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| SEIU's Dennis Hickey Rivera |
Just one day
after news surfaced about Dennis Hickey
Rivera’s involvement in an alleged
influence-buying scheme linking multiple deep-pocketed business executives to Puerto Rico’s scandal-plagued governor, Rivera
hired a pricey New York public relations firm to do damage control, according
to press
reports.
Nell Callahan, Vice President of SKDKnickerbocker (also known as SKDK), said
Rivera had retained the firm “to set the record straight.” Within 24 hours, SKDK
reportedly circulated a memo to legislators’ offices in Washington DC defending
of Rivera.
SKDK is a
full service public affairs practice that offers crisis communications,
branding, marketing, media training, digital/social media advice, speech writing,
and message development. Its clients have included Barack Obama, New York Gov. Andrew
Cuomo, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, AT&T, Facebook, and the
Rockefeller Foundation.
Jennifer Cunningham, SEIU 1199NY’s
former political director, is a Partner and Managing Director at SKDK, where
she advises politicians and provides “C-suite message and communication
strategy for many Fortune 50 corporations,” according to SKDK’s website.
Cunningham was formerly married to New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.
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| Jennifer Cunningham |
Rivera was the
president of SEIU 1199NY from 1989-2007. Since then, he's since served as a “Senior
Advisor” to SEIU President Mary Kay
Henry.
In an
earlier post,
Tasty described Rivera’s role in founding and operating the organization that
took hundreds of thousands of dollars from banks, hedge funds, real estate
developers, private equity funds, and other big business… and then hired the
governor’s brother to fill an alleged no-show job as the organization’s only
staff member.
In 2014, SEIU-UHW, headed by President Dave Regan, was the
fourth-largest contributor to the organization, “Sociedad Económica de Amigos del País” (SEAP), according to federal tax returns.
along with SEIU’s Dennis Rivera, SEAP’s Board of Directors is composed of corporate executives
including the CEOs of GM Capital, Banco
Popular, UBS Financial Services,
Bacardi Rum, Putnam Bridge Funding, and Putney
Capital Management.
