lis smith campaign manager

Wren: One of the theses of Petes campaign was that mayors are on the front lines of democracy. Wren: What is your relationship with Pete like now? Stay up to date with what you want to know. "I basically blacked out for the next ten minutes as he talked about everything from Fiorello La Guardia to Buddhism," she wrote of her first job interview with the future mayor. Now more than ever, people are seeing politics touch everything in our lives. Now that they have achieved liftoff, as it were, Smith is preparing for the next part of the campaign. It was a long shot. Lis Smith is a veteran of twenty political campaigns. 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. I would do that for free.). They lead with emotion. Over a tumultuous two decades in politics, Lis Smith has seen a thing or two. It wasnt really until 2012 when I worked for Barack Obama that I did find a really strong female mentor in Stephanie Cutter and I learned so much about my job, so much about politics, so much about how to effectively communicate from Stephanie Cutter. [5] For a larger list of national campaign staff, visit Democracy in Action. I wasnt born yesterday. My advice is just go out there more, communicate more. And you just like have this moment, where youre like, Maybe this is it. 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. I would give Pete 95 percent of the credit and give me five percent of the credit. Sign up for our newsletter. It takes the edge off a bit. Meet the DNC dark horse: Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg is shaking up the race for Democratic chair, added Salon. Wren: This book is in some ways a tell-all about the role of a political consultant. Lis Smith is leading the charge in terms of media coverage for the Pete Buttigieg campaign. I thought everybody knew that.. 36. 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." . Its really hard to do a hit piece on a guy who you are going to see the next morning over coffee and donuts. Sign up for notifications from Insider! Smith had no mentors. 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.. So I wanted to write a book to tell people, Hey, if you want to know what politics is like the ins and outs, the good, bad, and the ugly this is a book for you.. The problem with a lot of people, not just candidates, but anyone in life who is caught up in a crisis is that they react. Smith starts texting me, wanting to know if Id seen the celebrities in the audience, including George Takei, Kal Penn and Kate McKinnon. He did. Since a lot of your book is about relationships in politics, could you start out by telling me about the time you met Bill de Blasio when you were volunteering for the John Edwards 2004 presidential campaign in New Hampshire? She gravitates to candidates who are challenging and testing the status quo. It meant a lot to me as a woman to have someone like that. POLITICO Weekend flies into inboxes every Friday. It wasnt just the biggest names, people you know, Smith says. She uses her feed to, well, rapidly respond to the news. 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. Click here to contact our editorial staff, and click here to report an error. [11] Smith, who worked as a spokesperson for the PAC since her hire in 2013, then transitioned to the role of deputy campaign manager. Wren: How is the Lis Smith depicted in this book different from the Lis Smith in the popular political imagination? A few weeks ago, a couple of hundred people expressed interest in this event. Smith said McCaskill chose to campaign aggressively in rural counties, which likely contributed to her narrow win over Talent. 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. David Freedlander writes about politics and culture. But it is kind of fascinating to watch., Smith met Buttigieg on the recommendation of Axelrod and former Maryland Governor Martin OMalley. 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. Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. I remember hearing from other consultants, Why is he going out there speaking seven languages? Why do I fucking love John McCain? Theyre in the agencies. | 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. When I was starting in politics, we didnt have women. This is what day one looks like. Im realistic here. Smiths mother is a descendent of a signer of the Mayflower Compact, and a cousin of lead Watergate investigator Sam Ervin. At that point, reporters she had developed relationships with began to reach out, wondering what she was doing wasting her credibility on a little-known character who seemed like a step down the ladder of political prospects. Click here. They need to understand how the political process works. I think it forced them to up their game in terms of their digital campaigning, and they understand I think more so than the Trump administration did that a lot of the ways you reach people now is not just through traditional big legacy media outlets. I want political people to read this book, because I think its fun. We met at the Roxy Hotel in Tribeca. Smith, the campaign's senior communications adviser, has proven to be a political star in. | If you had any balls you would have said what I told you to say.. She has worked on more than 20 Democratic campaigns, according to her Twitter bio and is a graduate. 