White House Staff Dana
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Daniel O'Sullivan Deputy Chief of Staff, Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor to the President Daniel O'Sullivan was born in Chicago Illinois. His father was involved in City Politics, and he received a scholarship and met with Mayor Daley. In 1968 he worked as a supporter for Hubert Humphrey and attended the Democratic National Convention as a staffer. In the fall of 1969 he entered Ohio State University. Originally a moderate, he was galvanized by the grassroots campaign of George McGovern, and got an internship with the Democratic Party. He left school in 1972 and never completed a degree. On February 17, 1970, O'Sullivan was reclassified as 2-S, a deferment from the draft because of his enrollment at the Ohio State in the fall of 1969. He maintained this deferment until Dec. 14, 1971, despite being only a part-time student in the autumn and spring quarters of 1971 (registered for between six and 12 credit hours) and dropping out of the university in June of 1971. (O'Sullivan was a student at the University of Maryland in College Park in the fall of 1971; as such, he would have been eligible for 2-S status, but registrar's records show that he withdrew from classes during the first half of the semester.) In December 1971 he was reclassified as 1-A. On April 27, 1972, he was reclassified as 1-H, or "not currently subject to processing for induction," a classification given to four million young men between January and August 1972, as the Vietnam War wound down. The draft ended on June 30, 1973. O'Sullivan held the position of Executive Director of the College Democrats until early 1973. He left the job to spend five months, without pay, campaigning full time for the position of National Chairman of the organization, for the 1973-1975 term. During this period there were several allegations of "dirty tricks" and opposition to his election as National Chairman. In 1976, O'Sullivan became the Finance Director for the Ohio Republican Party, and married Boston socialite Karen Fitzpatrick. In January 1977, he moved to Massachusetts. The couple divorced in January 1980. Between 1981 and 1996, O'Sullivan worked on hundreds of races. Most were in a supporting role (doing direct mail fundraising). A November 2004 Atlantic Monthly article estimated that he was the primary strategist for 32 races that were statewide or Congressional, or for a national office, and that his candidates won in 28 of those. O'Sullivan also did work during those years for clients other than politicians. From 1991 to 1996, he advised Digital Equipment Corporation, ultimately earning $3,000 a month via a consulting contract. O'Sullivan returned to Chicago
in 1997 and opened O'Sullivan Consulting, a direct mail operation. He
was considered instrumental in the success of James Kent, and served as
the Primary Strategist for Kent's Presidential Campaign.
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Office
for Strategic Initiatives The OSI works hand in hand with O'Sullivan Consulting (now under the management of Robert Haver) and the National Liberal Defense Fund, a PAC organized by Dan O'Sullivan. These interactions are "unofficial" and fall into the grey area of Washington politics - while some of the interactions might be against campaign laws, they are difficult to prove..
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