ALBUQUERQUE — Mark Penn, the pollster who has advised Bill and Hillary Clinton
since 1996, stepped down under pressure on Sunday as the chief
political strategist for Mrs. Clinton’s struggling presidential
campaign after his private business arrangements again clashed with her
campaign positions. Mr. Penn, who was widely disliked by Mrs. Clinton’s fiercest
loyalists and had bitterly feuded with many of them, sealed his fate
last week by meeting with officials from Colombia,
which hired him to help secure passage of a bilateral trade treaty with
the United States that Mrs. Clinton, a senator from New York, opposes. Mr.
Penn met with the Colombians in his role as chief executive of
Burson-Marsteller, a global public relations firm. He has refused to
sever his ties to the company, which also represented Countrywide
Financial, the nation’s largest mortgage lender, and through a
subsidiary represented Blackwater Worldwide, the military contractor blamed for numerous civilian deaths in Iraq. Mr.
Penn’s shift — he will continue to do some polling — is the latest
upheaval in a campaign that has seen its manager replaced, faced
critical money shortages and has often lagged behind Senator Barack Obama
of Illinois in a cohesive message and ground strategy. The move comes
at a crucial juncture, just two weeks before the Pennsylvania primary
on April 22, which Mrs. Clinton needs to win to keep hope of her
nomination alive. Mr. Penn’s work on the trade treaty with
Colombia threatened to undercut Mrs. Clinton’s support among the
blue-collar voters who are a crucial part of her base, as well as call
into question the sincerity of her populist economic message. SOURCE OF THIS STORY