Lis Smith is leading the charge in terms of media coverage for the Pete Buttigieg campaign. ELIOT AND DeBABE blared the cover of the New York Post, which ran several photos of the pair on its inside pages and in a column from the acid-tongued Andrea Peyser which called Smith not just any ordinary bimbo and called her an ambitious, youngish cookie who presumably does not charge Eliot for any services rendered., Eliot Spitzer and Lis Smith at a Philadelphia 76ers vs. New York Knicks game at Madison Square Garden in 2014. Ive always tried to be very grounded. Cuomo recruits former de Blasio campaign aide who dated Eliot Spitzer Trail Blazer | Dartmouth Alumni Magazine 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. How hard-chargingNew Yorkoperative Lis Smith helpedturn an obscure Indianamayorinto a national name. And you know what their problem is? I tell her that I have been calling around to former coworkers and associates, trying to get a sense of how she operates. Eric Appleman of Democracy in Action describes candidates' efforts to hire staffers as a "race for talent, both nationally and in key early states." Smith previously worked on campaigns for former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D. Now a veteran Democratic strategist, Smith is the woman credited with propelling the . The White House Correspondents Dinner is shrinking back to the boring awards ceremony journalists claimed to prefer. Smith: Democrats love to bitch that we dont have a bench. But I understand that what I do isnt just a game. Pete made us all show up to give our 100 percent at work made us all better at our jobs. As a thirty-something mayor of a medium-size city, Buttigieg faced a credibility threshold with the national press. I think I am impressive because I am a violinist and I went to Dartmouth and I speak French and have traveled all over the world and, I dont know, I know a lot about great apes, she says. "She would just get in her car and drive to wherever," says Nina Edelman '05, a friend and college roommate. They are doing things that are more directly relevant to peoples lives. Wren: Did you have a good handle before the campaign on Petes vulnerabilities? 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? Martin OMalley, who got like 1 percent in the Iowa Caucuses. During the campaign, Forbes considered her one of "the essential people to follow on Twitter," saying:[5], The New York Times noted that Smith's rapid response tweets "were a big reason that the campaign was able to define Mitt Romney before he could define himself."[4]. She has extensive experience in public affairs, media relations, and crisis communications at the local, state and national levels. Smith: It made me want to be better at my job. 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. Click here to contact us for media inquiries, and please donate here to support our continued expansion. It was a slim path. [5] For a larger list of state campaign staff, visit Democracy in Action. He's on his way into a black car to do Maddow. But another thing is that Im not someone whos just worked in New York. In my book, I sort of get at this, but we are sort of an odd couple. I could bring out a little bit more of a killer instinct [in] him, but he could bring out sort of a gentler, more thoughtful side of me that was mutually beneficial to the campaign. Smith now works as the deputy campaign manager for former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley in his campaign for the 2016 election. I am here to get you clips. Staff are presented alongside their positions in the campaign, their most recent positions prior to the campaign, and their Twitter handles. The way Smith tells it, she thought she was done with presidential politics after OMalleys campaign fizzled in 2016. . Please email us at editor@ballotpedia.org. John Edwards comes to mind. padding:10px; Pete Buttigieg is the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana. But it was one of those moments where I had to go with my gut. James Devaney/Getty Images. By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or updates from POLITICO and you agree to our privacy policy and terms of service. You can unsubscribe at any time and you can contact us here. I figured he was special and it couldnt hurt if everybody knows who he is.. Smiths mother is a descendent of a signer of the Mayflower Compact, and a cousin of lead Watergate investigator Sam Ervin. So what I try to do is to meet candidates where they are, and to help work with them on what their strengths are and not to erase the things in them that are quirky or not, but see if we can use them as assets. [12], O'Malley suspended his presidential campaign on February 1, 2016.[13]. Elliot Spitzer (pictured), the election of Donald Trump and former Maryland Gov. 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. | Elijah Nouvelage/REUTERS. Her plan is to emulate maybe the best-known and most successful insurgent move of recent campaign history: John McCains 2000 Straight Talk Express. The two of us talked this week about Buttigiegs political future, whether Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow could jump into politics, and the ingredients of a good political candidate. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles. Not possible, Smith says. Liz Truss locked in row over '12k bill at Chevening country retreat' Wren: What is your relationship with Pete like now? Its a role that clearly lends itself to his skill set. They are already well-known.. [7] When Spitzer lost the primary election, she was hired on the communications team for Bill de Blasio's New York City mayoral campaign. None of those races were particularly easy. Smiths Any Given Tuesday: A Political Love Story, out July 19, is an irreverent, intimate and honest look behind the curtain of modern political image-making including her own. I had to deal with candidates who, unfortunately, did not give me all the facts, and you cant effectively handle a crisis. Shes on her phone talking to another Buttigieg aide. Smith has been studying the effort, reaching out to reporters who were there, and has been in regular contact with John Weaver, who helped engineer it. But as long as its just like that one percent that you need to have the confidence that you can go out and rally thousands of people, and that its just that 1 percent and not 70 percent, then its all good. I thought everybody knew that.. 