Sam Altman Quietly Taps Top Democrat Operatives To Help ChatGPT Plot For-Profit
In his quest to see ChatGPT dominate the LLM race, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is tapping veteran Democrat operatives “who are well-connected to the Democratic establishment” to grease the gears with California politicians in his quest to restructure and eventually go public, Politico reports.
The political insiders include “Bill Clinton’s former spin doctor Chris Lehane to Kamala Harris’ one-time bestie Debbie Mesloh and ex-Sen. Laphonza Butler,” who OpenAI has quietly hired to effectively lobby for the company.
It’s a notable deviation at a time when much of Silicon Valley is more focused on staffing up to chase influence in Republican-controlled Washington. And it’s among the most aggressive pushes to date from a tech company into Sacramento and other corridors of power in a state that birthed the industry, yet where firms had long been reluctant to engage directly at the levels of other major sectors.
According to the report, OpenAI sees California as vital for its global ambitions – as well as a planned corporate makeover that California’s Attorney General can shut down.
“Since the stakes are so high here for their profit, they’re willing to spend what it takes to get their way with the California attorney general,” said Orson Aguilar, president of the nonprofit LatinoProsperity and prominent critic of OpenAI’s business transformation plans within the state, adding “They’re bringing in some very big guns to make their case.”
At the heart of their campaign is OpenAI’s bid to change its business model, which is facing a lawsuit from Musk — the company’s co-founder turned rival — as well as an investigation by California Attorney General Rob Bonta. Central to the approach is sniffing out any potential whiff of Musk — a divisive figure to Californians and the omnipresent boogeyman in OpenAI’s righteous, dare they contend, underdog quest — when new criticisms arise, POLITICO’s reporting shows. -Politico
OpenAI was founded as a nonprofit – with the stated goal of ensuring human-like AI benefits all of humanity, while Altman and crew now believe that the only way to keep up with the industry’s explosive (and profitable) growth, is to restructure – a move which requires permission from Democrat regulators. To that end, Altman’s new fleet of Democrat lobbyists are messaging that the company can still be a force for good, while batting away accusations from critics who argue that OpenAI has put profit over mission.
As leverage, OpenAI has hinted that if they don’t get their way they’ll simply leave the state.
“That’s a question that folks should be thinking about because I do think that we want to be here,” said OpenAI’s chief global affairs officer, Chris Lehane. “So I’m hoping folks make the right decision.”
Politico interviewed two dozen people who have worked with OpenAI or its new political hires, as well as those who have demanded answers from the company’s controversial business moves. The outlet found that recent recruits have ‘drawn on tactics from the campaign trail and from warding off political scandals,’ including raising doubts about critics, and roping in minority activists – such as Dolores Huerta, who co-founded the United Farm Workers with César Chávez.
The Operatives
Chris Lehane
Lehane, known in Democratic circles as the “master of disaster,” built his reputation in the Clinton White House managing crises like the Monica Lewinsky scandal and later served as Al Gore’s press secretary. He went on to run billionaire Tom Steyer’s political operations before moving into tech at Airbnb in 2015.
Lehane popularized the phrase “vast right-wing conspiracy” when defending the Clintons. It referred to how the internet age has allowed fringe theories to pass up to the masses, but was often used by the politicians he represented to cast themselves as the victim of a shadowy cabal. -Politico
Now leading OpenAI’s political strategy, Lehane has modeled its global affairs team on a campaign operation, dividing staff into communications, policy, and field roles. His approach emphasizes shaping a public narrative alongside substantive policy.
Peter Ragone
A longtime ally of Lehane from the 1990s, Ragone is a political operative with deep ties to Gavin Newsom and Bill de Blasio. He worked damage control during de Blasio’s clash with the NYPD after the 2014 officer killings, and earlier helped Newsom weather scandal over an affair. Ragone also advised billionaire Rick Caruso’s failed LA mayoral run and is close to Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis. His interest in tech policy predates his work at OpenAI, where he now applies his political relationship-mapping skills.
Marisa Moret
Moret, formerly chief of staff to San Francisco’s city attorney when Kamala Harris was DA, has long worked alongside Lehane. She served as his deputy at Airbnb and now reprises that role at OpenAI. Her legal and political background complements Lehane’s campaign-style strategy, making her a key lieutenant in navigating both regulatory and reputational challenges.
