Oversaturation? But its not just about the 18-year-old girl. 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. ), Smith quipped. It was a reporter from BuzzFeed News, waiting to take my place. Not possible, Smith says. I would do that for free.). 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. Even in decline, AM radio matters more than you might think. It might not get you the votes, but I am not the political director. Between 1987 and 2013, Spitzer had been married to Silda Wall Spitzer. Shes on her phone talking to another Buttigieg aide. Less than 24 hours after announcing the end of his marriage, former Gov. Part of it with him is the persona. Cuomoresigned last August amid claims of sexual harassment and misconduct. Riley Keough has been married to Australian stuntman Ben Smith-Petersen since 2015. Im joking. Lis Smith on Pete Buttigieg's campaign bus during a. Fantasy football we were competitive about that. And someone needs to be. Lis Smith was supposed to become de Blasio's press secretary until The Post revealed that she was dating former Gov. Like we saw with Hillary Clinton, women are sometimes held to a different standard. Eliot Spitzer while working for incoming Mayor Bill de Blasio. The New York tabs may have sharpened her game, but people who've known her for years say Smith came ready for the fight. I am a liberal Democrat, but I was so into the McCain thing. That is not the typical relationship of adviser to political principal, but typical is not a word people use about Smith. I am here to get you clips. 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. They are already well-known.. [9][41] From 2013 to 2015, she had a relationship with her former boss, New York governor Eliot Spitzer. I know of one person in particular who said you were making a catastrophic career mistake working for a total nobody. Former communications director, Pete Buttigieg's presidential campaign. [2][9] She later worked as the spokeswoman for Bill de Blasio's mayoral run in 2013. A New York Post photographer had been surreptitiously posted outside my SoHo walkup apartment. The whole saga also taught her the rhythms of the New York tabloids, which have similarities to the national political press. Smith: Yes. 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. But until they released him from the NDA, we just didnt get his clients. He did. Wren: You and Pete have very different brands. She recently appeared on Fox News and is catching the attention of other media outlets to further discuss the juicy details she spilled in her memoir. 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. Adam Wren is national politics correspondent at POLITICO. And if I can help you with my experience, my profile, my contacts, to do that, then I will do it. I want people to know what its like behind the scenes. He hung up and looked at me in horror, and then my phone started ringing. Lis Smith is a veteran of twenty political campaigns. Lis Smith: My favorite was one person asking me if I lost a bet or something. Wren: Much has been made about Trump Derangement Syndrome this idea that, true or not, he scrambles rational political responses from otherwise reasonable people. Tommy McArdle. It is my passion. Click here. This is an election where the women voters are going to be really important. He knows the importance of building up our bench. It is 5:15 on a Monday evening. Meet the DNC dark horse: Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg is shaking up the race for Democratic chair, added Salon. [8], In 2012, she became director of the rapid response team for Obama's 2012 presidential campaign. Spitzer, at the time, was attempting to regain his footing in politics after resigning from his position in 2008. Disgraced former New York governor Eliot Spitzer, 54, and his new girlfriend Lis Smith, 31, may have enjoyed a relaxing family Christmas, but their cosy domesticity could soon be upset after it . Also how many, like, mind-games campaigns are playing with others. [17] She has been included in Fortune's 40 Under 40 in Government and Politics,[18] and Crain's list of the 50 Most Powerful Women in New York. I have talked to all the guys who see in the shots. Its just that I think with both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris that it would do the administration good to get out there a little bit more, and not to let the media and the Twitter dialogue get in your head, because most people dont speak like Pete Buttigieg in these beautiful, poetic, perfectly formed sentences. And its something that forever Ill be thankful to him for. Wed gone down to Jamaica to get away from tabloid drama, not actively court it, Smith said. Wren: Could see a political career for him? Eliot Spitzer wasted no time Wednesday in cozying up to his new girlfriend's family. Her father was a partner at the white-shoe law firm Sidley Austin. Political strategist Lis Smith casts Bill de Blasio as a "gross unshowered guy" who had good reason to be "pissed" about her romantic fling with Eliot Spitzer exposed by The Post especially. His resignation came after it was discovered he had been involved with prostitutes. I thought everybody knew that.. When I was starting in politics, we didnt have women. My mood changed when the Post story popped. 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. If Id thought things couldnt have gotten worse, I was wrong, she said. Lis knew that she had to build wide to build up, said Stephanie Cutter, who also worked on Obamas 2012 effort. 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. 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. 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. From the second I met Pete, I knew that there was something special about him. 