Peter Schorsch
LSN Partners announced today that prominent Republican strategist Jesse Manzano-Plaza has joined the firm.
And with Manzano-Plaza’s hiring, LSN is starting a new company division — LSN Communications. LSN Communications will be a bipartisan, bilingual consultancy, providing full-service public relations, public affairs, media relations, crisis communications and issue advocacy services to existing clients and creating new relationships for the firm.
The bipartisan LSN Communications, will be headed by Manzano-Plaza and Ben Pollara, both experienced in high-level media and communications strategy.
As former vice-president of government and public affairs for Resorts World Miami, chief of staff to the Florida Department of Transportation Secretary in Tallahassee, senior staff member for both Miami Mayor Manny Diaz and former Gov. Jeb Bush, as well as most recently campaign manager for Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez and the Miami-Dade County Public Schools bond referendum, Manzano-Plaza brings years of public affairs experience to the firm in addition to his broad political and government relations résumé.
Pollara, a founding partner of LSN Partners and one of the premier Democratic political insiders in Florida during the past decade, most recently managed the campaign for medical marijuana in Florida, which garnered more votes than any statewide candidate on the 2014 ballot. Pollara was named one of our “30 under 30” political operatives in Florida. He was the Florida Finance Director for Hillary Clinton for President in 2008, was on President Barack Obama’s 2012 National Finance Committee and has represented Democratic candidates at the national and state level in numerous capacities over the years. Pollara formed one of the first Democratic super PACs after the Citizens United ruling — “Florida is Not for Sale” — and ran the super PAC in support of Sen. Bill Nelson’s re-election in 2012.
In a joint statement Manzano-Plaza and Pollara said, “We are thrilled to embark on this new venture and excited to bring our combined over-two decades experience in the public affairs world to LSN’s clients.”
“We are really looking forward to offering this new service to our existing clients and to also using this as a tool to grow our business throughout 2015 and beyond,” said Alex Heckler and Marcelo Llorente, co-managing partners of LSN Partners. “The partnership of Jesse and Ben will bring a fresh perspective to our clients and our ability to deliver results for them.”
