lis smith husband

But to me it was more just revealing [the] nature of the sliding doors of campaigns, and I think thats what youre getting at. 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. Most people do have nerdy sides to them. Maybe they wont focus on the former reigning champion [Spitzer], for once. You deploy the F-bomb like Picasso used drypoint. How badly," she asks me, are you trying to fuck me over right now?, Interactive: The Lo-Fi Voices That Speak for AmericaBy M. Scott Mahaskey and Zack Stanton. And you are going to pay me to be really quick and really aggressive and to take on Mitt Romney? And you dont know who is actually going to attack you. I am here to get you clips. After O'Malley's campaign, she advised several nonprofit organizations, and incumbent governors such as Montana governor Steve Bullock. [The vice presidency] is probably the toughest, most thankless job in Washington D.C. But it is kind of fascinating to watch., Smith met Buttigieg on the recommendation of Axelrod and former Maryland Governor Martin OMalley. Smith: Are we talking about the same Pete Buttigieg? Also how many, like, mind-games campaigns are playing with others. Smith shot down a Post story claiming Sptizer was spotted kissing and sucking her toes while she was topless in a hot tub at a resort there. Tommy McArdle. 20 2022, Published 11:56 a.m. Wren: How is Harris doing as a communicator? E! They just get swallowed up by the next news cycle, and never reach the voters who matter anyway. Unless youre a total psychopath . Wren: One of the theses of Petes campaign was that mayors are on the front lines of democracy. You never get in a fight with someone whos trying to promote a book. The great media disruption comes for the Des Moines Register. [5] In 2009, she became press secretary for Terry McAuliffe and Jon Corzine's gubernatorial races before moving on to becoming the communications director for Ted Strickland's 2010 Ohio governor's race. [16] Business Insider considered her to be one of the 10 most powerful women running the 2020 presidential campaigns. Whats that like? Smith: Yes. I want political people to read this book, because I think its fun. But I dont know whats inside him. This includes with her own boss. Smith: One of the things Ive learned over my time in politics is that youve got to let your candidates be themselves. 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?. . And you know what their problem is? Spitzer and Smith stayed together for more than two years, with the tabloids following them pretty much the whole time. Smith: I think a lot of people get a very one-dimensional view of me. This isnt going as planned., She continued: As soon as I got Hari on the line, he filled me in. She was also communications director for Dan Seals' 2008 Illinois House race. Eliot Spitzer's girlfriend Lis Smith, 31, has not been asked to take up a position in New York mayor Bill de Blasio's new City Hall team in the wake of her affair with the disgraced former governor. This story has been shared 151,667 times. Smith: Im not going to touch that with a 10-foot pole. That cut both ways during the campaign for Buttigieg, particularly when a white police officer killed a Black man in South Bend. 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. Win or lose, she's turned an unknown into a serious . Tom Ford. She advised a couple of governors still left in office, and started taking on more nonprofit clients. [24], Smith authored the 2022 book Any Given Tuesday: A Political Love Story. 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? It might not get you the votes, but I am not the political director. 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. How hard-chargingNew Yorkoperative Lis Smith helpedturn an obscure Indianamayorinto a national name. My mood changed when the Post story popped. When I stood up and left the table, Buttigieg stayed, and I recognized a woman sitting at the bar. He hung up and looked at me in horror, and then my phone started ringing. In real life, I have a really close-knit family. 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 would give Pete 95 percent of the credit and give me five percent of the credit. I had that early rush of love on the brainI wasnt thinking clearly. That means that shes held to a different standard than sometimes other candidates. Neither Eliot nor I was gonna win a gold medal in the not reckless competition at the Olympics. Why? Theres the article in the Atlantic where the writer met the mayor of South Bend, Indiana for a chicken tempura lunch in Manhattan. 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. The guy didnt have time to say hello before Smith could hear screaming over the line. When you do more interviews, it reduces that gotcha instinct with the press, it reduces that cat and mouse game. [21][22][23] In 2022, Smith became a communications adviser for Michigan State Senator Mallory McMorrow. And if people like it they like it, and if they dont they were probably never going to vote for you anyway.. 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. What do I get if I pay for your consulting services? Through the DNC race and afterward, Smith treated the national political press like it was another constituency that needed to be courted. It has been my passion since I was nine years old, which sounds sick. And he is as squeaky clean behind the scenes as he is in front of the camera. You can unsubscribe at any time and you can contact us here. 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. 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. Critics of the IDC have questioned Smith's loyalty to the implementation of progressive policies and candidates. He didnt feel the need to go out there and be the coolest guy or the hippest guy on stage. Adam Wren is national politics correspondent at POLITICO. 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? 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.. 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. 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. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. I know of one person in particular who said you were making a catastrophic career mistake working for a total nobody. Is it your relationship with reporters and cable bookers? Hes someone who is involved fighting childhood hunger. Eliot Spitzer while working for incoming Mayor Bill de Blasio.. If we do that it is a recipe for disaster. And if people like me dont get involved, then Im scared about the future of our country. 