Madison Public Affairs Group

The Madison Public Affairs Group (MPAG) -- often just called the Madison Group has been a source of confusion among the tobacco industry document researchers for many years. It was active from about 1981 until 1998, and it worked for both Philip Morris and RJ Reynolds Tobacco. Its' founder Ed Gabriel is the husband of Kathleen ('Buffy') Linehan who is one of Philip Morris's top executive-level scientific/PR strategists. She specialised in political influence among Democrats, and Gabriel also had his influence within the Clinton Administration. Another founding partner, Peggy Martin, left in 1990 to join the Washington office of Philip Morris.

In Feb 1997 Tina Walls and David Laufer of Philip Morris signed a contract with Steve Sego of "The Madison Group" (which appears to be the public affairs company) for $4,500 a month. for undefined services. With Philip Morris and these two executive lobbyist signatories, this generally meant some surreptitious activity.

MPAG Projects

Richard H Rosenzweig a Senior VP of the company (and a co-founder) was organising political pressure in July 1988 against the Federal Ad-Ban legislation. His plan centers on using the Freedom to Advertise Coalition which was run by

• Jim O'Hara (Patton Boggs & Blow)
• American Association of Advertising Agencies
• Association of National Advertisers

This allowed Philip Morris to remain "behind the scenes."

'Rich' Rosenzweig also ran a Congressional junket at Palm Springs in November 1989, for the Keystone Energy Futures Project in November 1989. He keeps the Tobacco Institute informed, which means it is paying a substantial part of the costs.

Recent

Since 1990, the Madison PA Group has been a subsidiary of Earle Palmer Brown (also spelled 'Earl'). In the 1990s EPB was one of the top political public relations companies in Washington DC.

There is also a Madison Center for Educational Affairs (MCEA), which resulted from a merger between the Institute of Educational Affairs (IEA) co-founded by Irving Kristol and William E. Simon (Nixon's treasury secretary), and the Madison Center ... mainly with Olin money. The IEA received received start-up grants of $100,000 from the Olin, Scaife, J.M. and Smith Richardson foundations, as well as substantial contributions from Coca-Cola, Dow Chemical, Ford Motor Co., General Electric, K-Mart, Mobil and Nestle corporations. According to the People for the American Way, The MCEA ran projects to recruit minority students who would be supportive of its conservative agenda.