An widely rumored overhaul in the fledgling administration of President Donald Trump could reverberate across the country — and bestow a global role on a Western Pennsylvania native: David Urban, a top Senate aide turned lobbyist who marshalled Mr. Trump’s campaign in the state.
Mr. Urban, 53, has been rumored as a potential replacement for embattled White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, most recently by the online political newsletter Axios. Mr. Urban, it quoted backers saying on Tuesday, “brings seasoned political judgment and no personal agenda” and had become “cell phone buddies” with Mr. Trump during the campaign.
Mr. Urban’s name resurfaced as White House communications director Michael Dubke announced his resignation Tuesday. A wider overhaul is expected, aimed at more aggressively responding to allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 election and revelations of possible ties between Mr. Trump’s campaign and Moscow.
Mr. Urban did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday. In recent months, when he hasn’t been defending Mr. Trump as a commentator on CNN, he has been most visible helping manage the campaign for Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Paul Mango. In a brief exchange with a reporter at a May 17 event for Mr. Mango, Mr. Urban indicated a White House role was a possibility.
“He’s a very capable guy, and he certainly knows his way around Washington,” said former state Republican Party chairman Rob Gleason, who stepped down after the 2016 election. “He worked closely with us in carrying Pennsylvania, and I’m not surprised there are rumors he’s being considered.”
Rumors of impending shake-ups have come and gone in the Trump White House before. But numerous people close to the president and his team are expecting further changes this time.
For example, Mr. Trump has entertained bringing his former campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, and former deputy campaign manager, David Bossie, more formally back into the fold. But it remains unclear whether the president might envision them working inside the White House or in outside roles.
Current Pennsylvania GOP chair Val DiGiorgio said he’d been in the White House less than two weeks ago “and had an hourlong lunch with Reince. Nobody mentioned anything about a change of staff.” But he added, “I know the president thinks very highly of Mr. Urban,” and said his appointment “would be a boon for Pennsylvania. Those of us who have the state’s best interests at heart would have a direct line to him.”
A native of Aliquippa, Mr. Urban is a West Point graduate who served as an artillery officer in the first Iraq War. He later became chief of staff for Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter before working the other side of the street as a lobbyist.
He still touts his local roots. After the election, he told CNN that the voter he was focused on was a “next-door neighbor growing up in Western Pennsylvania.” Political operative Roger Stone, a self-described dirty trickster with ties to Mr. Trump, credited Mr. Urban with “promot[ing] the Trump message successfully to blue-collar Catholics, Jews, and union members.”
“President Trump would be wise to utilize Urban’s talent,” Mr. Stone said in a May 30 blog post.
Viewed from some angles, however, Mr. Urban might seem an unlikely addition to Mr. Trump’s staff. While Mr. Trump has promised to “drain the swamp” of insider politics, Mr. Urban has spent much of his career as a lobbyist at American Continental Group.
“While [Mr. Trump] talked a lot in the campaign about getting rid of the lobbyists and bankers, he’s filled his staff with lobbyists and Goldman Sachs employees, so this would be par for the course,” said Jordan Libowitz, a spokesman for left-leaning Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
But Mr. Libowitz said American Continental had not appeared on his radar. The firm’s lobbying earned slightly under $7 million last year, according to the Center for Responsive Politics: The top-grossing firm reaped $36 million in 2016. Mr. Urban’s clients have ranged from giants like Comcast to nonprofits like the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy.
Some politicos said Mr. Urban was doing well enough in the private sector to make a White House job unappealing. Others said it was premature to talk about what the future holds.
“It would be too speculative to say, if he accepted something, what that position would even be,” said veteran political consultant John Brabender, who is working alongside Mr. Urban on the Mango campaign. Mr. Urban may, he said, be called upon as an outside adviser to suggest “how to improve communications and rapid response” to negative news stories.
The White House has seen no shortage of those.
Mr. Trump’s longtime lawyer, Marc Kasowitz, has joined a still-forming legal team to help the president shoulder the intensifying investigations into Russian interference in the election and Trump associates’ potential involvement. More attorneys with deep experience in Washington investigations are expected to be added in the weeks ahead.
The latest revelations to emerge last week involved Mr. Trump’s son-in-law and top aide, Jared Kushner. Shortly after the election, Mr. Kushner is reported to have discussed setting up a secret communications channel with the Russian government.
Given the fallout, observers say, a more pronounced role for Mr. Urban would be no surprise.
“David was very successful in a critical state for Trump, and in that process he [became] a trusted adviser to the President,” Mr. Brabender said. “David Urban has served this country, and if the president were to call on him, he’ll take that to heart.”
Chris Potter: cpotter@post-gazette.com
First Published: May 31, 2017, 4:00 a.m.
