David Freedlander writes about politics and culture. If Im going to be honest about other people and their shortcomings, its really important for me to be honest about myself and my own shortcomings, Smith told me. I think thats always been part of Joe Bidens appeal. @lynnsweet, @kaitlancollins, @Lis_Smith and @PriscillaWT discuss! She texts the buzziest bits to her sprawling network of journalistic contacts, who tweet them out. Wren: You write pretty transparently in the book about times youve been fooled by a candidate. He was going up against George Bush, who had $50 million and he had $4 million, and so he just decides to tear up the playbook and put himself out there. That was my philosophy. What the decline of local media means is that the way that voters will get their information about candidates will come increasingly from paid media, from mail pieces and TV ads, and we all know that is not where you get the full truth. The most important thing is theres no one way to be a Democrat no matter what any of these lefty groups in Washington say, and we cannot expect candidates in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and Ohio and Arizona and North Carolina to check off every box on the progressive party purity test. [3], Lis Smith began working on campaigns shortly after graduating from Dartmouth College. Smith had moved to New York in 2013 to work for Eliot Spitzer, the disgraced former governor who had stepped down in a prostitution scandal. You recently signed on with Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow and Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval. The makeup of a candidate's staff can signal the strength of their support from influential party activists and whether they are aligning with a particular faction or group within the party. Her phone is literally exploding. There is a top political reporter for a major national newspaper apologizing for blowing off a meeting with Buttigieg earlier and trying to get one now, asking Smith, Will you ever forgive me?. Smith: Are we talking about the same Pete Buttigieg? [5] For a larger list of national campaign staff, visit Democracy in Action. For example, you write in your book about going to a pop-up bar in South Bend with Pete and his best friend and campaign manager, Mike Schmuhl. Click here to contact our editorial staff, and click here to report an error. When you do more interviews, it reduces that gotcha instinct with the press, it reduces that cat and mouse game. That fall, Spitzer and Smith started dating, which led to the New York City tabloids staking out her apartment to watch the pair coming and going. And you dont know who is actually going to attack you. Terry McAuliffe, and President Barack Obama, Lis Smith is finally flacking for Lis Smith. These results are automatically generated from Google. And so my advice would just be, get out there more, especially with Kamala, go out there more. Pete Buttigieg is the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana. I had a beerhe stuck to waterand we talked about his political ambitions and the state of the Democratic Party and why Trump won. In the past several months, Buttigieg has been not just all over cable and in the newspapers, but in Our Daily Planet, an environmental morning newsletter with just over 5,000 Twitter followers; in a financial planning podcast called Pete the Planner; and on West Wing Weekly, the obsessive episode-by-episode podcast breakdown of The West Wing. Theres the article in the Atlantic where the writer met the mayor of South Bend, Indiana for a chicken tempura lunch in Manhattan. She knew Axelrod from 2012, when she worked as director of rapid response for President Barack Obamas reelection effort. Pete Buttigieg's 38-year-old ex-campaign manager and childhood pal is telling Democrats how they can win back rural America . And why that matters is because the states are where a lot of the key fights are going to play out following the Dobbs Supreme Court decision. And especially on far-leftist DSA Twitter, Im basically just depicted as a mix between Lady Macbeth and Rasputin in a wig, that Im like some soulless political operatives. However, in the transitioning period, Phil Walzak was hired to run press operations for de Blasio's office. | Smith said McCaskill chose to campaign aggressively in rural counties, which likely contributed to her narrow win over Talent. When they gave me the job I thought, first of all this job exists? Well, of course someone running for president would need to talk about it with me first, right? Operations: Meghann Olshefski Mandy Morris Kelly Rindfleisch Does something like Buttigieg Derangement Syndrome exist? That is not the typical relationship of adviser to political principal, but typical is not a word people use about Smith. And no, politics is my love. I am humbled and flattered and appreciative of when people recognize the hard work I put in on our media strategy, and the fact that we employed a media strategy that was radically different from everyone else in the field. Maybe a story that would be 80-20 