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. She orders a beer, downs it and orders another. But I dont know whats inside him. 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. After 20 campaigns flacking for candidates such as Transportation Secretary and former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, former Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill,. Dont miss it! She became obsessed with the idea of working for him, then became further obsessed when she actually met him, and developed the notion that once people got to meet him they would start to like him. And no, politics is my love. Whats especially important to me, is, you know, making sure to take a lot of young women under my wing. The entire time Buttigieg has pitched himself as a unifier, Lis Smith has been right by his side. Smith: Thats hilarious. The obvious thing to do would have been to take on high-paying, quieter corporate gigs, or to reenter politics with someone truly high profile. The Democratic bench isnt going to be found on Meet the Press every Sunday, and its not going to be found on cable news. This sign-up form is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Theres just no one who can do a TV interview like Pete Buttigieg. But Joe Biden is president today, and Kamala Harris is his vice president. Pete and I, you can probably tell are pretty laid-back, pretty low-key, I guess what you would call pretty Midwestern, said Mike Schmuhl, Buttigiegs campaign manager, who sounds like the host of a classical-music radio station who just returned from a yoga retreat. But another thing is that Im not someone whos just worked in New York. I remember in Iowa, we had all these young mayors for him. Letting Terry be Terry. Wren: You and Pete have very different brands. I tell her that I have been calling around to former coworkers and associates, trying to get a sense of how she operates. Well, of course someone running for president would need to talk about it with me first, right? Shes a Black half-South-Indian woman. And the fact that hes everywhere, from cable TV to Ebony to your local NPR show to your favorite sports podcast, means that a guy with no name recognition is suddenly hard to avoid. I cant believe you didnt know that! In some ways, he came across as a Midwestern dad before he was, in fact, a Midwestern dad. The table below shows a sampling of the candidate's 2020 national campaign staff members, including the campaign manager and some senior advisors, political directors, communication directors, and field directors. RT @UChiPolitics: How do we avoid rookie mistakes on the campaign trail? first campaign in 2006. I Want Him on Everything: Meet the Woman Behind theButtigieg Media Frenzy, proclaimed Business Insider during the race, California's road to recovery runs through D.C. Republicans, Why New Jerseys ventilator guidelines may favor younger, whiter patients, Rhode Island ends specific restrictions on New Yorkers by making them national. It may look like the sky is falling, but just ride this out.. And when it happened, the story was her. Buttigieg has gotten a number of lavish long-form features, so many that some have jokingly wondered whether Smith is getting paid by the profile. a bigger long-shot project than Mike and succeed," Lis Smith, a . 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. He was a once-in-a-generation talent, someone who perfectly met the moment, says Smith. Smith: I think Ive got good relationships with people in the media. It wasnt an ideal situation, but it taught me a lot, Smith says. In 2012 Lis directed President Barack Obama's rapid-response team for his re-election effort. 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. And when I began asking around to figure out who was behind that strategy, the same name kept coming up: Lis Smith. It is 5:15 on a Monday evening. When Smith signed on to help Mayor Pete run for DNC chair, it was a part-time gighelping a candidate nobody had ever heard of run for an insider position, the kind of job decided not by the public, but in backrooms by the most hardcore party loyalists. Schmuhl, his campaign manager, says a typical scene from the trail for the three of them is arriving 10 or 15 minutes early to the airport gate, and while he and Buttegiegwho he's known since. Click here. If you could just attend town board and county legislature meetings for a year, what are the intangible qualities you'd be looking for in scouting candidates? This is an election where the women voters are going to be really important. Mistakes Ive made in my professional life. Lis Smith: My favorite was one person asking me if I lost a bet or something. However, in the transitioning period, Phil