Talk:Ken Spain (political strategist)

Citations for Notability
Edit/Update for AfC reviewers (6/1/2023) - after receiving guidance from users below, I would like to use the following references as the primary support for satisfying the notability requirement. Bloomberg: Koch Industries Hires Private Equity Communicator Ken Spain, PE Hub: Ex-AIC spokesman leaves Koch for lobbyists CGCN, and Wall Street Journal: PEGCC Spokesman Heading to Koch Industries. In case it's needed, here is a featured piece about him from POLITICO's birthday series, and he provided an hour long interview for the ProPolitics podcast featuring individuals in the political and strategic communications industry.

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I believe the three references below are best suited to satisfy the notability requirement:

Bloomberg: Koch Industries Hires Private Equity Communicator Ken Spain Politico: Mehlman courted Spain away Roll Call: NRCC Flack Headed to Private Sector FriendlyEtherealMoose (talk) 19:27, 6 April 2023 (UTC)


 * The Politico piece is a blog. That isn't a disqualification, but it's a source that likely has had no editorial review other than the author of the piece. Are there others? ~Anachronist (talk) 19:44, 6 April 2023 (UTC)


 * I see other issues too. The article claims he is a "frequent" contributor to Real Clear Politics but his profile page on that site shows only one contribution. Searching for his name shows only two commentaries by him. The word "frequent" doesn't belong, and this one example makes me question whether other misrepresentations are in this draft. ~Anachronist (talk) 19:52, 6 April 2023 (UTC)
 * The Politico and Roll Call sources show all the tell-tale signs of having been generated by press releases or public relations activities by the Private Equity Growth Capital Council. Where is the truly independent coverage? And why does the draft glaringly tell us nothing about his political views during the Trump era? Astute reviewers will be wondering. Cullen328 (talk) 06:02, 7 April 2023 (UTC)
 * @Anachronist/@Cullen328 - I see you what you mean about the sources, and I appreciate you pointing this out. Is this piece from the Wall Street Journal better suited for this?
 * As for the language used to describe his contributions to RealClearPolitics, I mistakenly incorporated the number of times he’s been quoted in political analysis pieces on the website (such as in this piece). He’s only written two op-eds, so definitely not a frequent op-ed contributor. This was a mix-up on my end, and I will fix this in the draft.
 * As for his political views during the Trump era, he had already left politics/government by that point and was working in the private sector, so I didn't think it would be very relevant. FriendlyEtherealMoose (talk) 21:26, 17 April 2023 (UTC)
 * Due to the Wall Street Journal paywall, I can only read the first few sentences of that article. But when it says, I wonder whether it is fully independent reporting. Cullen328 (talk) 21:40, 17 April 2023 (UTC)
 * Hi @Cullen328! I have created an archived link of the above Wall Street Journal story so that the paywall is removed and so that editors can read the story in full. The information does not appear to be from a press release or other promotional material, but let me know if you feel differently. Additionally, could this article from PE Hub help with the notability requirement? FriendlyEtherealMoose (talk) 19:10, 16 May 2023 (UTC)
 * , thanks. I will leave that assessment to an AfC reviewer. Cullen328 (talk) 19:15, 16 May 2023 (UTC)