bad you can get down to 60-40 bad, and that little bit is worth it.. You have to know the social media ecosystem, how people are sharing and consuming their news. A photo and audio tour of the hosts driving the conversation. Now after advising Pete Buttigieg, she's published a must-read memoir, 'Any Given Tuesday: A Political. On the flip side of that, the most established, the most convention conventional political consultants werent going to go work for Pete Buttigieg, the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend. Elliot Spitzer (pictured), the election of Donald Trump and former Maryland Gov. Smith has made a name for herself in recent months by working with a new crop of candidates in the middle of the country, including Michigan State Sen. Mallory McMorrow (center). But I understand that what I do isnt just a game. The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms LisSmithMartinO'Malley. My observation, said Axelrod, who worked with Smith on Obamas 2012 reelection campaign, is that she is the quiet hero of his emergence.. The story of American presidential politics is in part the story of the consiglieres who steer the candidate along the path: The person who pushes them forward, comforts them when the campaign flails, plots long-term strategy and tactical short-term advantage, bends the ear of the press corps and makes the public case for a candidate in ways the candidate cannot. From the second I met Pete, I knew that there was something special about him. I love him. It is 5:15 on a Monday evening. The speed with which Buttegieg emerged has been astonishing, which happens to be the speed at which Smith works. She led Buttigieg on a series of one-on-one meetings over beer, coffee, lunch or cigars with what used to be known as the Gang of 500those reporters, producers and pundits who shape much of the nations political coverage. Smith: Youve got to meet voters where they are. He shoots her a look and gives a mock shrug, as if it's an inside joke between the three of us, now old chums: I mean, a little I guess., Buttigieg makes an appearance on "The View." Buttigiegs rise from unlikeliest of contenders to actual top-tier presidential candidate has been fueled in part, maybe in large part, by his astonishing success courting the press. Theres a public Terry and a private Terry. She gravitates to candidates who are challenging and testing the status quo. And they all lack humility. I know that the media loves to pick up on a gaffe here or there but the more comfortable you are, the more interviews you do, the more comfortable you get in front of the camera, and the less little slip ups matter. And it was a running joke between us: I was like, I cant listen to you talk about smart sewers one more time, or I will lose my mind. He loves that stuff. Wren: This book is in some ways a tell-all about the role of a political consultant. Going back to when the 2020 campaign went virtual, how do you think the Biden team has handled its messaging since then? }. It has been my passion since I was nine years old, which sounds sick. Candidates and the people around them can get so spun up about things, and when you get spun up you make the worst mistakes, she says. Politics has a bias toward the status quo, she says. ), President Barack Obama (D) and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D). While known most recently for her ingenuity behind Pete Buttigieg's democratic presidential campaign, Smith was also a key player in Senator John Edward's (D) presidential run. Now a veteran Democratic strategist, Smith is the woman credited with propelling the . They know who they are and will not let consultants, pundits, whoever, change them. Smith: Im not going to touch that with a 10-foot pole. She doesnt give a fuck. But it has a clear parallel to Smiths relentless scheduling of meetings between Buttigieg and reportersan audaciously direct way to connect with reporters that bought the campaign pretty good press. There is a huge bench of mayors, of governors, of state legislators, like Mallory McMorrow, who we should be lifting up, we should be using as spokespeople for the Democratic Party. Mistakes Ive made in my professional life. Its really hard to do a hit piece on a guy who you are going to see the next morning over coffee and donuts. People get stuck in a rut because something worked last cycle, and so they think it will work this cycle and it doesnt. Traveling Press Secretary at Lunsford-Stumbo 2007 from February 2007 to . Smith marched him to the front of where the national and New York press were gathered, telling him, Are you ready for your first gaggle? He stayed until the matter was exhausted. I first met John Edwards when I was 19 or 20 years old. Jason Bergman for POLITICO. The one thing you saw on our campaign in 2020 is that everywhere we went, he was introduced by young leaders, young mayors. So many flacks lose their mind over inconsequential things, and have no sense of, This is good press, this is mediocre press, and this is awful press. That is something you know once you have been through awful