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?. Yeah. How Lis Smith Turned Pete Buttigieg Into a Serious Contender This sign-up form is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. And its something that forever Ill be thankful to him for. Also how many, like, mind-games campaigns are playing with others. Theyre out in country working on campaigns. The guy didnt have time to say hello before Smith could hear screaming over the line. Now, to go back to the premise of your question, I think what we should be looking for is I'm not breaking any news here by saying that the leadership in Washington right now is a bit on the older side we should be elevating young candidates, elevating millennial candidates in their 30s and 40s. Did it worry you that he might not be the candidate with whom people most wanted to have a beer or should we say, get lit with? The New York tabs may have sharpened her game, but people who've known her for years say Smith came ready for the fight. 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. Gharavi is a BAFTA and Sundance-nominated filmmaker. 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. Usually, it was all good-natured. Wren: One of your legacies is the coaching tree, to use an apt football metaphor, that you left behind on the Pete campaign. Weve seen a lot of cataclysmic things happen. Maybe Im done. Buttigieg's Ex-Campaign Manager Is Showing Democrats How to - Insider Lis Smith was just a college student when she worked on her first political campaign. I mean, for God's sake, we don't even pay that much attention to governors. He was an incredible leader at Louisiana State University someone that team could rally around, and such a maturity to him. For a complete timeline of Buttigieg's campaign activity, click here. Well, of course someone running for president would need to talk about it with me first, right? Lis Smith Retweeted. Is it your relationship with reporters and cable bookers? There is nothing too big for her. 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. Top editors give you the stories you want delivered right to your inbox each weekday. She ran it like he was trying to be president, getting him in front of as many microphones as she could. Why would a Pete Buttigieg hire me? The list below shows notable staff departures found in media reports. 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. It was a long shot. Do you think the lack of in-person events hurt them later on in building a relationship with the eventual White House press corps? The table below shows the candidate's 2020 early primary state directors and state communications directors. Smith: We check in here and there. Lis Smith (@Lis_Smith) / Twitter Were just not looking for them. 90 minutes with one of Americas top political consultants. Now after advising Pete Buttigieg, she's published a must-read memoir, 'Any Given Tuesday: A Political. Lis knew that she had to build wide to build up, said Stephanie Cutter, who also worked on Obamas 2012 effort. But Joe Biden is president today, and Kamala Harris is his vice president. There are probably dozens of Mayor Petes out there across the country. Thats a pretty ballsy thing to do. And they all lack humility. 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. 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. 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. Other candidates, they dont need to do it. [8] On the de Blasio campaign, Smith worked with campaign manager Bill Hyers, the campaign manager for Martin O'Malley's 2016 presidential campaign. We knew the McKinsey stuff would be it, but he was bound by an NDA. [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. I think thats probably the biggest misconception about me. He was thinking of running for chair of the Democratic National Committee. I remember in Iowa, we had all these young mayors for him. I think that she gets a lot of unfair criticism. But he is also the kind of person journalists tend to like: bookish, somehow earnest with a sense of irony, and willing to talk the way journalists like people to talk, playing the pundit and getting into the political process and discussing his own ambitions. Because he was a badass. Lis Smith - Wikipedia I see Donald Trump win the White House, which like everyone else, Im flabbergasted. Retail politics matters much less if there are no local papers or local TV stations to go out and capture you on the campaign trail. }. She is not letting Buttigieg read her book, Any Given Tuesday: A Political Love Story, ahead of publication day. The spotlight turns to Kamala Harris, the only Black candidate on stage. 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? Except then it didnt. 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 all the good candidates youve worked for have in common, and what do the bad candidates have in common? Political Hotshot Lis Smith Talks Women in Politics, Democrats' Future and the Secret to Buttigieg's Success. 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 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. It will codify Roe v. Wade. Lis Smith talks how 'going everywhere' helped McCaskill | STLPR Lis Smith is recording this call. Even people like Terry McAuliffe and Claire McCaskill, who both have outsized personalities. Click here to contact us for media inquiries, and please donate here to support our continued expansion. Lis Smith (born October 15, 1982) is an American political strategist affiliated with the Democratic Party. One thing I find incredibly admirable about him is what you see is what you get.
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