Former Sanders aides launch consulting firm

Two staffers from Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) 2016 presidential campaign launched a consulting firm Monday, saying they are “primarying the consultant class” and will provide services to “people working to make radical change.” 

Karthik Ganapathy and Mike Casca launched MVMT Communications, a Washington-based firm that will focus on media relations, message development, crisis management, strategy consulting, speech writing and media training.

{mosads}Ganapathy was the battleground states communications director for Sanders and led the New Hampshire communications team. Casca was the rapid response director for Sanders and later was deputy communications director in his Senate office.

“We’re doing this because the consultant class is a big part of what’s so broken within the Democratic Party, and it’s due for a competitive primary,” the two co-founders wrote in an email to The Hill on Monday. “For too long, even left-leaning consultants have been happy to build big business empires with cash from huge corporate clients, even those that profited from the destruction of our planet. That needs to end.”

“In this political moment, when working people across the country are fed up with a broken status quo, values-driven help should be available to activists, first-time candidates, and social change leaders stepping up to fight for real progress,” they added.

After the 2016 election, Ganapathy worked for the American Civil Liberties Union, 350.org and was head of communications for then-Democratic National Committee deputy chairman Keith Ellison. He started his political career as an aide to Bill de Blasio before de Blasio became mayor of New York.

Casca was communications director for de Blasio in his mayor’s office after the 2016 election and later became communications strategist for de Blasio’s Fairness PAC. He has also served as communications director for Ellison when he was part of the Minnesota delegation in the House.