Denny Roberge
As a native of New Hampshire, politics came naturally to Denny. The Granite State is the first in the nation to hold presidential primaries, and candidates for the White House have campaigned there for decades. Denny was six years old when he worked on his first campaign – distributing literature door-to-door for President Harry Truman’s re-election. Also, his father was a township trustee.
Denny came to Ohio to attend college. He received a bachelor’s degree in biology and education from Hiram College and a master’s degree in labor relations from the University of Cincinnati.
He has worked as a butcher, Teamster milk truck driver, school teacher and union organizer.
Denny’s interest in politics became personal – very personal. His second son suffered from a series of serious health problems. Denny learned the importance of unions because his son’s illnesses were covered by the Teamsters health care benefits. Roberge brought his interest in health care into his job as a union organizer and contract negotiator for Ohio Education Association (OEA). Shortly after being hired by the OEA, Denny became involved in the union’s political effort, recruiting and training candidates for elective office.
This experience led Roberge to be named one of the OEA’s Statehouse lobbyists. As a governmental relations specialist, Denny met daily with legislative leaders and lawmakers, testified before legislative committees, helped write bills and advised the union on which legislators to support and contribute money.
After retiring from OEA, Denny founded PAR Associates. Since then, Roberge’s many campaign jobs have included state field director in Ohio and the state of Washington for both of Bill Clinton’s presidential campaigns, deputy state director in Pennsylvania for Al Gore’s presidential campaign; and deputy state director for Ed Rendell’s first gubernatorial campaign in Pennsylvania.
Also, Denny has served as a congressional field director for the Democratic National Committee, a campaign manager/consultant for state legislative, congressional, judicial, and school board races in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, North Carolina, Arkansas, and Washington. He has also worked on campaigns overseas including chief advisor for prime minister and parliamentary races in Argentina, Austria. and several Caribbean nations. In addition, he formerly served as chief of staff for Franklin County Democratic Party.
Roberge is married to Priscilla Roberge and lives in Franklin County, Ohio.
Bob Dean
Bob Dean is a native of Ohio and a retiree from Nationwide Insurance where for 25 years he was a Project Manager and Consultant in Project Management. During his career he was a manager or project manager on a variety of infrastructure and business related development projects. Bob’s focus at PAR Associates is on campaign planning, operations and control: How to write an effective campaign plan, how to organize the work, and schedule people and other resources to conduct a successful campaign.
Bob has worked on presidential and local campaigns since 2008 and is a contributor to and presenter for PAR Associates. Bob was a leader of the Gahanna Democrats and Friends from 2017 to 2020 and is a regular at Third Friday Luncheons. Bob was involved with Get Covered America, both state house and congressional redistricting bills, All on the Line, and local Gahanna and Reynoldsburg mayor, city council, and school board races.
Dick Graham
Dick Graham was born and raised in Zanesville, Ohio. He graduated from Miami University and then law school at Case Western Reserve and returned to Zanesville to practice in the family firm. After a year he moved to Columbus to open his own law office and then joined the Ohio Public Defender’s office. Having always been fascinated by politics, he worked on Michael Coleman’s first campaign for mayor in 1999.
Under Mayor Coleman, Dick was a neighborhood liaison He developed a close working relationship with the citizens in his neighborhoods that made government work for them the way it should. Dick retired from the City of Columbus to become part of PAR Associates to help elect candidates and to use his background as a college instructor as part of PAR Associates development training course.
Dick specializes in analysis and effective communication, skills he developed through trying cases, writing appellate briefs and studying how others think and communicate. He reduces the complicated to its simplest level to make a matter easier to analyze. His writing skills are based on the use of plain English, effective examples and humor.
Robert Hockenberger
With more than four decades of political experience, Robert “Hocko” Hockenberger specializes in organizational project management, verbal and non-verbal skills in messages and strategy and tactics. Hockenberger has worked with Laszlo Strategies on winning campaigns and training seminars in the US, Europe, the Caribbean and South America. Bob is an authority on campaign staff training, political training seminars, strategic campaign planning, political research, candidate and opposition research, public policy research, and issue lobbying. Bob is skilled in educational, health-care and retirement issues.
Prior to working with Laszlo Strategies, Hockenberger was an independent contractor, lobbying, consulting and researching for various organizations including: RHD, Inc., Doyle & Associates, The National and Ohio Education Associations, and PAR Associates of Ohio, LLC.
Hockenberger served as an advocate for the National Leadership Coalition for Health Care Reform while at PAR Associates from 1990-1994.
Bob, in 1985, was an Ohio governor appointed member to the Ohio Certificate of Need Board of Review, a position he held until 1991. As a member of the Board, Hockenberger received appeals and proposals for all health care projects under the board’s jurisdiction and researched all health care issues, regional and state health care needs, and the impact of approval and disapproval on health-care costs and needs in Ohio.
Hockenberger obtained the FINRA securities licenses, The Indiana Life Health and Accident License, and consulted with Indiana teachers regarding retirement and health issues since 2001.
Robert Ruth
Bob was born and raised in Maryland and earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Wagner College on Staten Island, N.Y. After graduating, he landed a job as a reporter for the now-defunct Newark (N.J.) Evening News. He and his family moved to Columbus in 1970 where he became a reporter for the Columbus Dispatch. During 36 years with the Dispatch, Bob covered national, state and local politics, government and courts. After retiring, he became involved in grass-roots Democratic politics.
Bob’s lengthy experience in writing, news reporting and covering politicians means he is an invaluable asset to candidates in helping them to write speeches and campaign literature, developing campaign issues and dealing with the news media. Bob also is an expert researcher on a variety of subjects.