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. 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. Win or lose, she's turned an unknown into a serious . I think hes a really good person. Photo: amyandstuart.com@AmyandStuart. Now she has carefully orchestrated her own books launch doling out choice anecdotes to her beloved New York tabloids: De Blasio didnt trust NYPD security to keep secrets, ex-aide Lis Smith claims, blared one headline, which elicited an on the record statement from De Blasio himself. [39] Time and Politico included her on their lists of the best political Twitter feeds. ", Before they get in the car, I ask Buttigieg if Smith is being helpful in his campaign. And I talked about that in the book. 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. He was an incredible leader at Louisiana State University someone that team could rally around, and such a maturity to him. [44] She describes herself as an "oyster-tarian," which she defines as a vegetarian who will eat oysters. It gives me so much joy when I sit down for a Zoom with Mallory McMorrow which is supposed to be 15 minutes and it turns into two hours, and I get goosebumps again. I dont know if that delegate from Oklahoma is going be reading the Elle.com profile, but a lot of people are, and they should get to know Pete Buttigieg, she says. Despite that having been some years ago, Jeff appears to support Smith and her recent endeavors. But another thing is that Im not someone whos just worked in New York. Deciding to get into politics for me, and in the world of political operatives, was like jumping off a cliff. You have to know the social media ecosystem, how people are sharing and consuming their news. It was by no means an obvious career move for Smith. Chuck Kennedy/PFA. Smith ended up dropping most of her other clients, politicians and nonprofits alike. I think thats probably the biggest misconception about me. Smith: It made me want to be better at my job. 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. Okay, so Im working for tabloid target #1 in Bill de Blasio. He looked white as a ghost, didnt say anything, just nodding along. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. She puts the word fuck through every part of speech the word can be bent into: noun, pronoun, gerund, verb, term of endearment, sobriquet, epithet, honorific. What do all the good candidates youve worked for have in common, and what do the bad candidates have in common? Chuck Kennedy/PFA. I think we saw that Kamalas attack on Biden was obviously was pretty pointed. [36][37][38] She also has an active social media presence, through which she addresses political topics and factchecks statements by Republican politicians such as Mitt Romney. Lis Smith, a Democratic communications operative, has written a memoir that pulls back the curtain on how campaigns are won and lost. And as you saw on Fox News Sunday, as I went to bed last night, [his clip] has 8 million views. Smith says thats worth it. What is this new phase of your career about? | 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. On Sunday, Bill de Blasio put out a statement in a New York Post story in his own name defending himself against the portrait you paint of him in your book as obsessively paranoid. If you were working for him, and a book like yours came out authored by someone else, how would you have advised him to address the situation? [7] As communications director for the DGA, she oversaw gubernatorial campaign efforts in Kentucky and West Virginia. He has a clear social consciousness to him that you dont see in a lot of professional athletes. Now that they have achieved liftoff, as it were, Smith is preparing for the next part of the campaign. 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved, De Blasio didnt trust NYPD security to keep secrets, ex-aide Lis Smith claims, Gross unshowered de Blasio wanted to get in bed with Spitzer but I beat him to it: ex-aide Lis Smith, How Americas gov became Americas ahole: Ex-Cuomo staffers new book, Chris Cuomo could be a dk to disgraced ex-govs staff, new book claims. In real life, I have a really close-knit family. While her work history list might be lengthy, her dating track record isnt very long. Lis Smith on Pete Buttigieg's campaign bus during a four day tour of Iowa, September 23, 2019. Smith tried to outfox The Post by going to the Daily News as a pre-emptive strike in an effort to get a more favorable story planted about her relationship with Spitzer. In the car, wed go back and forth on random trivia, and pulling up things on Google. 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. It was written over a period of 18 months,[25] and covers her life and political career. To avoid stakeouts during the media frenzy that followed, Smith said she temporarily stayed with a friend from her college days at Dartmouthwho resided on the Upper West Side. Theyre just not looking in the right places. Dont miss it! You can unsubscribe at any time and you can contact us here. 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. Maybe Im done. These days, Smith seems to be heavily involved in promoting her new book. He weighed in after the shooting in Uvalde. 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. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. How Trump Took the Shine Off Washingtons Glitziest NightBy John F. Harris and Daniel Lippman. It was in 2013, the time when Smith was working for the de Blasio campaign, that she began dating Eliot Spitzer. Market Realist is a registered trademark. 