Youve got this hard-nosed New York-style political operative and this friendly Hoosier mayor, he said. Behind the scenes, Id get keep your head up emails from senior de Blasio aides, but when it came to the press, it seemed their attitude was more along the lines of off with her head. TV news executives are calling, she says, emailing, now complaining that Buttigieg isnt doing their shows often enough. which Politico Magazine excerpted last week. If Id thought things couldnt have gotten worse, I was wrong, she said. We met at the Roxy Hotel in Tribeca. I think its just shaped up to be a perfect role for him. The photographer had captured Eliot and me exchanging loving looks as wed returned from a late-night dinner at a restaurant on my block.. Tim Miller, my friend, wrote a great book weeks ago, where he talks about the danger of getting sucked up in the game. I am a liberal Democrat, but I was so into the McCain thing. 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 wasnt born yesterday. Wren: One of the theses of Petes campaign was that mayors are on the front lines of democracy. And so when they feel like they are getting attacked, or their families are getting atttacked, they think staff can never talk to them on the level, and it is frustrating for principals, because they are like, You are just a kid, you dont know anything. But with me, I can tell them, This is what is going to happen, this is how we are going to deal with it. Our resort was more Leave It to Beaver than Debbie Does Dallas,' she claimed. 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. Petes hitting at this moment in part because of the legwork they did. It was total bullst. She texts the buzziest bits to her sprawling network of journalistic contacts, who tweet them out. I had gone through this awful breakup [with former New York Gov. There were very, very few women in positions of power. None of those races were particularly easy. When they gave me the job I thought, first of all this job exists? But more broadly, they are diagnosing the ills of the party that paid their housing for years. It was as horrible as Id anticipated and seeing the photos of Eliot and me taken in what wed thought were private moments was even more disturbing, knowing they were on display to anyone who cared to look, she writes in the 304-page tome. Eliot Spitzer while working for incoming Mayor Bill de Blasio.. 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. In a chapter entitled The Eye of the Storm, she recalled how her parents who reside in Westchester were shockedwhen photographers and scribes were camped outside their home when Spitzer joined them for Christmas dinner. Most people do have nerdy sides to them. Wren: Theres a part of Pete that is a little wonky, a little square. The Post ran the exclusive photos of Spitzer ducking in and out of the Soho walk-up. This is how we stop there from being a day three. He weighed in after the shooting in Uvalde. Maybe they wont focus on the former reigning champion [Spitzer], for once. 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. How consequential was that looking back? Theres a public Terry and a private Terry. I see Donald Trump win the White House, which like everyone else, Im flabbergasted. But is it undermining its own side? Her plan is to emulate maybe the best-known and most successful insurgent move of recent campaign history: John McCains 2000 Straight Talk Express. [2] In 2013, she moved back to New York and became the press secretary for Eliot Spitzer's New York City comptroller campaign, an attempted political comeback after his prostitution scandal. They know who they are and will not let consultants, pundits, whoever, change them. [Smiths voice breaks here.] She ran his campaign publicly by courting the national political press, a technique she further honed during Buttigieg's 2020 presidential campaign. Based on that experience, how should Democrats make gains in those kinds of states in 2022? He didnt feel the need to go out there and be the coolest guy or the hippest guy on stage. Its why in one day we do CBS Sunday Morning, The View, Teen Vogue and the New Yorker. In what ways does your brand benefit from Petes, and in what ways does Petes brand benefit from yours? Bill de Blasio, too. [13][14], Smith met Pete Buttigieg on the recommendations of Axelrod and OMalley when he was considering running for Democratic National Committee chair in 2017 and became a consultant for the campaign. Lis Smith, the political communications specialist who helped bring Buttigieg to national prominence before he became President Joe Biden's Transportation secretary, revealed the decision in an . Its sad, but our politics isnt built to deal with people who are reasonable. Lis Smith net worth is $20 Million Lis Smith Wiki: Salary, Married, Wedding, Spouse, Family Lis Smith is known for her work on AM Joy (2016), After Image (2001) and Politics Nation with Al Sharpton (2011). Eight hundred have showed up. My observation, said Axelrod, who worked with Smith on Obamas 2012 reelection campaign, is that she is the quiet hero of his emergence.. 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. Smiths mother is a descendent of a signer of the Mayflower Compact, and a cousin of lead Watergate investigator Sam Ervin. The photographer also snapped Spitzer leaving Smiths apartment early the next morning wearing a skullcap and hooded sweatshirt, Not exactly the wardrobe of an innocent man, she notes. A New York Post photographer had been surreptitiously posted outside my SoHo walkup apartment. Her father was a partner at the white-shoe law firm Sidley Austin. And you know what their problem is? Wren: He rehabilitated you and taught you to love the political process again. It wasnt an ideal situation, but it taught me a lot, Smith says. She did, however, date a married man while serving as a campaign aide to former New York Mayor Bill de Blasio. She doesnt give a fuck. It will codify Roe v. Wade. Smith: It made me want to be better at my job. [4] In 2006, she went to work on Claire McCaskill's Senate campaign in Missouri. Liz Smith, the syndicated gossip columnist who chronicled the lives of New York's rich and famous with such skill she became known as the "Dame of Dish . Alums [of the campaign] are on the Hill. 