WASHINGTON — In the rarefied world of political consultants who straddle the line between campaign adviser and corporate strategist, Anita Dunn has few peers.
As a confidante of President Obama and a senior campaign adviser, Ms. Dunn has helped prepare him for the debates this month, plotted campaign strategy and acted as a surrogate of sorts in attacking Mitt Romney for a "backward-looking attitude" on issues like women's rights and health care.
She and her colleagues at SKDKnickerbocker, a communications firm, have built a growing list of blue-chip companies — food manufacturers, a military contractor, the New York Stock Exchange and the Canadian company developing the Keystone XL pipeline — willing to pay handsomely for help in winning over federal regulators or landing government contracts. Some clients and lobbyists who have teamed up with SKDK say they benefit from the firm's ability to provide information about the Obama administration's views.
"It is difficult to penetrate this administration," said Jason Mahler, a lobbyist for the computer technology company Oracle, which was part of a coalition that hired Ms. Dunn's firm to push for reduced tax rates on offshore profits. "Anyone that has an insight into what they are thinking or their strategy or thoughts on issues we are working on is helpful, and they provided that."
SKDK executives said that Ms. Dunn, who declined to be interviewed, was scrupulous about separating her political work from her corporate agenda, and that she followed White House ethics rules barring her from appealing on behalf of clients.
What the firm offers, said Hilary Rosen, an SKDK partner who is also a high-profile Obama ally, is help in navigating the political landscape in Washington.
"It is not that people assume we can talk to the White House to influence them on policy," Ms. Rosen said, "but that we understand progressive Democrats, including the administration — how they communicate their own message, think about their message — and therefore we understand how things will play."
Still, Ms. Dunn's dual roles show the limits of Mr. Obama's attempts to change the culture of Washington. Even as he pledged to curb the influence of special interests in the capital and has restricted the role of lobbyists in his administration, the president and his top aides continue to rely on political operatives like Ms. Dunn who also represent clients seeking to influence public policy.
"He's gone in the right direction," said James Thurber, a professor at American University, referring to measures that opened more White House records to public scrutiny and that slowed the revolving door between government and lobbying firms. "But in the wide sweep of things, he didn't really change Washington that much."
The rules, for example, do not apply to the army of consultants, advisers, communication strategists and others who represent clients with federal agendas. Unlike lobbyists, they are not required to disclose their activities, clients or issues, a freedom that has allowed them to become even more influential in recent years, ethics experts say. (Coincidentally, Ms. Dunn's husband, Robert J. Bauer, who was White House counsel from late 2009 to 2011, helped shape and put in place some of the ethics measures.)
Like Ms. Dunn, some other top Obama campaign advisers are both insiders and outsiders.
Erik Smith, a senior media adviser for the Obama campaign, is the founder of a communications and issue advocacy firm whose current and former clients include Citigroup, Ford, Delta Air Lines and Genentech.
Jim Margolis, another senior campaign adviser on media strategies, has an outside consulting firm that promotes his work "at the intersection of politics, advertising and advocacy."
And Broderick Johnson, a senior Obama aide, is a former lobbyist who has a consulting shop promising "a wealth of public and private relationships" that corporate clients can use "to secure useful intelligence." He is taking a leave from the consulting shop while he is with the campaign.
But it is Ms. Dunn, 54, a former White House communications director, who has the highest profile. Incisive and sharp-witted, Ms. Dunn acts as a sounding board for Mr. Obama and his campaign.
"Who is a smart, aggressive woman who has been at the top of strategic battles for president, gubernatorial and Senate races? Anita Dunn would be near the top of the list," said Joe Trippi, a longtime Democratic consultant.
Kitty Bennett and Tom Torok contributed research.
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