Ann O’Leary
O’Leary, Newsom’s first chief of staff and co-director of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 transition, now works as an attorney at Jenner & Block. She is central to OpenAI’s legal defense in probes led by California AG Rob Bonta and Delaware AG Kathleen Jennings. Her role involves both regulatory navigation and opposition research, including drawing comparisons between OpenAI’s critics and Elon Musk.
Brian Brokaw & Dan Newman
This duo of consultants, both Newsom veterans, bring campaign and PR expertise to OpenAI. They’ve advised on controversial initiatives like the California Forever tech city project, and maintain ties with political heavyweights from Bonta to San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie. They also managed fundraising for Lurie’s successful mayoral bid. At OpenAI, they shape public messaging and help manage political headwinds around AI regulation and corporate scrutiny.
Laphonza Butler
Personally appointed by Newsom to replace the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Butler is a seasoned labor leader and political strategist. She previously advised Kamala Harris and consulted for firms like Uber and Airbnb, overlapping with Lehane and Moret. Now advising OpenAI, Butler brings her labor background, political connections, and campaign experience into the company’s growing political operation.
Debbie Mesloh
A longtime friend and political consultant to Kamala Harris from her San Francisco DA days, Mesloh is helping OpenAI navigate critics of its restructuring plans. She has engaged civic groups and, alongside Moret, previewed restructuring panels to community leaders, working to soften opposition and build support for OpenAI’s moves.
The Plan & The Opposition
According to the report, Lehane – who made waves teaching Silicon Valley how to play politics – will have to dance around the company’s nonprofit status.
Lehane will tell you OpenAI wants to share its riches with California and grow there. Part of his mission is to lay out the stakes for the world’s fourth-largest economy if it leaves. He recently wrote directly to Newsom in a letter first reported by POLITICO, petitioning the state to change course on AI regulations or risk losing its place as the home of innovation.
OpenAI has heard pitches from state leaders across the U.S. looking to lure it away. Companies like Oracle and Musk’s Tesla, SpaceX and X Corp. have moved their headquarters to Texas while retaining a California presence. -Politico
He faces fierce opposition from none other than Elon Musk, along with respected California-based charities, a group of the company’s former employees, leading academics, Nobel laureates, and others – all of whom are lining up against the restructuring – and have cited concerns that OpenAI’s new corporate structure will put financial interests away from the company’s charitable mission, which began in 2015 when the company was founded by a nonprofit by a group, including Musk, who believed that this was the most responsible way to deploy such powerful technology.
OpenAI originally set out last year to convert into a for-profit organization, but changed course in May amid scrutiny from state officials. The updated plan — to turn its for-profit arm into a public benefit corporation that the nonprofit controls as a stakeholder — is turning out to be no quick feat either and still requires the blessing of the attorneys general in both California and Delaware, not to mention key investor Microsoft.
Changing the structure of its for-profit arm would also eliminate the current capped-profit model. -Politico
Meanwhile, OpenAI has until the end of the year if they want $20 billion dangled by SoftBank – which set the deadline, however California decisionmakers don’t seem to be in a huge rush – with Bonta having hired outside help to go through OpenAI’s financials for his investigation. Bonta’s office has met with OpenAI execs, including hief Strategy Officer Jason Kwon, head of U.S. and Canada policy Chan Park, deputy general counsel Che Chang and associate general counsel Nora Puckett, Politico continues.
OpenAI claims that the meeting was unrelated to the restructuring and said nothing further.
Listening Tour?
As part of the lobbying strategy, OpenAI has been on a ‘listening tour’ to give people the impression they’ll still be responsible stewards of AI technology – with Lehane waxing poetic over listening to the other side.
“You can’t just be against everything,” he once told the AirBnB board. “You have to be for something.”
To this end, OpenAI earlier this year formed an advisory commission which includes former Newsom adviser Daniel Zingale – who has been crisscrossing California to hold meetings with different community groups to ‘listen’ (and gin up support).
According to Politico, Lehane tapping Zingale (who is not an official employee) to chart a path forward for a multibillion-dollar nonprofit is just one more method to shift the public narrative in his favor.
Read the rest here…
Tyler Durden
Sun, 08/17/2025 – 14:35
