Pete was completely different. I have a really close-knit group of friends who have nothing to do with politics. The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms LisSmithMartinO'Malley. And when it happened, the story was her. The Covid pandemic. A lot of people people whose opinion you respect told you that you were nuts when you chose to work for Pete. Sign up for notifications from Insider! And so my advice would just be, get out there more, especially with Kamala, go out there more. "What that looks like is going to a county that may be 80-20 . Not to be cheesy, but it is one of my proudest accomplishments. [1] She was the deputy campaign director for Martin O'Malley's 2016 presidential campaign. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles. They need to understand how the political process works. Its about getting to know people and them getting to know you, Buttigieg says when I see him after the Brooklyn fundraiser, where he at least pretends to recall our earlier meeting and what we talked about. That's helped him to make a strong case for himself for 2024, said Democratic strategist Lis Smith, an adviser to Pete Buttigieg in his 2020 bid. Spitzer spokeswoman Lisa Linden said the break-up was amicable. 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." Your knowledge of the process? Wren: I want a window into how you advise candidates amid a crisis. ", Before they get in the car, I ask Buttigieg if Smith is being helpful in his campaign. I was coming off some New York races where everything is just all-day personal attacks getting in the mud. Terry McAuliffe, and President Barack Obama, Lis Smith is finally flacking for Lis Smith. Smith has been exploring the idea of renting a bus, and just as McCain did, inviting reporters aboard to travel and fire away at Buttigieg with any question they want, all day, day after day. She was the deputy campaign director for Martin O'Malley's 2016 presidential campaign. Craig F. Walker/The Boston Globe via Getty Images. Alums [of the campaign] are on the Hill. Our meeting was part of a strategy, one run with surprising sophistication and efficacy for a candidate whose highest-profile gig so far is a local office in the fourth-biggest city in Indiana. } But I understand that what I do isnt just a game. 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. 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. But is it undermining its own side? first campaign in 2006. From her days as a college intern for John Edwards to her own brush with the New York tabloids, the book traces her entertaining path to the height of the American political consultant class. Lis Smith is a Democratic campaign communications specialist and co-founder of 50 State Communications in New York. Maybe theres still time for me to choose a new life path because I felt extremely disillusioned. And so much of my book is about the power of belief and the element of belief that it takes to succeed in professional football, in politics, and hes the one who brought that belief back for me, and brought my love my pure love of politics back for me. I consider him a friend . It was a reporter from BuzzFeed News, waiting to take my place. I mean, for God's sake, we don't even pay that much attention to governors. Politics is really personal to me. He weighed in after the shooting in Uvalde. In 2018, she served as the political press coordinator for Pete Buttigieg's campaign for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. Because Pete is so Midwestern nice, I think it was helpful for him to have someone who could help kick him into another gear, and sort of push him to have the more aggressive instinct you need to break through in a presidential race. 4. 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. It was a long shot. A text arrives from John Weaver, a top adviser to former Ohio Governor John Kasich. Its really hard to do a hit piece on a guy who you are going to see the next morning over coffee and donuts. Smith ended up dropping most of her other clients, politicians and nonprofits alike. 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. Chuck Kennedy/PFA. Why that works with Pete, whatever you want to call it the earnest side of him, this nerdy side of him, the wonky side of him was because it was authentically Pete. Even people like Terry McAuliffe and Claire McCaskill, who both have outsized personalities. The bad candidates are people who are insecure, who put their finger in the wind, who dont trust their instincts enough and dont have the backbone to do the right things. The private Terry is a lot more low-key, and lot more humble, a lot more thoughtful. But it is kind of fascinating to watch., Smith met Buttigieg on the recommendation of Axelrod and former Maryland Governor Martin OMalley. And it was the first time Id worked in politics that Id ever felt that way. 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. .center-table-mobile { It was Lis telling me I need to fire my campaign manager, that the guy is a fucking idiot. Now a veteran Democratic strategist, Smith is the woman credited with propelling the . 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. 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. 2022: Hell of a Week with Charlamagne Tha God as Self: 2021: Mayor Pete: 2003: Real Time with Bill Maher as Self: Clear; And so, she says, she cant talk right now. 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. 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. Wren: How is Harris doing as a communicator? Lis Smith, may find her job in . If there is one thing that makes Smith unique, its not her knowledge of great apes or her particular skill eviscerating her opponents on Twitter; Its that her skin was toughened by a stretch of time in the rawest, roughest media environment of all, the NYC tabloid scrum. Wren: Youre a very competitive person. Its just a personal part of my book. However, in the transitioning period, Phil Walzak was hired to run press operations for de Blasio's office. Wren: Did you have a good handle before the campaign on Petes vulnerabilities? But until they released him from the NDA, we just didnt get his clients. A few weeks ago, a couple of hundred people expressed interest in this event. Oh really, you didnt know that? Whats especially important to me, is, you know, making sure to take a lot of young women under my wing. Its that everyday when I go into work to try and get these people elected its because it will impact lives. Smith: Joey Burrow is an incredible leader. Wren: Tell me about that five percent credited to you. Letting Terry be Terry. Smith: Mayor Pete is where Mayor Pete is now because Mayor Pete is just one of the most uniquely talented members of the Democratic Party. In recent months you have made a name for yourself by working for this new crop of candidates out in the middle of the country: Michigan State Sen. Mallory McMorrow, Aftab Pureval and others. That was my philosophy. Lis Smith is an American campaign manager affiliated with the Democratic Party. 