Walzak was hired to run press operations for de Blasio's office. It was Lis telling me I need to fire my campaign manager, that the guy is a fucking idiot. Tech: Matt Latourelle Ryan Burch Kirsten Corrao Beth Dellea Travis Eden Tate Kamish Margaret Kearney Eric Lotto Joseph Sanchez. I think thats probably the biggest misconception about me. He is in talks to do a Fox News town hall in the coming weeks, building off the surprise success of Bernie Sanders appearance on Fox, and in the past couple of weeks has also been on Ellen and The View, as well as Preet Bhararas podcast, The Intercepts podcast and The New Yorkers podcast. But its not just about the 18-year-old girl. George Bush had Karl Rove; Bill Clinton had James Carville. [1] She was the deputy campaign director for Martin O'Malley's 2016 presidential campaign. Keep in mind she was 22 at the time, Smith said. | Mark Peterson/Redux, Yuki Iwamura/Redux. Smith: All the good candidates are comfortable in their own skin. Im joking. Smith earned plaudits in the 2020 campaign for her work as Pete Buttigieg's communications advisor. And if people like it they like it, and if they dont they were probably never going to vote for you anyway.. Smith: Im not going to touch that with a 10-foot pole. Theyre out in country working on campaigns. But there have been a few times when Ive been around him when I knew something, a factoid or something he didnt know, and let me tell you, I fucking lord it all over him. That was my philosophy. Its that everyday when I go into work to try and get these people elected its because it will impact lives. Smith, the famously aggressive political operative battle-honed in the brass knuckles politics of New York City and in red-state political tilts, plotted the rollout of Buttigiegs longshot presidential campaign. After the fundraiser, Smith and Buttigieg climb into an SUV and head to 30 Rock. padding:10px; Pete Buttigieg is the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana. And it was the first time Id worked in politics that Id ever felt that way. "Joe Biden has had one of the most successful. And what Pete understood, and why I believed in him, was that to beat Trump, we didnt need to be him. He was a once-in-a-generation talent, someone who perfectly met the moment. Ahead of the release of her highly anticipated political memoir (which Politico Magazine excerpted last week), that includes figuring out how to get her computer to record our phone interview ammo to use in the event that its needed to set the record straight. He was out there. And yet you signed on anyway. This is how we stop there from being a day three. Martin OMalley, who got like 1 percent in the Iowa Caucuses. I romanticize it. I figured he was special and it couldnt hurt if everybody knows who he is.. [3] Buttigieg received the most pledged delegates in the Iowa caucuses . It was by no means an obvious career move for Smith. Wren: One of your legacies is the coaching tree, to use an apt football metaphor, that you left behind on the Pete campaign. People get stuck in a rut because something worked last cycle, and so they think it will work this cycle and it doesnt. And you are going to pay me to be really quick and really aggressive and to take on Mitt Romney? 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. Hes someone who is very special to me, and I hope hes always a part of my life. She has extensive experience in public affairs, media relations, and crisis communications at the local, state and national levels. I think thats always been part of Joe Bidens appeal. By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or updates from POLITICO and you agree to our privacy policy and terms of service. She has a 3-day-old copy of the New York Post in her bag. Smith plotted the rollout of Pete Buttigiegs longshot presidential campaign. Maybe a story that would be 80-20 bad you can get down to 60-40 bad, and that little bit is worth it.. Smith: One of the things Ive learned over my time in politics is that youve got to let your candidates be themselves. It might not get you the votes, but I am not the political director. Its about hustling for opportunities. Usually, it was all good-natured. She figured that Buttigiegs sexual orientation and impossible-to-pronounce last name rendered him dead on arrival, but started researching the 35-year-old Indiana mayor and promptly took an eight-hour fall down a Google rabbit hole. Apr 27. 