Howard Wolfson, who was a top strategist for the presidential campaign of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, is going where some Democrats were unwilling to go during the early days of the election season: the Fox News Channel.

The network is expected to announce as early as Tuesday that it has signed Mr. Wolfson as a contributor who will appear regularly on its programs.

Mr. Wolfson is joining a network that Democrats shunned for a time, complaining that its coverage was unfair. But aides to Mrs. Clinton came to view Fox News as distinctly fair to her in a news media climate that they believed favored Senator Barack Obama.

“I thought that Fox’s coverage during the primary was comprehensive and fair and evenhanded,” Mr. Wolfson said Monday in a telephone interview from Liverpool, England, where he was vacationing. “It’s a huge audience, and it is important to have a strong, progressive voice on the network.”

Mr. Wolfson has long been associated with Mrs. Clinton, working as a strategist on her 2000 and 2006 Senate campaigns – with a stint in between as a communications strategist for the national party — and then joining her presidential team.



Originally serving as Mrs. Clinton’s communications director, Mr. Wolfson became one of her leading strategists in the final stage of her campaign, after the role of her chief adviser, Mark Penn, was diminished amid severe staff infighting.

Mr. Wolfson maintained a steady presence on television throughout the campaign, sparring frequently with the chief strategist for Mr. Obama, David Axelrod, who is a friend of his. Mr. Wolfson’s move to Fox News would likely staunch speculation over whether he would join Mr. Obama’s campaign. But he will certainly forward its message on the network, which appeals to more conservative, independent, white voters Mr. Obama is trying to court.

Mr. Wolfson’s decision to join Fox represents a general feeling among Clinton partisans that the network treated her more fairly than did other networks it viewed as overly friendly to Mr. Obama.

The night Mrs. Clinton won the Pennsylvania primary, several months after Mrs. Clinton joined other Democrats in opting out of a debate that Fox News was to sponsor, her campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe declared live on Fox, “Fair and Balanced Fox!” (The network was first to declare her the victor that night.) Last month the network signed Lanny Davis, a former special counsel to Bill Clinton and a vocal support of Mrs. Clinton, as a contributor.

Mr. Wolfson is to return to his government affairs firm Glover Park later this year and his work with Fox will be part time. His first appearance could come as early as this week and he will immediately become one of the highest-ranking Democrats with a regular role on the network.

John Moody, the executive vice president of the news division, said Mr. Wolfson would appear on various Fox News programs. He declined to say how much Fox was paying Mr. Wolfson.



Mr. Wolfson becomes the latest in a succession of political professionals who have signed on with television news networks as regular commentators providing insider analysis this election season – the sort of role that was once met with alarm within newsrooms but now hardly raises eyebrows.

Mr. Wolfson said he especially relished the chance to take on another Fox News analyst fresh from the political battlefield, the Republican strategist Karl Rove.

In a phone interview , Mr. Rove – who shares a lawyer, Robert B. Barnett, with Mr. Wolfson — welcomed Mr. Wolfson aboard.

“The guy is very smart,” Mr. Rove said. “He strikes me as a very able guy and surprisingly pleasant and amiable.”

Why surprisingly? “You see the Clinton attack machine and so forth,” he said, “but here’s a guy who’s very smart, and I always admire a passionate advocate, which he is.”

Let the games begin.