Jeff Ballabon

Jeff (Jeffrey) Ballabon is an American media executive and formerly a lobbyist and political and community activist.¹ He is a lawyer and graduate of Yale Law School , with degrees in Jewish law from Ner Israel Rabbinical College and in literature from Yeshiva University . He served as counsel to Senator John Danforth of Missouri and to the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation . He interned briefly at the State of Israel 's Ministry of Justice , where he worked on several matters, including the formulation of Israel's Basic Law on Human Dignity and Liberty . He subsequently ran the public policy and communications departments for Court TV , Channel One News and Primedia . In the 1990s, during the era of extremely high profile trials, like the O.J. Simpson murder trial, Ballabon was a leader in the campaign to allow US court proceedings to be televised. The Forward labeled Ballabon one of the "50 Most Influential Jews in America," called him "the architect of Bush's 2004 re-election effort in the Orthodox community." Ballabon is a key point of contact for the Jewish community with Christian leaders, as well. Ballabon is your man," wrote The New York Observer . As a fundraiser for the 2004 Bush campaign, he co-chaired a dinner which "raked in $4 million." During the 2004 elections, JTA reported, " AIPAC has touted this election [in 2004] as a 'win-win' proposition, noting Bush 's strong support for Israel and Kerry 's 100 percent pro-Israel voting record in the Senate." ( New York Daily News ) In response, noting both ongoing terror and the different policy approaches of the two campaigns, and Ballabon criticized AIPAC and wrote, "Bush and Kerry 'win-win?' Republicans and Democrats indistinguishable? It would be funny if Jews weren't being killed." From May 2007 to February 2009, he was a member of The Livingston Group , a Washington, D.C. -based lobbying firm. From 2004 to 2009 he also ran Ballabon Group, a New York City -based issue campaign consultancy advising clients on government relations, crisis management and media strategy. In October 2007, in reaction to the announcement of the Annapolis Conference he was retained to mount a response to the threatened division of Jerusalem and he founded the Coordinating Council on Jerusalem . In February 2009 CBS announced that Ballabon would join CBS News as a Senior Vice President, Communications.²