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. @media only screen and (max-width: 400px){ He was an incredible leader at Louisiana State University someone that team could rally around, and such a maturity to him. Most people do have earnest sides to them. It went on like this, just cursing up a blue streak for like two minutes., The aides mistake, Smith recalls, had to do with email: He failed to BCC reporters on a news release he blasted out. Smith is a fierce New York City-based Democratic operative who helped engineer the plan to get Buttigieg in front of not just national political reporters, but anybody with a camera or microphone. And you had Democrats out there saying, when they go low, we kick them in the face, and engaging in all this over-the-top rhetoric. If you are not someone who is an established name, it's really hard to break through. Let Pete be Pete. Smith now works as the deputy campaign manager for former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley in his campaign for the 2016 election. And he is as squeaky clean behind the scenes as he is in front of the camera. There are so many talented Democratic elected officials across the country. The Covid pandemic. In the car, wed go back and forth on random trivia, and pulling up things on Google. Inside the Shrinking Newsroom of the Paper That Shapes the PrimariesBy Tim Alberta. Smith also. Smith: So with John Edwards, I was a college student. After his loss in the primary, Smith went to work on the winning election campaign and then the transition of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. I, in those races, became extremely battle-tested. Here are links to the candidates' staff pages: Campaign staff plays an important role in the presidential primaries. So it was just sort of the perfect confluence of all these things where that yin and yang dynamic got us together. Her debut, "I Am Nasrine" was nominated for a BAFTA in 2013. Smith: Joey Burrow is an incredible leader. She most. They just get swallowed up by the next news cycle, and never reach the voters who matter anyway. Pete has no battle scars. And you know what their problem is? No. John Edwards comes to mind. .circle { After the Obama campaign, Smith moved to Eliot Spitzer's run for Controller of New York City. Because 2015 and 2016 were really difficult times in my life. The New York tabs may have sharpened her game, but people who've known her for years say Smith came ready for the fight. Click here to contact us for media inquiries, and please donate here to support our continued expansion. Wren: Based on how you characterized the vice presidency, would you ever counsel the transportation secretary, regardless of what year it is, against taking the vice presidency? There were very, very few women in positions of power. You couldnt have pulled off that strategy with a Bill de Blasio. But in our party, it seems the only people we ever talk about are members of Congress and senators. They are already well-known.. This is so funny, because I was just saying to Mike Schmuhl, Pete's 2020 campaign manager and now chairman of the Indiana Democrats, that my dream project would be to take off an entire year and go to the big Democratic fundraising dinner in all 50 states. The Obama campaigns director of rapid response, Lis Smith, is not afraid to take the gloves off on Twitter. Show this thread. 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. As for their interactions with reporters, it's a good question, but if you look back on the Biden campaign's outreach during the general election, I think it actually increased his number of interactions with local press with the number of interviews he did remotely in states like Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan. This section featured five news stories about Buttigieg and his presidential campaign. The spotlight turns to Kamala Harris, the only Black candidate on stage. The thing with Terry McAuliffe is that hes in on the joke. Lis Smith is recording this call. I had a beerhe stuck to waterand we talked about his political ambitions and the state of the Democratic Party and why Trump won. Whitney Whitis. 1. It was a reporter from BuzzFeed News, waiting to take my place. Its why in one day we do CBS Sunday Morning, The View, Teen Vogue and the New Yorker. Theyre just not looking in the right places. Gharavi is a BAFTA and Sundance-nominated filmmaker. After 20 campaigns flacking for candidates such as Transportation Secretary and former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, former Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, former Virginia Gov. It also includes each staff member's position in the campaign, previous work experience, and Twitter handle, where available. | Scott Olson/Getty Images, Lis has an insurgent mentality, said Axelrod, a top aide for both of President Obamas campaigns. Now, I understand that sounds completely sick. "She would just get in her car and drive to wherever," says Nina Edelman '05, a friend and college roommate. The whole saga also taught her the rhythms of the New York tabloids, which have similarities to the national political press. Because it would drive me nuts during the campaign hearing all his wonky, wonky talk about infrastructure, about roads, about smart sewers. Lets be real, Adam. Are you kidding me? My first impression was that he was a bit goofy and unserious, and never, never, ever in my wildest dreams did I think I would be sitting across the table from him 10 years later, interviewing to work for him as he was about to be the incoming mayor of New York.
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