After working at The Chicago Tribune as the City Hall Bureau Chief and a political columnist, David left the magazine and joined the campaigns of Paul Simon as communications director in 1984. A year later he launched Axelrod & Associates, which was a political consultancy film.
In 1987 David was hired by Harold Washington, Chicago who was the first black mayor. Soon he became a key player in campaigning for black candidates. David has campaigned for several black candidates including John F. Street in Philadelphia, Michael R. White in Cleveland, Anthony A. Williams in Washington, Dennis Archer in Detroit, and Lee P. Brown in Houston.
In January David was hired by Oregon Governor Neil Goldschmidt as a media consultant in his re-election campaign. However, in February Neil Goldschmidt announced that he would not seek re-election. David was still retained by the Liberal Party of Ontario to help Dalton McGuinty win the elections.
He also worked as a consultant for an Illinois-area utility that operated the largest fleet of nuclear reactors called the Exelon. In 2006, he consulted several campaigns which were successful. Examples of his successful campaigns included Deval Patrick in Massachusetts’s gubernatorial election and New York’s gubernatorial election.
