Harold Ickes worked for civil rights in Mississippi during 1964 and Louisiana during 1965. He has been active as a union-side lawyer, political strategist, manager of a number of political campaigns, including President Clinton’s key 1992 New York primary and Presidential advisor.  

From 1977 through 1993, Mr. Ickes primarily practiced union-side labor law representing labor unions and their members.  

During 1967 and 1968, he worked closely with Allard Lowenstein successfully organizing a national campaign to deny President Lyndon Johnson the Democratic nomination. He managed Senator Eugene McCarthy’s 1968 New York presidential campaign.  Mr. Ickes was co-manager of Basil Paterson’s historic and winning 1970 Democratic primary campaign for Lt. Governor of New York.  He managed the Rules Committee and the floor of the 1980 Democratic National Convention for Senator Edward Kennedy’s presidential campaign. He was a top advisor to Jesse Jackson in his 1988 presidential campaign for which he managed the Rules Committee of the Democratic National Convention and served as Ron Brown’s deputy for the Jackson campaign at the National Convention.   In 1989, he was a senior advisor to David Dinkins in his historic winning campaign to become the first Black mayor of New York City. He managed the 1992 Democratic National Convention for Clinton/Gore, widely considered the most successful Democratic National Convention in decades.  Mr. Ickes worked in top positions in Hillary Clinton’s 2000 and 2006 winning campaigns for the US Senate and for her 2008 presidential campaign.  

During 2004, Mr. Ickes was a founding member of America Coming Together and The Media Fund which raised hundreds of millions of dollars for an independent paid media and massive independent grassroots campaign in presidential battle ground states supporting Senator Kerry for president against George W. Bush.  

Prior to forming The Ickes & Enright Group, a federal affairs consulting firm, with his partner, Janice Ann Enright, in January 1997, Mr. Ickes served as Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff to President William J. Clinton from January 1994 through January 1997.   He also oversaw the President’s successful 1996 re-election campaign.  

By appointment of President Clinton, Mr. Ickes served as Director of Summit Affairs for the 1997 Denver Summit of the Eight, the meeting of the heads of state of eight of the world’s leading economic nations, formerly known as the “G7 Economic Summit.”  

In 2005, Mr. Ickes organized Catalist, LLC, a national voter database with current information about every registered voter in the country, which provides high quality data and modeling capacity to Democrats and progressive organizations.  

A partner in the New York law firm of Meyer, Suozzi, English & Klein, P.C., Mr. Ickes is Co-Chair of its Labor Law and Government Affairs Departments.   

Mr. Ickes graduated with distinction from Stanford University with a BA in Economics in 1964 and received his JD degree from Columbia University School of Law.

Janice Ann Enright

Janice Enright has worked with Harold Ickes since 1985, first at the New York law firm of Meyer, Suozzi, English & Klein, P.C., and then as his principal assistant during the 1992 New York Democratic presidential primary campaign, the 1992 Democratic National Convention, and the 1992 Clinton/Gore White House transition staff.  Mr. Ickes was Director of Summit Affairs at the 1997 Denver Summit of the Eight, the annual meeting of the heads of state of eight of the world’s leading economic nations, where Ms. Enright served as his Deputy and managed the Executive office, which was staffed with Liaisons for the Director to the White House, State Department, Treasury Department, all foreign delegations, the State of Colorado and the City of Denver.

 

Ms. Enright joined the White House in 1994 as Special Assistant to the Deputy Chief of Staff; she was responsible for the management of the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff.  In that capacity, she was the point person for the Deputy Chief of Staff for several substantive areas.  She was Mr. Ickes’ primary liaison to senior White House officials, Cabinet members, agency staff, members of Congress and their senior staff, Democratic Party officials, community organizations, interest groups and the press.

 

In January 1997, Mr. Ickes and Ms. Enright formed The Ickes & Enright Group. Since that time, Ms. Enright has managed the lobbying and other activities of the firm for a number of its largest clients, with particular focus on appropriations. 

 

During 2003 and 2004, Ms. Enright served as Treasurer of The Media Fund, which raised and spent $60 million creating and airing television and radio ads focusing on key issues in the 2004 elections.  Ms. Enright also served as Treasurer of Victory Campaign 2004, which raised more than $200 million for The Media Fund, and America Coming Together, a $145 million voter mobilization initiative focused on the 2004 battleground states.