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. Jeff Smith, her former boyfriend, recalls one time when he was running for office, his campaign managers phone rang. 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. Because he completely disrupts the idea of what a successful younger politician is. And you are going to pay me to be really quick and really aggressive and to take on Mitt Romney? I want Democrats to read this book. Its that everyday when I go into work to try and get these people elected its because it will impact lives. I love him. The "Dame of Dish" passed away on Sunday. In that same vein, I know that there were people in the transportation secretarys inner circle that thought his taking that position wasnt the best idea. 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. A lot of people people whose opinion you respect told you that you were nuts when you chose to work for Pete. Pete made us all show up to give our 100 percent at work made us all better at our jobs. 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. She did, however, date a married. 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. While her work history list might be lengthy, her dating track record isnt very long. Then, in an instant, everything changed, Smith writes in her tell-all, Any Given Tuesday., It came in the form of a text from [fellow consultant] Hari [Sevugan]: `Call me. Smith: I think Ive got good relationships with people in the media. 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. I want him on everything, she told me. 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. He was also married. You dont reach out to the 35-year-old gay mayor of South Bend, Indiana, because you think it will be an easy ride.. ), Smith quipped. [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. She is the most competitive person I have ever known.. 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.. Maybe Im done. I think thats always been part of Joe Bidens appeal. Theres just no one who can do a TV interview like Pete Buttigieg. Why would a Pete Buttigieg hire me? Wed gone down to Jamaica to get away from tabloid drama, not actively court it, Smith said. Its really fun. This isnt going as planned., She continued: As soon as I got Hari on the line, he filled me in. The whole saga also taught her the rhythms of the New York tabloids, which have similarities to the national political press. These days, Smith seems to be heavily involved in promoting her new book. Did I think hed sit on the floor with me and sing Kumbaya and tell me it would be all okay? With her signature black bob, dark sunglasses, and red lipstick, Lis Smith cuts a striking figure in the world of politics . The one thing you saw on our campaign in 2020 is that everywhere we went, he was introduced by young leaders, young mayors. Smith has spent much of her career as a political strategist working for prominent men such as Pete Buttigieg, Barack Obama, and the now disgraced Andrew Cuomo. It felt like we connectedwe went over our allotted time, and I had another beer, and by the end I had shifted from very skeptical to only moderately skeptical, just maybe seeing a lane for his candidacy. . Meet the DNC dark horse: Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg is shaking up the race for Democratic chair, added Salon. And you just like have this moment, where youre like, Maybe this is it. After winning the election, the candidate joined the Independent Democratic Conference (IDC), and Smith consulted briefly for the group. We've received your submission. But the Post discovered where they were. I would say that these days, my vetting skills are maybe a little savvier. 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. Gripping reads, smart analysis and a bit of high-minded fun. 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. I want Republicans to read this book. Does something like Buttigieg Derangement Syndrome exist? I want political people to read this book, because I think its fun. She ran it like he was trying to be president, getting him in front of as many microphones as she could. 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. That is not the typical relationship of adviser to political principal, but typical is not a word people use about Smith. But its not just about the 18-year-old girl. And yet you signed on anyway. David Freedlander writes about politics and culture. And he is as squeaky clean behind the scenes as he is in front of the camera. I was also reckless. 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. Not possible, Smith says. Shes on her phone talking to another Buttigieg aide. 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 had that early rush of love on the brainI wasnt thinking clearly. She is not letting Buttigieg read her book, Any Given Tuesday: A Political Love Story, ahead of publication day. So the Post is about to report that Im dating Eliot Spitzer. The Covid pandemic. POLITICO Weekend flies into inboxes every Friday. Lis Smith: My favorite was one person asking me if I lost a bet or something. Lis Smith entered politics after watching The War Room, the 1992 documentary about Bill Clinton's successful bid for the presidency. Mistakes that Ive made with media. 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. Miller is darkly. Fantasy football we were competitive about that. Smith: I think its been great. Lis knew that she had to build wide to build up, said Stephanie Cutter, who also worked on Obamas 2012 effort. 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