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Lobbyist Profile: David McCracken

JEFFERSON CITY Mo – Lobbyist David McCracken didn’t have a wealth of job-specific experience going into his first year at Flotron & McIntosh.  In fact, McCracken had plans to pursue a position in the engineering field before being offered a job by Frank Flotron.

“I went from being in a cubicle to being in the Capitol all day,” he said. “I started out like most lobbyists start out just covering committee hearings and taking notes and doing reports” McCracken said.

A few years into his new career McCracken found himself with his first major challenge.

“My second or third year of lobbying, we represented the St. Louis Police Officers Association. They had a huge issue – it was front page news of the Post-Dispatch – called local control. For a very long time the city police department was under control by the state. The mayor,  Rex Sinqueield, several reps, and Steve Tilley wanted to return the police to St. Louis,” he said.david-mccracken

“I really cut my teeth on that issue, I worked extremely hard on it day in day out. Any one that would talk to me – I would talk about it,” McCracken added.

McCracken was relieved when the bill didn’t make it out of the House that year.  The following year it would go on to pass the House but fail to pass in the senate.  Eventually, the bill did come to pass.

Since then McCracken has worked with another police organization – the Police Chiefs Organization.  Last year, he worked to help pass the “Just Cause” bill.  The law stated that a mayor or appointing body in a municipality needed a reason before before firing a police chief.

Today McCracken works with several other clients such as Students First, Leading Age Missouri, and Diageo. He was involved in the “liquor wars” debate last year representing Diageo, which owns Johnnie Walker and Barcadi.

Flotron & McIntosh is made up of professionals who combined bring over 120 years of experience to its clients.

“When I have a question about an issue – depending on the issue – I can get a historical background, how that it came to be, a funny story about it,” McCracken said.

McCracken plans to stay with Flotron & McIntosh for a long time. “For right now I really like working with legislators, I like lobbying with these guys and I like building the relationships.”