At Plumbline, we believe the power of "story" creates context and texture for communication. We believe it will be key for our clients, and we believe it is a key to what makes us a different kind of public affairs shop.

Our firm was built to house and empower a very special team of seasoned public affairs professionals. We are organized around what we’re calling “design-build” concepts, borrowing an architectural term to help explain how we work. We understand how similar Washington firms can seem – hey, we create talking points for a living. What we feel sets us apart is that we “design” your strategy and tactics and then build your solutions without handing you off to junior staff (or even other firms) and diluting the impact of your resources. We've worked that way ourselves at huge firms, and we know how ineffective it can be.

Sure, we hire other professionals just like a general contractor will hire carpenters and electricians to build a home. But we never relinquish direct daily oversight; we don't "phone it in" or take our eyes off the objective. That’s why the team that you see at the “pitch” meeting is the same team you’ll see at the implementation meeting – and throughout the effort.

Our firm is also what’s called “senior staff heavy” in D.C. jargon, meaning we have a lot of experience. Our core leadership has more than 100 years of combined media and public affairs experience, and we’ve handled everything from international issues management campaigns to municipal re-zoning approvals (which are harder than you might think). We've worked in every state and several other countries. Our national grassroots team helped build some of the more legendary reputations in D.C., and we've been involved in nearly every major issue of American politics.

The “Plumbline” name actually comes from the roots of our founder, Michael D. Tucker, whose grandfather owned the Alabama country store where “Tucker,” as he’s mostly called, had his first job pumping gas – at all of 10-years-old. A religious man, Grandpa Amos’ favorite Bible verse was from the book of Amos where it’s noted that “the Lord stood upon a wall made by a plumbline, with a plumbline in his hand …” A literal plumbline is a line from which a weight is suspended to determine verticality; it is to vertical what a “level” is to horizontal.

For the Tuckers, it came to mean doing things right, doing things “by the plumbline.” When it came time to name the new firm, it was an easy decision.

Of course, we will be adding more of the usual stuff to this website as time passes. If you’d like to be part of that future, and if you've read this far it's likely you do, then give us a call – some days, Tucker might even answer the phone himself. It's that kind of place.