Uber has tapped top political strategist David Plouffe — best known as the campaign manager who got Barack Obama elected in 2008 — as the car service upstart tries to beat back the taxi lobby and regulatory foes across the country.
Plouffe will join Uber as senior vice president in charge policy and strategy starting in late September, according to a blog posting on Tuesday by Uber co-founder and CEO Travis Kalanick.
Plouffe’s role will be chief “campaign manager” — Kalanick’s words — for Uber, which has met with resistance in dozens of cities and states for flouting local laws governing taxis and car service companies.
Uber claims that it’s not subject to the same laws because it considers itself a technology company and not a taxi service.
This has led to numerous spats throughout the US and Europe, including a cease and desist order in Virginia earlier this year.
The “Old Dominion” recently agreed to let Uber and peers like Lyft operate provided they follow certain rules, such as cutting loose drivers with convictions for fraud, violence or sexual offenses — something the companies have been dinged for in the past.
Kalanick blamed “the Big Taxi cartel” for Uber’s difficulties in the posting, saying it has “used decades of political contributions and influence to restrict competition, reduce choice for consumers, and put a stranglehold on economic opportunity for its drivers.”
Taxi drivers in numerous cities have protested Uber, Lyft and other lightly regulated car-sharing services.
For his part, Plouffe proved he can match Kalanick’s spin, calling Uber a “once in a generation company” whose workers know they are doing something “historic and meaningful.”
At media and tech conference in May, Kalanick made it clear he thinks Uber’s work is far more meaningful than other tech companies.
“It’s not Pinterest where people are putting up pins. You’re changing the way cities work, and that’s fundamentally a third rail. We’re in a political campaign, and the candidate is Uber and the opponent is an a–hole named Taxi,” he said.
Separately, Lyft COO Travis VanderZanden left his job amid tensions with the company’s founders, tech blog Re/code reported on Tuesday.
The ride-sharing company, whose giant, pink mustaches marking its cars are hard to miss, recently settled its public spat with New York regulators.
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman had filed a temporary restraining order against the company for operating in “open defiance of state and local licensing and insurance laws.”
Since reaching an agreement, Lyft has opened for business in Brooklyn and Queens.