Hari Sevugan, an Indian-American attorney, has been co-opted by the Barack Obama presidential campaign as a senior spokesperson to augment the already massive media operation of the campaign of the Democratic candidate. Sevugan has considerable experience in communication and policy work with statewide political campaigns.
Sevugan had served as the Communications Director for presidential candidate Senator Chris Dodd, before the latter threw in the towel in January, when he failed miserably in the Iowa Caucus and the New Hampshire primary. Sevugan is perhaps the senior most Indian American to serve as a spokesman for a presidential candidate in recent history.
The only other Indian American, who served as a press spokesman and part of a high-profile media team, is Nanda Chitre, special assistant to former President Bill Clinton, who served as an assistant press secretary in the second Clinton administration at the time Joe Lockhart was the chief press secretary. Chitre accompanied President Clinton during his March 2000 visit to India, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Sevugan, who will work directly under campaign communications director Robert Gibbs, will join the other press spokespeople out on the field and the scores of mediapersons serving as state spokesmen that includes Bill Burton, Jen Psaki, Tommy Vietor, John Earnest, Ben LaBolt, Dan Pfeiffer, Reid Cherlin, all of whom come under the wing of Obama chief media strategist and close confidate David Axelrod.
Before he worked on the Dodd presidential campaign (from February 2007 to January 2008), Sevugan worked as communications director for the gubernatorial campaign of Martin O'Malley, now the Democratic Governor of Maryland (February 2006 to November 2006) who beat Republican incumbent Robert Ehrlich. Three years ago, he worked for now Virgina Governor and then gubernatorial candidate Tim Kaine's campaign as policy director (from January 2005 to January 2006) and was part of the strategic team that catapulted Kaine to a convincing victory. He then stayed on for a few months as senior policy advisor to Governor-elect Kaine during the transition, till the latter took over as the Governor in January 2007.
An alumnus of the University of Illinois, Seuvgan majored in political science and finance and after graduating (Class of 1996) joined Teach for America, an Americorps programme that places qualified college graduates in underserved and indigent communities across the country. He excelled in this programme for two years and was adjudged one of the best teachers he was among the award-winners for his stint in the Washington Heights community in New York.
He then pursued a law degree at the Northwestern School of Law. During these years, while attending law school, his zeal for public service continued and he was an active member of the Bluhm Legal Clinic, which offered pro bono service to juvenile and indigent clients in the Chicago area.
After graduating with a J D degree (Class of 2001) Sevugan practised securities law in Chicago for two years with the law firm of Mel Gerber & Eisenberg. He was once again drawn to public service and quit his law practice to become deputy policy director for Dan Hynes' Senate campaign in Illinois (from October 2003 to April 2004).
Interestingly, Hynes -- State Comptroller at the time and the son of the mercurial Chicago Democratic party stalwart Tom Hynes -- was then the organised Democratic political machine's favorite, till Obama came into the scene and secured the party's nomination with some aggressive and sustained campaigning.
After Obama got the party's nomination for the US Senate, Sevugan went to work as deputy campaign manager for the Senate campaign of Dr Daniel Mongiardo in Kentucky. Mongiardo was not considered to stand a ghost of a chance and he was outspent five-to-one. But he came within 20,000 votes of the Republican incumbent, thanks to Sevugan and other senior managers in the campaign.