20172020 Pete Buttigieg presidential campaign, Pete Buttigieg's 2020 presidential campaign, Martin O'Malley 2016 presidential campaign, Georgetown Institute of Politics and Public Service, "On the Ground With Lis Smith, the Political Pro Who Invented 'Mayor Pete', "A Tabloid Bashing, and a Lost Job With the Mayor", "Virginia Politics Blog - McAuliffe Adds Press Secretary", "To Know Mayor Pete, Look at His Top Adviser's Underreported Past", "Mayor Pete Buttigieg Is Even Worse Than He Seems", "Knowing the Buttiverse: We're tracking 101 ex-staffers from Secretary Pete's 2020 campaign and where they are now", "The Women Running Presidential Campaigns Give Us a Behind-the-Scenes Look at Life on the Trail", "10 of the most powerful women who are running the 2020 presidential campaigns from behind the scenes", "Lis Smith | 2020 40 under 40 in Government and Politics", "GU Politics announces fall fellows to celebrate its fifth anniversary", "Andrew Cuomo's Smear Team: His Brother and Top Advisers, Transcripts Reveal", "The Moment Cuomo Adviser Lis Smith Says MSNBC Anchor Katy Tur Repeated Her 'Spin' On Air", "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", "The Michigan Democrat Who Could Solve Her Party's Identity Crisis", "Lis Smith dishes on love of political combat in new book", "Two New Memoirs Detail the Threats to American Democracy", "Confessions of a Political Swashbuckler", "Welcome to the new era of political memoir", "Any Given Tuesday: Lis Smith on Cuomo, Spitzer and a political life", "Opinion | Lis Smith's self-serving story about Andrew Cuomo", "Let's Hear From the Women Lis Smith Smeared", "Opinion | 'The G.O.P. They need to understand how the political process works. 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. I lost the media war thatId thought I commanded, Smith said. 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 hes known since 8th grade in Indianatake a moment to relax for a minute before boarding, Smith will head to the airport bar with her laptop and phone and begins texting and emailing reporters and clapping back to critics on social media. Our resort was more Leave It to Beaver than Debbie Does Dallas,' she claimed. [19], In 2021, Smith worked closely with then-governor Andrew Cuomo, and advised him on how to respond to the sexual harassment allegations against him. I figured he was special and it couldnt hurt if everybody knows who he is.. Smith: Joey Burrow is an incredible leader. I worked in politics nine years before I ever moved to New York. 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. Still, she said, I wasnt exactly a PR neophyte. Hold on, Im sorry. And if I can help you with my experience, my profile, my contacts, to do that, then I will do it. I worked in states like South Dakota, Missouri, Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia. 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. But its not just about the 18-year-old girl. Politics has a bias toward the status quo, she says. Were just not looking for them. The Covid pandemic. A report by New York Attorney General Letitia James showed that Smith was working behind the scenes to protect Cuomo from the allegations. Smith starts texting me, wanting to know if Id seen the celebrities in the audience, including George Takei, Kal Penn and Kate McKinnon. It will codify Roe v. Wade. The New York Post is looking into you and Eliot, Smith wrote, adding, Well, fk. 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. Riley Keough has been married to Australian stuntman Ben Smith-Petersen since 2015. 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. Smith said she learned a hard lesson: Even a professional cant try to manage a personal crisis without help. What else was the oppo they were dropping? A few weeks ago, a couple of hundred people expressed interest in this event. Riley was joined by her husband Ben Smith-Petersen, who gave a touching speech at Lisa Marie's funeral, in which he revealed that they recently welcomed a daughter into the world. Wren: Could see a political career for him? He was also married. One thing I find incredibly admirable about him is what you see is what you get. But more broadly, they are diagnosing the ills of the party that paid their housing for years. Pete Buttigieg and his husband Chasten in February 2020. Lis has absolutely no fear, said Jeff Smith, a former Missouri lawmaker who dated Smith for four years and considers her one of his closest friends. Democratic Political strategist and former Pete Buttigieg 2020 campaign advisor Lis Smith trashed former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio during a Monday interview with MSNBC host Nicolle. | That even in the age of Twitter, that especially in the age of Twitter, people dont really care about gaffes. I want Republicans to read this book. Its really hard to do a hit piece on a guy who you are going to see the next morning over coffee and donuts, says Weaver. 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. Smith: All the good candidates are comfortable in their own skin. From the second I met Pete, I knew that there was something special about him. Lis Smith, Buttigieg's top communications adviser . It may look like the sky is falling, but just ride this out.. He knows the importance of building up our bench. It is, she says, the only newspaper she subscribes to. Because it would drive me nuts during the campaign hearing all his wonky, wonky talk about infrastructure, about roads, about smart sewers. And when I began asking around to figure out who was behind that strategy, the same name kept coming up: Lis Smith. 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. That maybe once he double-dipped his fry at Barnabys? Adam Wren: In the beginning, you scored the contract for this book based on your high-profile turn as a senior communications adviser to Pete Buttigieg. Before a debate, you have no idea how much gossip is going around. While working for the Obama campaign she met David Axelrod, whom Smith considers a mentor. I think thats probably the biggest misconception about me. Alums [of the campaign] are on the Hill. Pete was completely different. Most people do have corny sides to them. Smith: In my experience, the best working relationships between candidates and their top staff often depend on a sort of yin-yang dynamic. | Elijah Nouvelage/REUTERS. Smith did not let anyone featured in the book read it ahead of time, not even former principals like Buttigieg or Cuomo, whom she levels in the book in the way her beloved Cincinnati Bengals new right tackle Lael Collins might decimate an opposing player. Fantasy football we were competitive about that. But there may be no political couple odder than that of Buttigieg and Smith. (The rapid-response job, Smith says, was for her like being a pig in shit. Me to be courted it to Beaver than Debbie Does Dallas, ' she.... Mouse game promote a book sort of yin-yang dynamic continued: as as... Unsubscribe at Any time and you dont know who is actually going to you. Answer every question with a 10-foot pole whos trying to promote a book experience, the best working relationships candidates. Of Love on the line, he filled me in I have really. Does Dallas, ' she claimed Spitzer ], for once, Missouri,,! ] is probably the biggest misconception about me for incoming mayor Bill de Blasio whole! Director for Dan Seals ' 2008 Illinois House race care about gaffes know who is going. And then my phone started ringing been married to Australian stuntman Ben Smith-Petersen since 2015 answer every question with proverb... Wren: how is Harris doing as a communicator a Black man South. 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