Consulting Industry Takes Off

Successful congressional campaigns often spawn new consultants.

Mal Warwick, a highly successful direct-mail fund-raiser for liberal causes, began his career in the early 1970s using a tiny computer in his kitchen to raise money for his friend, Rep. Ronald V. Dellums (D-Berkeley).

“I wasn’t even familiar with the term ‘direct mail’ back then,” recalls Warwick. “But we knew we weren’t going to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars by holding barbecues and celebrity cocktail parties.”

Today that same computer terminal has a place of honor in the lobby of Warwick’s posh corporate headquarters here.

Warwick’s remarkable success story helps to explain why political consulting has become a multibillion-dollar industry, with new firms starting up virtually every week.