Hillary Clinton campaign chief John Podesta sought to recruit donors for his daughter’s school board campaign by asking them to “get in on the ground floor” of her political career.
Documents published by WikiLeaks reveal Podesta emailed a number of high-profile Washington socialites to make the appeal on behalf of his daughter, Megan Rouse, who was first appointed to the school board in Dublin, Calif., in 2013. She won her first election to the seat in 2014.
“Megan is serving on the Board, having been picked through a merit selection process to fill a vacancy. She is doing a great job and is sort of running for re-election, but this is her first time before the voters,” Podesta explained in the July 2014 pitch.
“Of course, we are super proud of her and the work she is doing. While you probably aren’t too vested in the outcome of local California school board races, we hope you can support her candidacy, even at a modest level, as she begins her career as an elected official. Good to get in on the ground floor,” he added.
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Podesta made the pitch to at least three high-powered Washingtonians. They included Janice Enright, a partner at lobbying firm Enright & Ickes, Brian Dailey, a former White House staffer and executive at defense contractor Lockheed Martin, and David Dreyer, a partner at TSD Communications.
Rouse is serving this year as vice president on the six-member board in Dublin. The city is home to about 52,000 people.
The emails were included among more than 25,000 obtained from Podesta and published by WikiLeaks this month. Earlier releases by the organization have driven criticism that Clinton and her staff fostered a pay-to-play culture at the State Department by enabling a quid pro quo for foreign governments donating to her family’s philanthropic Clinton Foundation.