press.. Smith: Democrats love to bitch that we dont have a bench. He doesnt yell and scream, take the most extreme positions on issues, or tweet incendiary things. Lis Smith (born October 15, 1982) is an American political strategist affiliated with the Democratic Party. Smith managed communications for de Blasio throughout the campaign and in his transition to office; she was slated to do the same when de Blasio took office. And what Pete understood, and why I believed in him, was that to beat Trump, we didnt need to be him. Its just a personal part of my book. Can I tell you something very off the record, she texts. Keep in mind she was 22 at the time, Smith said. Wren: Tell me about that five percent credited to you. From the second I met Pete, I knew that there was something special about him. The first time people saw Pete, it was the same as the reaction I had when I first met him, which is where the hell has this guy been my entire life?. You never get in a fight with someone whos trying to promote a book. There were, Smith guesses, probably 150 such meetings with the national press corps, and when he traveled across the country, speaking to local county party dinners and fundraisers across the Midwest and Great Plains, they would make time for one-on-ones with the local political press there, too. if(document.getElementsByClassName("reference").length==0) if(document.getElementById('Footnotes')!==null) document.getElementById('Footnotes').parentNode.style.display = 'none'; Ballotpedia features 408,464 encyclopedic articles written and curated by our professional staff of editors, writers, and researchers. The Democratic bench isnt going to be found on Meet the Press every Sunday, and its not going to be found on cable news. She signed on as a consultant when he was laying the groundwork for a long-shot campaign to become the chair of the Democratic National Committee. What do I get if I pay for your consulting services? He was attempting a comeback by running for the modest job of New York City comptroller, and when the vote came in, he pulled in a respectable 48 percent, even though the entire citys political establishment was against him. 1. We are at the risk for seeing abortion rights eroded in more and more states. Wren: I want a window into how you advise candidates amid a crisis. Not long after that, at the presidential primary debate in Miami on June 27, you take us inside the greenroom backstage as you watched Pete get asked about this incredibly fraught moment. God, you fucked that up. Lets be real, Adam. It was a slim path. I want Democrats to read this book. Wren: Fair enough. I think that she gets a lot of unfair criticism. I was blindly ambitious, versus blindly loyal, and where the shiny object of being a New York City press secretary was more alluring to me that I was willing to overlook his very clear deficiencies. Letting Pete be Pete. Whats especially important to me, is, you know, making sure to take a lot of young women under my wing. No, actually, it shows a fundamental disrespect for the people who consume their news on this platform if you arent willing to go where they are.. They are already well-known.. Theyre just not looking in the right places. Click here to contact us for media inquiries, and please donate here to support our continued expansion. ), Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo. Why? Smith a Bengals fan believes quarterback Joe Burrow is a great leader with a clear social conscience, and she wouldnt rule out the possibility of him having a political career. I figured he was special and it couldnt hurt if everybody knows who he is.. You get a sense of the news, what is going to get picked up, she said, reaching into her bag for her copy of the Post, which she said she was saving for Buttigieg. As someone who was a mayor who was on the ground, who knows how important this stuff is, hes a great messenger to send out there to these smaller media markets everywhere, where he can meet with the mayors, speak to them in their language, help make sure that theyre getting the resources they need. They need to understand how the political process works. Smith now works as the deputy campaign manager for former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley in his campaign for the 2016 election. She was my girlfriend., Later, says Smith, when he was a state lawmaker, I would say to her, I am going to talk to such-and-such group, and she would tell me, This is what you should say. And I would say to her, Lis, I am not going to say that, its not my style, its not going to work. Maybe Im done. Lis Smith is a veteran of twenty political campaigns. That cut both ways during the campaign for Buttigieg, particularly when a white police officer killed a Black man in South Bend. And its really heartening because you realize the future of the Democratic Party is really bright, and that all we need to do is help lift these people up. And as you saw on Fox News Sunday, as I went to bed last night, [his clip] has 8 million views. And if I can help you with my experience, my profile, my