Ex-senators to show PR clients the ropes

Former Sens. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) and Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) have joined Edelman as strategic advisors, the firm announced on Thursday.

{mosads}Conrad and Gregg will provide public policy and communications advice at the PR firm, which ranks as the largest in the world.

Edelman created the roles especially for the former lawmakers, saying that they “add a new dimension to Edelman and expand the scope of services we can provide,” said Rob Rehg, the president of Edelman Washington D.C.

Gregg and Conrad both served stints as chairmen of the Senate Budget Committee. Gregg left the Senate in 2011, and Conrad retired two years later.

The two men also served on President Obama’s fiscal reform group, known as the Simpson-Bowles commission, and now work together at the Campaign to Fix the Debt, a bipartisan organization seeking solutions to fiscal problems that Gregg helps lead as a co-chairman.

“This is a win-win. Not only am I working with the world’s leading public relations firm, but I am reuniting with my good friend Judd Gregg,” Conrad said in a statement. “I look forward to helping Edelman’s clients craft their message and tell their story in an effective manner.”

Conrad is a member of the Bipartisan Policy Center think tank, where he is a co-chairman a commission on retirement security issues.

Gregg said in a statement that he and Kent could give Edelman’s corporate, nonprofit and association clients “a better understanding of Congress.”

Knowing how Congress works can help understand “how best to communicate on a wealth of complex public policy issues,” Gregg said.

Gregg previously served as the CEO of one of Wall Street’s most powerful lobby groups, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), but stepped down from that post in December after less than a year on the job.