City & State NY writes: In September, 
political strategist Marc Cohen joined O’Donnell & Associates as vice president of government affairs. The move was momentous in more ways than one: for the first time since college, Cohen isn’t working for his longtime mentor, Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce President and CEO (and former Lt. Gov.) Bob Duffy.
“It’s definitely bittersweet,” says Cohen, who served as Duffy’s chief of staff, representing some 1,300 members across the chamber’s nine-county Finger Lakes region. “Bob taught me a massive amount, and prepared me to take this next step.”
Cohen, 29, got hooked on politics as a child in Amherst, New York, watching “The West Wing” alongside his father. In high school, he interned for Kathy Hochul in Congress. “I was 16, and I had a house.
He first interned for Duffy while studying political science at the University at Albany. He also became a politician himself, having plunged into SUNY student politics. Visiting the system’s 64 campuses as a trustee was “such a cool way to see New York state,” he says. It also prepared Cohen for his later role as a liaison between the region’s diverse businesses and the governor’s office, most notably during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Being an advocate for the upstate economy and working on projects like bringing the 2023 PGA Championship to Rochester exemplify the positivity Cohen first admired as a child watching “The West Wing.” “It showed the best of government,” he says, “and its power to do good.”
Receive our Monday Morning Memo, award-winning weekly news and insights on New York and DC politics, directly in your inbox early every Monday morning. Subscribe below.