contacts, to do that, then I will do it. If you had any balls you would have said what I told you to say.. Buttigieg recently started getting savaged online when it surfaced that he had told an audience in 2015 that all lives matter, and as it happened, he was due to speak at Al Sharptons annual National Action Network convention. The list below shows notable staff departures found in media reports. It was a long shot. The Covid pandemic. I would give Pete 95 percent of the credit and give me five percent of the credit. And if people like it they like it, and if they dont they were probably never going to vote for you anyway.. It will hopefully make the cost of prescription drugs go down, or cut the price of insulin. They just get swallowed up by the next news cycle, and never reach the voters who matter anyway. Her plan is to emulate maybe the best-known and most successful insurgent move of recent campaign history: John McCains 2000 Straight Talk Express. Here are links to the candidates' staff pages: Campaign staff plays an important role in the presidential primaries. Through the DNC race and afterward, Smith treated the national political press like it was another constituency that needed to be courted. And I have a nice, quiet life where I dont live in Washington, D.C. TV news executives are calling, she says, emailing, now complaining that Buttigieg isnt doing their shows often enough. It makes it much harder for candidates to get their message out, and it puts a premium on money versus having the best policy prescriptions, or being the bestcampaigner. POLITICO Weekend flies into inboxes every Friday. The candidate and the campaign manager dutifully board the aircraft, and just when it seems the door is about to close, as they start looking around nervously, in comes Smith, sunglasses and coat still on, laptop and cords dangling from her arms, phone pressed against her ear. I see Donald Trump win the White House, which like everyone else, Im flabbergasted. Smith: Im not going to say who. .circle { Pete made us all show up to give our 100 percent at work made us all better at our jobs. As voters look for someone who can beat Trump, the fact that the press corps appears to vouch for this curious character, a young liberal red-state mayor, means that voters can give him a second look too. Candidates often appoint elected officials and other important figures in their party's coalition as chairs of their national campaign and state-level campaigns.[1]. How did that manifest itself with Pete, the first candidate youve ever advised who was approximately the same age as you? The tabloids followed the pair to Christmas at Smiths parents house in the upscale suburb of Bronxville. Staff are presented alongside their positions in the campaign, their most recent positions prior to the campaign, and their Twitter handles. Wren: Youre a very competitive person. Smith: All the good candidates are comfortable in their own skin. She worked on campaigns for Jon Corzine, for New Jersey governor; Terry McAuliffe, for governor of Virginia; and. If we do that it is a recipe for disaster. | James Devaney/GC Images. Over a tumultuous two decades in politics, Lis Smith has seen a thing or two. No. Im realistic here. You write: Here we go said Larry Grisolano, Petes media consultant, stating the obvious. It takes the edge off a bit. She has advised New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe and Montana Governor Steve Bullock, people who on paper at least are far more likely top-tier presidential contenders, and she served as a top aide for a number of Senate and gubernatorial races. We just had the Supreme Court decision on abortion. When Smith opens her laptop, there are saved tabs about Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton, a YouTube video of a facial massage routine, kale recipes, a Time Out City Guide to Dubai and a 2012 Huffington Post article about how the Obama and Romney campaigns used Twitter. She most recently worked as a senior advisor in communications to presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg. Hes someone I ask for advice. Im horrified. I romanticize it. Do you think the lack of in-person events hurt them later on in building a relationship with the eventual White House press corps? She orders a beer, downs it and orders another. Her next feature documentary, "Tribalism is Killing Us," which resulted . Click here. Because even power needs a day off. Most people do have earnest sides to them. What makes him such a magnet for criticism on both the left and the right? He knows the importance of building up our bench. Weve got that Joey Burrow swag, but he does have humility to him. Mistakes Ive made in my private life. [4], According to the Washington Post, Lis Smith began working with Martin O'Malley in 2011 during "the first part of his tenure as chairman of the Democratic Governors Association. Usually, it was all good-natured. She is practically shaking with excess energy. Smith: Thats hilarious. In my book, I sort of get at this, but we are sort of an odd couple. "She would just get in her