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Mercury Public Affairs has won the competitive pitch to handle outreach and PR for the California 2020 census.
Issued March 15, the RFP called for a shop to focus on geographic areas and demographic populations that are “least likely to respond” to census canvassers.
In addition, Mercury is expected to develop an overall campaign to encourage all Californians to be counted in 2020.
California’s lawmakers approved a $90M budget to fund overall census promotion, while Governor Gavin Newsom’s 2019-2020 budget proposed an increase of $50M.
The California Complete Count office, which issued the RFP, has allocated $16.1M for outreach & PR. That figure has the potential to expand to $46.1M, pending budget approval.
The 2020 census will determine the number of seats that California will hold in Congress and funding formulas for federal disaster relief, education and health and human services programs.
Mercury will officially land the account 5 PM (PST) July 15, which is the deadline to protest the award to the Omnicom unit.
Jeffrey Nesbit, who served as communications director for former vice president Dan Quayle, is named assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services.
Kate Bedingfield, White House communications director, will exit at the end of the month. Ben LaBolt, a longtime Biden adviser, will take the CD post.
Cathy Cochran, senior VP in Teneo’s Washington office, has rejoined the US Dept of Agriculture as director in its communications office.
Mexico is working with the DC-based Global Action on Gun Violence to push for “impactful gun violence prevention strategies” in the US.
Douglas Farrar, who was VP-communications and strategy at the Carnegie Center for International Peace, has joined the Federal Trade Commission as PA director.
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