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. God, you fucked that up. As a thirty-something mayor of a medium-size city, Buttigieg faced a credibility threshold with the national press. My end goalsbeing able to stay in New York with Eliot and serve as the New York City mayors press secretarywere in sight. I should know: Last October, I had my own intimate, off-the-record encounter with Mayor Pete. And its going to be really important to have a woman sort of leading the charge on these issues, who is able to really empathize with the despair a lot of women are feeling. People may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. How hard-chargingNew Yorkoperative Lis Smith helpedturn an obscure Indianamayorinto a national name. The New York Post is looking into you and Eliot, Smith wrote, adding, Well, fk. How has it turned out so far? He had stayed behind in an area where there was active conflict while she travelled on by herself. Smith: I think Ive got good relationships with people in the media. Maybe a story that would be 80-20 bad you can get down to 60-40 bad, and that little bit is worth it.. She did, however, date a married man while serving as a campaign aide to former New York Mayor Bill de Blasio. There were very, very few women in positions of power. Copyright 2023 Market Realist. Id worked for former [Former Maryland Gov.] Most people do have earnest sides to them. In her book, Smith also called another client she worked for,ex-Gov. He laid out his case for how a millennial municipal official from a town the size of a New York City Council district could somehow seize the Democratic nomination. But to me it was more just revealing [the] nature of the sliding doors of campaigns, and I think thats what youre getting at. This sign-up form is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Smith, standing behind Buttigieg as he campaigns at various events in New York this April. 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. I think that she gets a lot of unfair criticism. Wren: I want a window into how you advise candidates amid a crisis. Smith said she learned a hard lesson: Even a professional cant try to manage a personal crisis without help. (For the record, I can totally envision him sitting on the floor singing Kumbaya just not for me. which Politico Magazine excerpted last week. 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. [4] In 2006, she went to work on Claire McCaskill's Senate campaign in Missouri. 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. Then there was what I did next: jumped off the cliff. And I have a nice, quiet life where I dont live in Washington, D.C. 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. 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. And you know what their problem is? I was coming off some New York races where everything is just all-day personal attacks getting in the mud. There may be nobody more central to Mayor Pete's media successbesides the candidate himself, and arguably his social-media-savvy husband, Chasten Buttigiegthan Smith, who serves as a. 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. Smith said she felt violated after learning she was being followed. [10], In 2016, she was the spokesperson for Marisol Alcantara's successful New York State Senate campaign. `Jesus, you always keep it interesting.'. New transcripts and . 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. But more broadly, they are diagnosing the ills of the party that paid their housing for years. Running for politics theres got to be a little element of narcissism or whatever you want to call it in you. I consider him a friend . Critics of the IDC have questioned Smith's loyalty to the implementation of progressive policies and candidates. She had an "itch," the political consultant writes in her. We were on the bus in New Hampshire the week we were playing each other and furiously checking our lineups. Theyre out in country working on campaigns. Her plan is to emulate maybe the best-known and most successful insurgent move of recent campaign history: John McCains 2000 Straight Talk Express. This story has been shared 127,012 times. I think its just shaped up to be a perfect role for him. Hes going to sound so elitist. Or: Why does he have to answer every question with a proverb? Voters can smell when candidates are being authentic, and when candidates are not. 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. She is not letting Buttigieg read her book, Any Given Tuesday: A Political Love Story, ahead of publication day. . He didnt feel the need to go out there and be the coolest guy or the hippest guy on stage. Pete Buttigieg emerges as Democratic rock star proclaimed Business Insider during the race. I want him on everything, she told me. 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. Jason Bergman for POLITICO. Why would a Pete Buttigieg hire me? Democratic operative Lis Smith on Monday savaged her former boss, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, over his municipal coronavirus response, while offering effusive praise for Gov. You dont reach out to the 35-year-old gay mayor of South Bend, Indiana, because you think it will be an easy ride.. 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. Smith: Thats hilarious. Alums [of the campaign] are on the Hill. In crisis PR mode, Lis Smith told top Cuomo aide Melissa DeRosa to 'just have your fucking assistant text people' and 'this is insane' as sexual harassment scandal blew up. 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? 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 think thats always been part of Joe Bidens appeal. She has been actively involved in politics after the completion of her graduation from Dartmouth . Weve got that Joey Burrow swag, but he does have humility to him. 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