car and drive to wherever," says Nina Edelman '05, a friend and college roommate. She most recently served as the Deputy Campaign Manager for Martin The thing with Terry McAuliffe is that hes in on the joke. But I love politics because it touches everything in our lives. But in our party, it seems the only people we ever talk about are members of Congress and senators. He weighed in after the Supreme Court decision. Otherwise, I would kill myself. Which is to say that Buttigieg may know seven languages and carry around Ulysses and sit in with the South Bend Orchestra on piano, but as far as his top aide is concerned, it is only because he has an extra year on her. Rather than going after Pete, Harris trained her fire on Biden.. I think now more than ever, people need to understand how the media works. 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Click here to contact us for media inquiries, and please donate here to support our continued expansion. Wren: One of your legacies is the coaching tree, to use an apt football metaphor, that you left behind on the Pete campaign. I wasnt born yesterday. Now that they have achieved liftoff, as it were, Smith is preparing for the next part of the campaign. Pete has no battle scars. Lis Smith Retweeted. Running for politics theres got to be a little element of narcissism or whatever you want to call it in you. . Part of it with him is the persona. If you are not someone who is an established name, it's really hard to break through. It also includes each staff member's position in the campaign, previous work experience, and Twitter handle, where available. He has a clear social consciousness to him that you dont see in a lot of professional athletes. And he is as squeaky clean behind the scenes as he is in front of the camera. and this amazing panel for a great conversation about campaign journalism! He was a once-in-a-generation talent, someone who perfectly met the moment, says Smith. Axelrod told Buttigieg about Smith, and OMalley told Smith about this young mayor from South Bend. Shortest-ever serving Prime Minister Liz Truss is locked in a row over missing dressing gowns from a country estate where she planned her tilt at Number 10. This is what day two looks like. It felt like we connectedwe went over our allotted time, and I had another beer, and by the end I had shifted from very skeptical to only moderately skeptical, just maybe seeing a lane for his candidacy. Jeff Smith, her former boyfriend, recalls one time when he was running for office, his campaign managers phone rang. But you know, more importantly, through some trial and error, over this very long career, I learned the importance of letting candidates be candidates, right? Weaver says that recreating that atmosphere in the days of Twitter, and in the days when the national political press corps has metastasized into a constantly hungry and multiheaded beast equipped with cell phones, is 10 times harder than when his team tried it in 1999. | Mark Peterson/Redux, Yuki Iwamura/Redux. What is this new phase of your career about? Show this thread. .center-table-mobile { That is not how she ran his race. Smith: Yeah. She had served as a senior aide on OMalleys 2016 bid and with the Maryland governor when he was head of the Democratic Governors Association. How much of his success was because of you, and how much was because of him? I think we saw that Kamalas attack on Biden was obviously was pretty pointed. How consequential was that looking back? It was a reporter from BuzzFeed News, waiting to take my place. Lis Smith is a Democratic campaign communications specialist and co-founder of 50 State Communications in New York. It will codify Roe v. Wade. Chill., Lis, I guess you could say, comes from a very different world than Northern Indiana., Lis Smith bursts through the doors of a marbled hotel bar in Brooklyn wearing oversized Anna Wintour sunglasses, a faux-fur-lined coat and impossibly thin and tall high heels. [11] Smith, who worked as a spokesperson for the PAC since her hire in 2013, then transitioned to the role of deputy campaign manager. She was a field representative in South Dakota for then-Sen. Tom Daschle's unsuccessful re-election campaign in 2004 and press secretary for Sen. Claire McCaskill's (D-Mo.) Apr 27. Its a super-aggressive thing to do. which Politico Magazine excerpted last week. Fantasy football we were competitive about that. The death of local news is a tragedy for voters and it's a tragedy for campaigns. Bill de Blasio, too. In a crisis, the most important thing to do is to pause, to take a step back and get all the facts, and game out your response. [5] For a larger list of state campaign staff, visit Democracy in Action. Wren: How is Harris doing as a communicator? Wren: Youre often credited with vaulting Pete from the mayor of Indianas fourth-largest city to a member of Bidens cabinet. He's on his way into a black car to do Maddow. Lis Smith is a Democratic campaign communications specialist and co-founder of 50 State Communications in New York.
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