Two days before Transition 2009, an event co-sponsored by Georgetown and Politico, featuring David Plouffe, President Obama’s former campaign manager, the university’s Office of Communications announced that Plouffe’s speech would be closed to the press.

This change came as a shock to Politico, a D.C. political journalism organization that removed itself as a sponsor of the event after discovering that Plouffe’s remarks would not be open to media outlets during the event at the National Press Club on Feb. 12.

At first, Transition 2009 was slated to provide an open forum between leaders of past and present presidential transition teams, members from the House of Representatives, policy experts as well as members of the Georgetown community.

Rachel Pugh, media relations officer for the Office of Communications, said in a media advisory on Feb. 10 that Plouffe’s speech would be closed to the press. After this announcement, Politico pulled out as sponsor of the address, while Georgetown remained an event sponsor. Politico Editor in Chief John Harris also withdrew as moderator of the event.

“Politico is not in the business of sponsoring, or co-sponsoring, off-the-record events with newsmakers,” said Kim Kingsley, Politico’s executive director of Media and Special Projects. “We understand that dropping our sponsorship for that portion of the program might have put Georgetown in a difficult situation, but we had to protect our interests as a news organization.”

Kingsley said, however, that the tension over Plouffe’s appearance should not negatively affect Politico’s relationship with Georgetown.

“Overall, the conference was a huge success and we admire all of the hard work everyone at Georgetown did to pull it off. We look forward to working with Georgetown on many events in the future,” she said.

According to University Spokesperson Julie Bataille, Plouffe and the SCS had agreed in December to keep his remarks off-the-record, prior to any decision on venue or sponsors for the conference.

“Remarks by former Obama Campaign Manager David Plouffe were off the record as had been agreed upon with SCS in December, prior to any venue selection or sponsorship agreement,” Bataille said. “When members of the media began inquiring about attending this particular session, Georgetown staff honored this agreement.”

“The conversation in there, at the university’s request, is off the record. . It’s not my choice,” Plouffe said, as quoted in Dana Milbank’s column in The Washington Post.

Politico was informed of the decision two days before the start of the conference and was unsure why the speech had been closed to the press, according to Kingsley.

“We worked closely with Georgetown in the final hours before the event to try to convince Plouffe to change his mind,” Kingsley said.

Plouffe’s move drew criticism from the National Press Club and various media outlets.

ilbank, according to The Washington Post, donned a sandwich board at the conference, on which she had written “unPLOUFFEable” and “what the Plouffe?” as he distributed pens and paper to non-reporter attendees.

National Press Club President Donna Leinwand wrote a letter of protest – which was released by ABC News – to the Washington Speakers Bureau, a lecture agency which Plouffe joined on Dec. 10, 2008.

“Blacking out news coverage of this speech would not only reduce the free flow of information that is at the core of the National Press Club’s mission,” Leinwand wrote. “It also would run contrary to the spirit of President Obama’s recent executive order and statements in support of a more open government.”

Both Leinwand’s letter and a recent Politico article refer to another speech Plouffe recently gave off-the-record in Azerbaijan. Leinwand warned that “establishing a pattern of this sort would not reflect well on him.”

Dean of SCS Robert Manuel did not return repeated requests for comment.

“