McGhaw said Brown retained Capitol Solutions after the primary because he "had the experience to kick it up a notch and help [Brown] carry it through to the end." He said he has had a number of political jobs through the years, including working on both Clinton-Gore campaigns and serving as an adviser in the Clinton White House.
Asked how the paid work he did for Brown after the primary differed from the volunteer work he did before, McGhaw said, "We ran a more intense campaign in the final weeks."
Kwame R. Brown's college friend worked as his campaign manager in Brown's bid for the D.C. Council.
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In several interviews, McGhaw declined to provide a detailed accounting of how Capitol Solutions spent the $64,276 it received from Brown's committee. He said his company was hired to "handle all political activities," which included putting together two mailings for the candidate.
Records show that during the same period, the campaign paid two other businesses for work on mailings -- Whistle Stop Communications received $16,500 for mailing and Production Solutions $11,057 for postage, both in late October.
The 11 payments made to Capitol Solutions were for, among other things, "administration/general consulting," "Election Day appreciation night," "Election Day literature" and "Election Day field operations," according to campaign finance reports.
McGhaw said there were also "outside consultants" working for Capitol Solutions but declined to name them.
Che Brown said he was one of those consultants.
"We did everything: knocking on doors, scheduling, consulting on Kwame's platform and message, and we helped with mailings," he said.
Che Brown said that neither he nor his father were paid by the campaign from May to September because the campaign decided there were more strategic ways to use the money.
"We asked ourselves, 'Where do we have to go to beat [Brazil] and win?' because he was raising a ton of money at the time, and our money needed to go to other resources to get the message out," he said.
The campaign was not the first time that Brown and McGhaw had worked together.
Until Friday, when he resigned, Brown had been president of the Maryland/District of Columbia Minority Supplier Development Council, a nonprofit organization that tries to get major corporations to buy products and services from certified minority businesses.
The council hired McGhaw in December 2003 as its vice president of business development and government markets. At that time, Brown's campaign for the citywide D.C. Council seat was well underway.
Maryland records show that two days after McGhaw was hired by the council, he filed papers to form Capitol Solutions. Asked last week about the timing of that move, he said only that "it was something I had planned to do for years." He said Brown is the only client Capitol Solutions has had.
McGhaw said that he worked at the council until July, when he resigned to manage Brown's campaign full time. Before that, he said, he was involved in the campaign during "nonworking hours." McGhaw said he returned to work at the council last month.
The council referred questions about McGhaw's employment there to its chairman, Roland Jones, who did not return four calls or respond to an e-mail.
Staff researchers Madonna Lebling and Bobbye Pratt contributed to this report.
