Alex Gallardo-Rooker, Associate

Born in Mexico City, Ms. Alexandra Gallardo-Rooker is an accomplished leader in Democratic politics and campaigns at both the national and state levels.

Ms. Gallardo-Rooker’s stellar record as a union and Democratic Party leader, and in electoral politics, issue advocacy, and political campaigns has helped elect candidates to all levels of office and won passage of landmark public policy on a broad range of issues including worker’s rights, healthcare, technology, and the environment.

Serving as Acting Chair of the California Democratic Party, Treasurer for the Association of State Democratic Committees, numerous leadership roles at the Democratic National Committee including as trusted advisor for DNC Chairs Howard Dean and Tom Perez, and serving as Vice-Chair of the California Democratic Party since 1997, Ms. Gallardo-Rooker has been a champion for Democratic candidates and causes for her entire career.

The recipient of the “Si Se Puede Award for Distinguished Service” from the Los Angeles Chapter of Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, Ms. Gallardo-Rooker led efforts to expand voter registration and participation among disenfranchised voters resulting in historic electoral wins in California boosting Democratic Party majorities in both houses, and helping Democrats win every statewide constitutional office since 2010.

As the first Latina to lead a major political party in California, Ms. Gallardo-Rooker set new fundraising records in her first six months serving as Acting Chair, led the most diverse Democratic Party State Party Convention in California history, and established a historic partnership between the CDP and Univision to co-host a Democratic Presidential Forum in 2019.

Lisa Sewell, Office & Business Manager

Lisa Sewell serves as the Office and Business Manager at JPM&M. Lisa works closely with the firm’s President and CEO in creating and implementing the firm’s strategic and operational goals, and oversees the day-to-day operations in the firm’s Sacramento and Los Angeles offices.

As the firm’s Office and Business Manager, Lisa is responsible for the management of administrative functions at the firm, including human resources, information technology, finance and account management, facilities management, strategic planning, and client support.

Prior to joining JPM&M, Lisa spent twenty-five years with Target Corporation. Over the course of her tenure with Target, Lisa held a number of administrative positions including District Administrator and Human Resource Specialist. In both capacities, Lisa helped key leadership with daily operations and HR processes which comprised of a team that managed over 50 stores, with 400+ executive managers and 1000+ team members.

Ryan McInerney, Vice President Campaign Management

Ryan McInerney spent the past two election cycles at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC)—the Democratic Party’s campaign arm for U.S. House races—most recently serving on the executive leadership team as the Senior Political Advisor and Research Director for the DCCC’s nearly $80 million independent expenditure (IE) program.

While on the IE, Ryan managed a staff of 15 and played a leading role in directing strategy and paid media communications in 47 U.S. House races across 21 states. He worked directly with consultants and pollsters to craft multi-pronged, targeted communications plans consisting of 122 polls, 109 TV ads, 23 radio ads, 143 mail pieces, and 270 digital pieces that localized national issues and trends in ways that connected with persuadable voters. Despite a challenging national environment, Democrats picked up six seats in the House.

In addition to his work on the DCCC IE, Ryan has extensive experience with candidate campaigns. In 2014, Ryan joined the DCCC as its West Regional Research Director, managing strategic and policy research for over 15 top-tier campaigns throughout the West, including in California, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico. His team successfully defended every vulnerable Democratic incumbent in California in a cycle where the House lost 13 seats nationwide. Prior to the DCCC, Ryan served as the Director of Legislative and Federal-State Relations at the California Institute for Federal Policy Research in Washington, D.C. where he analyzed and communicated nonpartisan research on important issues, such as health care, the environment, and education, to various state interests. He was also a Capital Fellows Program participant in the Executive Office at the Orange County Superior Court, crafted messages for numerous campaigns at a strategic communications firm in Oakland, and served on Phil Angelides’ gubernatorial campaign in 2006.

Before moving to Washington, D.C., Ryan proudly served on President Obama’s successful re-election campaign as his VP Team Lead for Rapid Response Research, coordinating research efforts for a 7-member team focusing on then-VP candidate Paul Ryan and leading rapid response efforts during the VP debate.

Ryan received a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Irvine and a J.D. from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He grew up in Southern California and lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Mallory, and their dog, Marlow.

Emilio Vaca

Emilio Vaca is a longtime strategic collaborator with JPM&M, specializing in grassroots coalition building, field consulting and management, issue campaigns, public affairs, and organizational development for community non-profits, trade associations, and labor unions.

