Ben Goddard is a founding partner of the public affairs

Public affairs

Public affairs may refer to:* Public administration* Public affairs * Public affairs * PublicAffairs, a USA publishing company* Public Affairs , a Czech political party...

 firm Goddard Claussen. He is widely regarded as the godfather of issue advocacy advertising

Issue advocacy ads

Issue Advocacy Ads are types of advertisements used in political campaigns. These advertisements originate from the power of soft money, which is used to fund numerous campaign efforts. Soft money can pay for different campaign expenses, get out the vote drives, or can be transferred to local and...

 and is credited with creating the genre of national issue advocacy advertising with the Harry & Louise campaign in the early 1990s.

Career and accomplishments

He is the Chairman of the International Association of Political Consultants

International Association of Political Consultants

The International Association of Political Consultants is a global professional association of Political Consultants.The IAPC was founded 1968 in Paris. It organizes annual conferences and is a platform for exchanging ideas between political consultants...

, and is a featured columnist in The Hill

The Hill (newspaper)

The Hill, a subsidiary of News Communications Inc., is a newspaper published in Washington, D.C. since 1994.Its first editor was Martin Tolchin, a veteran correspondent in the Washington bureau of The New York Times....

newspaper. Titled “On Message,” his column reviews and comments on campaign message and strategy.

Notable Goddard campaigns include Harry & Louise, the Pacific Life Wales, and Prop 187 in California. According to the Goddard Claussen website, Goddard has received dozens of awards for creativity, including a television Emmy

Emmy Award

An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...

, and his commercials are part of the Smithsonian Institution

Smithsonian Institution

The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...

 permanent collection.

In the 1970s and '80s Goddard served as a media consultant to candidates for state and national office including Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter

James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...

, Gary Hart

Gary Hart

Gary Hart is an American politician, lawyer, author, professor and commentator. He served as a Democratic Senator representing Colorado , and ran in the U.S...

, Mo Udall

Mo Udall

Morris King "Mo" Udall was an American politician who served as a U.S. Representative from Arizona from May 2, 1961 to May 4, 1991...

 and Bruce Babbitt

Bruce Babbitt

Bruce Edward Babbitt , a Democrat, served as United States Secretary of the Interior and as the 16th governor of Arizona, from 1978 to 1987.-Biography:...

.

In addition to his work in the United States, Goddard also created the first political advertising in the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 to preserve Boris Yeltsin

Boris Yeltsin

Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was the first President of the Russian Federation, serving from 1991 to 1999.Originally a supporter of Mikhail Gorbachev, Yeltsin emerged under the perestroika reforms as one of Gorbachev's most powerful political opponents. On 29 May 1990 he was elected the chairman of...

's free-market reforms

Privatization in Russia

Russian privatization was the reform consisting in privatization of state-owned industrial assets that took place in Russia in the 1990s, during the presidency of Boris Yeltsin, immediately after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, where private ownership of enterprises had been illegal for a long...

.