Top Obama aide David Plouffe, who is orchestrating the president’s effort to woo Joe Sixpack and leading the attacks on Mitt Romney’s fat-cat donors, is himself in the 1 percent club, entered in the blue-blood Social Register where he and his wife are listed as members of the exclusive Chevy Chase Club.
While Obama campaign aide David Axelrod is making headlines this week for forking over $1.7 million for a four-bedroom Chicago condo, Plouffe and his wife, long-time Democratic communicator and strategist Olivia Morgan, are quietly making do with their $1.4 million Cleveland Park home.
The scrappy Plouffe is from a blue collar Wilmington, Delaware family. He tells Secrets that he still drives a Ford Fusion hybrid purchased after helping Obama win election in 2008. He’s often disparaged Republican operatives for being in the game to make a buck.
He’s no stranger to a buck himself, signing a reported seven-figure book advance and earning $1.5 million in consulting and speaking fees between Obama’s victory and his return to the White House to replace Axelrod.
But his inclusion in the Social Register puts him in a totally different class than his West Wing officemates. He got there through marriage: Morgan’s ancestors date back to the nation’s founding. According to Social Register officials, marriage is the easiest way to make the list, considered a Who’s Who of American high society and a valuable phone book for tony people with unlisted numbers.
The Plouffe-Morgan entry gives their names, phone number, street address, colleges and memberships. Only Morgan’s college, Wesleyan, is listed. Plouffe belatedly got his degree via “distance courses” from the University of Delaware in 2010 and help set up the school’s Center for Political Communication.
Current and past Social Registry entries also listed their membership for 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 in the Chevy Chase Club, the golf and tennis club that was once controversial for not having black members. It has several now.
The Chevy Chase Club, however, does not list Plouffe or Morgan in their membership ranks for those years. Secrets understands that they are not members. Indications are that Morgan’s family had been members in the past. A Social Registry official said “those listed are responsible for the accuracy of their information–they are sent periodic reminders to review their entries to ensure they are correct.”
Plouffe wouldn’t discuss the Club or Social Registry and his wife was not immediately available for comment.