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. Everyone thought I was crazy. Pete's 2020 campaign manager and now chairman of the Indiana Democrats, that my dream project would be to take off . When they gave me the job I thought, first of all this job exists? The way Smith tells it, she thought she was done with presidential politics after OMalleys campaign fizzled in 2016. | James Devaney/GC Images. She most recently worked as a senior advisor in communications to presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg. She is a talented communicator. 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. 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. I wasnt born yesterday. as well as other partner offers and accept our. Seeing how Pete cuts through with people and what a truly effective messenger hes become for the Democratic Party, it makes you realize: Theres not just one Mayor Pete. Theres just no one who can do a TV interview like Pete Buttigieg. Now, I understand that sounds completely sick. A better response that is informed by all the facts is the most effective way to respond. Stay up to date with what you want to know. ), President Barack Obama (D) and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D). 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. Lis Smith was just a college student when she worked on her first political campaign. 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. This 35-Year-Old Mayor From Indiana Is Wowing National Democrats The New Republic declared. 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. 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. This is an election where the women voters are going to be really important. 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. I had gone through this awful breakup [with former New York Gov. I would say that these days, my vetting skills are maybe a little savvier. The saga gave Smith an insight that most campaign operatives lack: what it's actually like to be that bug trapped under the magnifying glass. Its a role that clearly lends itself to his skill set. Adam Wren is national politics correspondent at POLITICO. Do you think the lack of in-person events hurt them later on in building a relationship with the eventual White House press corps? My advice is just go out there more, communicate more. ), Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo. 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. | | Elijah Nouvelage/REUTERS. Apr 27. There may be nobody more central to Mayor Petes media successbesides the candidate himself, and arguably his social-media-savvy husband, Chasten Buttigiegthan Smith, who serves as a communications adviser and all-around aide. I want him on everything, she told me. She has worked on more than 20 Democratic campaigns, according to her Twitter bio and is a graduate. 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. Its a super-aggressive thing to do. 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. In some ways, he came across as a Midwestern dad before he was, in fact, a Midwestern dad. Deciding to get into politics for me, and in the world of political operatives, was like jumping off a cliff. When you do more interviews, it reduces that gotcha instinct with the press, it reduces that cat and mouse game. There are so many talented Democratic elected officials across the country. When I was starting in politics, we didnt have women. 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. Thats a pretty ballsy thing to do. Its sad, but our politics isnt built to deal with people who are reasonable. Martin OMalley, who shed worked for, performing poorly in the Iowa caucuses. Wren: One of your legacies is the coaching tree, to use an apt football metaphor, that you left behind on the Pete campaign. Honesty is really, really important to handling a crisis because you have to have all the facts at your disposal. We should start thinking about what prominent national Democrats we can use to help raise money and help campaign for them to do things like flip the Michigan state Senate. I tell her that I have been calling around to former coworkers and associates, trying to get a sense of how she operates. Gharavi is a BAFTA and Sundance-nominated filmmaker. Its really fun. Buttigieg campaigns in Iowa shortly after officially announcing his bid for the Democratic nomination for president. But I appreciate his courage in being willing to speak out about it. 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.. 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. We tend to think of younger politicians as either captive to the very far left or the very far right, but there is a whole crop of younger elected officials across the country that aren't on the extreme, and that can relate to the majority of voters. Because it would drive me nuts during the campaign hearing all his wonky, wonky talk about infrastructure, about roads, about smart sewers. He looked white as a ghost, didnt say anything, just nodding along. . 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Oversaturation? Can I tell you something very off the record, she texts. 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 I do think that some of that savvy did come out of innovations they had to make during the 2020 campaign. They lead with emotion. Regular voters and the media were primed for it.. Across the street, Brooklyn hipsters of all ages and manner of facial hair are lining up around the block at a bowling alley/music venue to catch Buttigieg at a fundraiser. You have to know the social media ecosystem, how people are sharing and consuming their news. 90 minutes with one of Americas top political consultants. From the second I met Pete, I knew that there was something special about him. [7] When Spitzer lost the primary election, she was hired on the communications team for Bill de Blasio's New York City mayoral campaign. I really did feel he treated me as an equal. 