Matthew Cunningham

Matthew Cunningham is co-principal of Pacific Strategies, an Orange County-based public affairs consultancy specializing in strategic communications, social media, government relations, community outreach strategies and opinion management.

Matthew is a veteran of two decades in California politics and public affairs as a consultant, writer and campaign strategist. He has forged valuable relationships with elected officials, key staff and opinion leaders in state, regional and local government, and served in senior media relations positions with a number of statewide and local campaigns.

In 2004, he founded Orange County’s first persistent political blog, OC Blog, which has grown into a national network of more than 30 local blogs under the RedCounty.com banner. He’s also a regular contributor to leading natiional and California political blogs, and is a regular commentator (via Skype) on “The Filter with Fred Roggin,” NBC 4’s daily public affairs program.

Matthew helps clients incorporate social media into their communications strategy. The social media landscape is fluid, and not every social media will provide value to a client’s communications strategy. Matthew assesses clients existing social media toolkit in the context of their communications goals, and helps them formulate a strategy that will meets their target audiences where they get their news.

He is a veteran writer whose work has been published in leading print and online media, including national outlets such as the Fox Forum, Politico.com and National Review Online, as well as virtually every major daily newspaper in California.

Matthew is the chairman of the OC Parks Commission, to which he was appointed by Supervisor Bill Campbell in 2006. He also served on the City of Orange Planning Commission from 2008 to 2011. Most importantly, Matthew is married and has four beautiful daughters. Among other things, he was a contestant on “Jeopardy!” in 1999. Born and raised in Orange County, Cunningham lives in the city of Orange with his wife Laura and four daughters.