allegations of “faulty welds” on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

Democratic strategist
Ballard works as a strategist for U.S. Democratic leaders and political campaigns. Politico calls Ballard a “veteran Democratic strategist” and Media Bistro calls him a “political heavyweight.”

During the 2004 U.S. presidential race, Ballard served as the Democratic National Committee’s communications director in California. In the 2004 Democratic presidential primaries, he was a spokesman for U.S. Senator John Kerry in California and the communications director for General Wesley Clark in Missouri.

Ballard was San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom’s communications director from 2007 to 2010. The New York Times says Ballard “appeared to have a sixth sense as to when to step in for his boss .”

Ballard served as U.S. Congresswoman Jackie Speier’s spokesman as she weighed a run for attorney general of California in 2010 and during her campaign for lieutenant governor of California in 2006.

In 2002, Ballard was a communications director for the California Democratic Party during its clean sweep of statewide offices and the communications director for New Hampshire State Senate President Bev Hollingworth’s campaign for governor of New Hampshire.

Ballard has worked for U.S. political leaders including U.S. Congressman Vic Fazio, California State Senator Lucy Killea, California State Assembly Member Joe Nation, California State Assembly Member Helen Thomson, Yolo County Supervisor Mike McGowan, Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, and San Francisco Public Defender Kimiko Burton.
Legal background
Ballard was admitted by the California Supreme Court to practice law in California on November 26, 1999. He was a deputy city attorney in San Francisco and served as the spokesman for City Attorney Louise Renne, a “staunch foe of tobacco and gunmakers.”
'New media' strategist
Ballard has expanded the use of new media in politics. In 2006, Ballard created an “utterly brilliant” viral campaign against California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger that was the subject of a feature in Time Magazine.

Ballard helped conceive and craft for San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom the first-ever State of the City address delivered exclusively on the Internet. It was called “gutsy” and “brilliant” on NPR. The San Francisco Chronicle credits Ballard’s emphasis on social media for “helping get 1.2 million followers on Twitter.”
Labor ties
Ballard has close ties to labor unions. In 2003-2004, when California’s unions waged high-profile battles over the recall of Governor Gray Davis and a protracted grocery strike in Southern California, Ballard was the communications director for the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, the state’s largest labor organization. In that role, he was an outspoken critic of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

In 2010, Ballard led communications strategy for a broad coalition of labor unions fighting against a controversial pension measure in San Francisco. The New York Times said the unions’ victory “cemented labor’s power.” In 2011, the union coalition and Ballard joined civic leader Warren Hellman and San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee to pass labor-backed reforms and defeat a rival measure funded by Michael Moritz.
Ballard’s clients include unions representing police officers and firefighters; the San Francisco Chronicle says that Ballard has “lots of law enforcement clients.”
Criticism
Ballard’s foes have sharply criticized him. San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi tried to link Ballard to “the worst corporate criminals in modern history,” a “massacre in Indonesia,” and “the killing of over 2,000 people in India’s Bhopal disaster.” Ballard waved away Adachi’s claims. and calls him a “soulless, scorched-earth political operative.” In its 2009 April Fool’s Day edition, the newspaper lampooned Ballard in a fake advice column called “Ask Nate.”

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