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. 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. Letting Pete be Pete. Buttigieg reignited Smiths love for politics, she says, after a really difficult 2015 and 2016 due to her breakup with former New York 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). Wren: How is the Lis Smith depicted in this book different from the Lis Smith in the popular political imagination? She has extensive experience in public affairs, media relations, and crisis communications at the local, state and national levels. Id worked for former [Former Maryland Gov.] She uses her feed to, well, rapidly respond to the news. Politics is literally a matter of life and death. I fucking love John McCain. Sign up for our newsletter. What is Lis Smiths secret sauce? Lis Smith is recording this call. CNN's Dana Bash speaks to Senior Political Commentator and former Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger, former Buttigieg campaign adviser Lis Smith, CNN Political Commentator David Urban and CNN . He hung up and looked at me in horror, and then my phone started ringing. This sign-up form is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. The attack we had been dreading was coming. Im realistic here. John Edwards comes to mind. She is most well known for being the senior advisor for Pete Buttigieg's 2020 presidential campaign and the director of rapid response for Obama's 2012 campaign. 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]. [2] He suspended his campaign on March 1, 2020.[3]. Well before she worked for Cuomo and then briefly rejoined as an outside advisor during the height of his sexual harassment scandal, Smith worked for his arch nemesis, de Blasio. Chuck Kennedy/PFA. Theyre in the agencies. Her plan is to emulate maybe the best-known and most successful insurgent move of recent campaign history: John McCains 2000 Straight Talk Express. Visit Presidential election key staffers, 2020, to see our coverage of staff on other campaigns. She texts the buzziest bits to her sprawling network of journalistic contacts, who tweet them out. She is 36, a year younger than Buttigieg, which, Thank God. And you just like have this moment, where youre like, Maybe this is it. The death of local news is a tragedy for voters and it's a tragedy for campaigns. By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or updates from POLITICO and you agree to our privacy policy and terms of service. I should know: Last October, I had my own intimate, off-the-record encounter with Mayor Pete. She is practically shaking with excess energy. Smith now works as the deputy campaign manager for former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley in his campaign for the 2016 election. From 2006 to 2010 she stayed busy, participating in numerous gubernatorial campaigns, and then in 2012 being named the rapid response director for the Barack Obama . "Joe Biden has had one of the most successful. Wren: Fair enough. 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., As a flack, you dont always understand what it feels like to be a principal, what it feels like to be under scrutiny. He announced he was running for the Democratic presidential nomination on January 23, 2019, and formally kicked off his campaign on April 14, 2019. That maybe once he double-dipped his fry at Barnabys? Tech: Matt Latourelle Ryan Burch Kirsten Corrao Beth Dellea Travis Eden Tate Kamish Margaret Kearney Eric Lotto Joseph Sanchez. He was out there. The writer from Indianapolis Monthly who went for a jog with Buttigieg three months before his feature landed, the Washington Post Magazine writer who sat down in a Virginia soul food joint with Mayor Pete long before he declared his presidential bid and the Yahoo News feature writer who crammed into the corner seat of a midtown Manhattan caf with him months ago. .circle { What makes him such a magnet for criticism on both the left and the right? 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. Sign up for POLITICO Magazines email of the weeks best, delivered to your inbox every Friday morning. There is this thing that I have to be very honest with, because maybe I had been seen as a little radioactive because I had unwillingly had my private life spread all over the tabloids, more established candidates might not have hired me. ), Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo. Oftentimes its not going to be found in Washington, D.C. Theyre just not looking in the right places. padding:10px; Pete Buttigieg is the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana. That's why you've seen them lean on people like Olivia Rodrigo, Matthew McConaughey, the Jonas brothers. We just had the Supreme Court decision on abortion. In what ways does your brand benefit from Petes, and in what ways does Petes brand benefit from yours? 'Given how hectic both their work and travel schedules are, they decided a few weeks ago to take a break in their relationship,' Linden told NY . The whole saga also taught her the rhythms of the New York tabloids, which have similarities to the national political press. Smiths mother is a descendent of a signer of the Mayflower Compact, and a cousin of lead Watergate investigator Sam Ervin. 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. "Joe Biden has had one of the most successful first two years of any president in recent history," Smith said. "He has been dismissed and discounted at every turn, and still overperformed expectations. He didnt feel the need to go out there and be the coolest guy or the hippest guy on stage. Smith: Thats hilarious. Smith: Youve got to meet voters where they are. 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. We are at the risk for seeing abortion rights eroded in more and more states. That cut both ways during the campaign for Buttigieg, particularly when a white police officer killed a Black man in South Bend. Click here to contact us for media inquiries, and please donate here to support our continued expansion. Mistakes Ive made in my professional life. The Obama campaigns director of rapid response, Lis Smith, is not afraid to take the gloves off on Twitter. Hes been a guest on BuzzFeeds morning news show, been featured on Vices nightly news show and sat down with a couple of the guys from Barstool Sports.
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