Babbage Cofounder helps companies improve results in all aspects of lobbying, communications, business and government relationship management and issues advocacy.

Babbage Cofounder concentrates on executive, agency, legislative, appropriations and public contract decisions, covering issues ranging from taxes and revenue to technology, from construction to the environment, from restaurant chains to the steel industry to energy policy. Cofounder also works with clients on major concerns in the broad area of health care and chronic disease, especially the impact of diabetes and solutions for impacting the epidemic.

Babbage Cofounder targets special initiatives in the State of Indiana, particularly those related to innovations, energy efficiency and improved operations, as well as major health care issues and achievements. In Ohio, the firm has worked on major health issues and public ballot decisions along with new outsourcing awards. Cofounder is involved extensively in the South and Midwest working in tandem with affiliated firms and professionals.

About Bob Babbage

Bob Babbage is the national managing partner of Babbage Cofounder, a government relations and corporate business development firm.

Bob has worked for executives from the Global Fortune 100 to America’s Fortune 1000 to numerous regional companies, start-ups and leading associations on all aspects of lobbying, communications and business strategy.

In 2005, the Lexington Herald-Leader ranked Bob first among Kentucky lobbyists based on public records, just as Kentucky Roll Call placed him first for the 2006 and 2007 legislatures. He has been listed among 32 prominent state leaders by the Louisville Courier-Journal under, “Who has the power in Kentucky politics?” and the C-J ranked Bob first among lobbyists for the 2008 session, again based on public records.

Bob served as Kentucky's elected Secretary of State, 1992-96 and State Auditor, 1988-92. For both offices he led the ticket in statewide vote totals. As Secretary of State, Bob worked with numerous leaders and groups for successful passage the historic federal Motor Voter legislation, sponsored by Kentucky’s senior U. S. Senator Wendell H. Ford. Bob’s analysis of Motor Voter trends put him on the front page of the Sunday New York Times. In 1994 Bob’s team worked to get the results of the Kentucky general election reported on the Internet, a Kentucky first. He co-chaired an election reform commission with the attorney general leading to sweeping vote fraud legislation.

As state auditor Bob conducted accountability audits of the state lottery and local school systems. Long-delayed local government audits were brought up-to-date during the Babbage term and cases of fraud were aggressively pursued.

As a Lexington City Council at-large member, 1981-87, he sponsored and guided implementation of one of the first 911 emergency systems in the nation.

A charter class member of Leadership Lexington, he is the originator of Leadership Kentucky and helped start the Lexington Forum, the Louisville Forum and the Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership program. He served as assistant to the president of the University of Kentucky and director of the Equine Research Foundation, 1984-86. Bob serves on the ownership group for the Lexington Legends (Single-A) professional league baseball team, a Houston Astros affiliate.

Known for helping create strategic advantages, he ran the “issues war room” for the Tobacco Buyout, a $10 billion element of the 2004 Jobs Creation Act led by U. S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and signed into law by President Bush. Kentuckians for Progress, a bipartisan effort behind Kentucky's historic vote in 2000 for annual sessions of the legislature, was chaired by Bob working with the Democratic House Speaker and the Republican Senate President along with corporate and civic leaders.

Bob is widely acknowledged for creating new models for issue management, such as the state-level caucus movement, most notably the Diabetes Statehouse Caucus. Bob chairs the board of Public Precedent, sponsor of a series of health summits in 2008, involving leading journalists, experts, corporate leaders and lawmakers. He initiated the first Study Group for e-Health, a forerunner to successful state legislation that led to Kentucky’s e-Health Commission. He donates his “Advocacy Audit” to not-for-profits to clarify and sharpen lobbying efforts.

Frequently called upon by corporate leaders for model strategic approaches, Bob is an active director in a nationally-linked partnership of some 350 government affairs specialists. Together they have worked with state attorneys general on the successful resolution of predatory lending -- leading to the creation of an industry model code of practice – and congressional approval of trade relations between the U.S. and China on behalf of top worldwide companies.

After finishing second of four in the 1995 Democratic primary election for Governor of Kentucky, Bob was named Democratic Party Chair and C.E.O., nominated by Governor Paul Patton. During the mid-90s Bob worked as vice president of U.S. Corrections Corporation and as a senior fellow at the Council of State Governments.

President Clinton appointed Bob to the Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice chaired by Attorney General Janet Reno and later by Attorney General John Ashcroft. Secretary of State Colin Powell named Bob to the Advisory Committee for Cultural Diplomacy.

Bob frequently offers political analysis for the media, and appeared on the CBS Nightly News in 2002. He is the author of Meet You in the Lobby, scheduled for publication in November, 2008, and writes about lobbying in his regular statewide column by the same name. Bob hosts the statewide cable TV public affairs programs Capitol Insights and Washington Insights featuring prominent state leaders. For regional talk radio on WVLK-AM since 2000, Bob provides context and perspective every Monday and Friday on issues and races.

Married 29 years, Bob and Laura Babbage live in Lexington and are the parents of Robert (20), a Vassar College senior, and Julie (16) and Brian (14), who attend Lexington Catholic High School. Bob and Laura are graduates of Eastern Kentucky University and the Patterson School of Diplomacy (M.A.) at U.K. Laura received a Master of Divinity degree from Lexington Theological Seminary, where Bob received an M.A. in social ethics. Laura is now a hospital chaplain at St. Joseph. They are active members of the Catholic Newman Center.

Bob completed the Senior Executives Program at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. For “creative, legacy-making, extraordinary public service” Bob was awarded an honorary degree, Doctor of Public Administration, by Campbellsville University.

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