Prior to his work with JPM&M and founding Vaca Consulting, Emilio spent 10 years working in the non-profit sector and the labor movement. Most recently, Vaca served as the Executive Director of the North Tahoe Family Resource Center where he directed day-to-day operations and oversaw the creation of a wide variety of programs for the organization, which serves over 1,500 Tahoe area families. In 2010, Emilio was named Citizen of the Year by the North Lake Tahoe Chamber of Commerce in recognition for his work in the community and leadership in growing North Tahoe Family Resource Center.

In addition, Emilio served as Development Coordinator with the Cesar E. Chavez Foundation, an organizer with SEIU International, Prevention Program Manager with the Tahoe Women’s Services, and as a public affairs and communications consultant.

Emilio has also served on several boards and commissions including the Latino Leadership Council and the Parasol Community Collaborative. He resides in Kings Beach with his wife and their two daughters.

Pat Dennis

Pat Dennis has extensive experience developing and implementing winning campaign strategies for legislative candidates, issue advocacy campaigns, local candidates, statewide ballot measures and institutional clients. He specializes in coalition building, grassroots field operations, voter targeting and campaign management.

In the 2010 cycle, Pat Dennis was recruited to manage the general election campaign of Assemblymember Dr. Richard Pan. As campaign manager, he helped craft a come from behind victory in a district that had previously been held by Republicans for over three decades. Dr. Pan’s election represented the only legislative gain for Democrats in the state of California.

Pat Dennis also served as campaign manager for Assemblymember Das Williams for the primary and general elections in 2010. Pat designed and directed a massive volunteer grassroots operation that provided Williams with the winning edge during his bruising primary election battle.

Prior to 2010, Pat Dennis has designed and directed field operations for issue advocacy, non-profit organizations and independent expenditure campaigns in over 50 congressional races throughout the country. In this capacity, Pat has created cutting edge voter communications programs that utilize micro-targeting techniques to vastly increase the efficiency and effectiveness of direct mail and traditional direct voter contact methods. Pat Dennis also previously worked as part of the team for the New House PAC that held nationally recognized training programs for congressional candidates.

Pat also has extensive experience at the local level, providing direct mail, message development, field consulting and campaign management services for dozens of campaigns for city council, county supervisor, and local measures.

Pat graduated from UC Santa Barbara in 2003 with degrees in Philosophy and Political Science.

Governor Jerry Brown Cambiando California

JPM&M served as a lead consultant in SEIU’s successful IE “Cambiando California,” the largest ever IE focused exclusively on Latino voters with a robust bilingual paid communications program including TV, digital, mail, and field. JPM&M’s mail won four national awards including:
♦ Best Bilingual Mail – Governor’s Race
♦ Best Independent Expenditure – Governor’s Race
♦ Best Use of Contrast/Negative – Statewide/Nationally

State and Local

Expertise managing ballot measure campaigns from the early stages of securing qualification on the ballot, Title & Summary, ballot arguments, and general consulting, as well as specialized consulting services in message development and direct mail.

Josh Pulliam, President

Over the past two decades, Josh Pulliam has earned a reputation as one of the most effective and highly sought after Democratic direct mail strategists and public affairs consultants in California.

Pulliam has helped engineer victories in more than 150 successful candidate campaigns, independent expenditures, and ballot measures in California, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Florida, New Mexico, Arkansas, Kentucky, and Louisiana integrating research, innovative targeting, and creative message development to create winning campaigns.

Pulliam’s work helped pick up Democratic seats in seven consecutive election cycles, including supermajorities in California, as well as Governor Jerry Brown (2010) and Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear. His campaigns include unprecedented victories and significant underdog wins in swing districts, electing more women and people of color to public office, and a new generation of leaders in California representing the ethnic and cultural diversity of the state.

One of the nation’s most experienced firms specializing in Latino/Hispanic targeting and bilingual messaging, Pulliam has produced more than $40 million in advertising targeting Latino audiences and developed a proprietary Spanish language preference model providing clients with an innovative tool to maximize impact in paid communications.

As a direct mail expert, Pulliam provides strategic consulting and direct mail services for candidates and ballot measures, the Latino Caucus PAC, BOLD PAC, Latino Victory Fund, trade associations, and unions – including creation of the largest ever Latino independent expenditure campaign for Governor Jerry Brown, in which Pulliam’s bilingual direct mail won numerous awards.

Over the years, Pulliam’s innovative direct mail programs have won dozens of awards for innovative targeting and creative messaging in direct mail for early voting/vote-by-mail, social pressure, best contrast mail, and personalization. Pulliam’s campaign work has also been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Miami Herald, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Politico, CNN, La Opinión, and Univision, and he was named one of “California’s Top 100 Influencers” by Campaigns and Elections Magazine.

Prior to founding JPM+M, Pulliam was a Los Angeles-based national Democratic mail consultant on local, state, and federal races in Iowa, South Carolina, New Jersey, Florida, and California.