It was written over a period of 18 months,[25] and covers her life and political career. I think that she gets a lot of unfair criticism. On a cornier side, I think because he is such a good person, he made a lot of us better people throughout, because politics can be sort of a nasty business. She had served as a senior aide on OMalleys 2016 bid and with the Maryland governor when he was head of the Democratic Governors Association. I think its a little bit of a ride. But until they released him from the NDA, we just didnt get his clients. Smith-Petersen held a protective arm around Keough's, 33, waist as he supported the actress on her first red carpet since the sudden death of her mother Lisa Marie Presley last month. Copyright 2023 Market Realist. I think now more than ever, people need to understand how the media works. Still, she said, I wasnt exactly a PR neophyte. Maybe they wont focus on the former reigning champion [Spitzer], for once. Smith: Thats hilarious. Axelrod told Buttigieg about Smith, and OMalley told Smith about this young mayor from South Bend. [2] In 2014, she became a communication consultant for Adriano Espaillat's congressional campaign. Lis Smith who also served as spokeswoman for Mayor Bill de Blasio and worked on President Barack Obama's re-election campaign helped spark the media frenzy around the 37-year-old gay. 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. Other candidates, they dont need to do it. The spotlight turns to Kamala Harris, the only Black candidate on stage. Lis Smith is a veteran of twenty political campaigns. And I have a nice, quiet life where I dont live in Washington, D.C. Dont miss it! I cant believe you didnt know that! [Smiths voice breaks here.] He had stayed behind in an area where there was active conflict while she travelled on by herself. It is, she says, the only newspaper she subscribes to. 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. My mood changed when the Post story popped. The photographer had captured Eliot and me exchanging loving looks as wed returned from a late-night dinner at a restaurant on my block.. Phil snorted: Fck. [7] As communications director for the DGA, she oversaw gubernatorial campaign efforts in Kentucky and West Virginia. 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.. `Jesus, you always keep it interesting.'. And they all lack humility. In some ways, he came across as a Midwestern dad before he was, in fact, a Midwestern dad. Except then it didnt. This is an election where the women voters are going to be really important. 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. I want Republicans to read this book. Shes on her phone talking to another Buttigieg aide. 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. | Mark Peterson/Redux, Yuki Iwamura/Redux. In a crisis, the most important thing to do is to pause, to take a step back and get all the facts, and game out your response. The more people see Bill de Blasio, the less they like him. Smith: I think Ive got good relationships with people in the media. This 35-Year-Old Mayor From Indiana Is Wowing National Democrats The New Republic declared. Whats especially important to me, is, you know, making sure to take a lot of young women under my wing. Spitzer and Smith stayed together for more than two years, with the tabloids following them pretty much the whole time. William C. Lopez After leaving the eatery at around 12:30 a.m., Smith gave Spitzer a flirtatious look over her shoulder before the . She is 36, a year younger than Buttigieg, which, Thank God. Lis Smith (born October 15, 1982) is an American political strategist affiliated with the Democratic Party. Smith: One of the reasons I wanted to write this book was because when I was thinking at 19 or 20 about getting into this world, [a book like this] didnt exist. Smith: Democrats love to bitch that we dont have a bench. By. Ourmost scandalous transgression was showing up three minutes late to the breakfastbuffet and sweet talking our way into cheese and jalapeo omelets.. In the car, wed go back and forth on random trivia, and pulling up things on Google. Lis Smith, the mayor-elect's spokeswoman during the homestretch of his campaign and for his transition to Gracie Mansion, is in a relationship with Spitzer, the hooker-scandal-disgraced ex . My observation, said Axelrod, who worked with Smith on Obamas 2012 reelection campaign, is that she is the quiet hero of his emergence.. Smith: Are we talking about the same Pete Buttigieg? [44] Smith plays the violin.[44]. I couldnt talk to the media, and they didnt lift a finger to defend me.. I dont live and breathe politics every day. Your Bengals fandom and their Super Bowl run is a part of the book. Click here. 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. Alums [of the campaign] are on the Hill. What else was the oppo they were dropping? Keep in mind she was 22 at the time, Smith said. And you know what their problem is? I wasnt born yesterday. 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. And although Smith would never say it, it plays on political reporters' narcissism, too. He weighed in after the shooting in Uvalde. What is Lis Smiths secret sauce? From the second I met Pete, I knew that there was something special about him. She did, however, date a married. I am here to get you clips. There is only so much you can do to bare your soul over a beer, but hopefully people get to know you on some level and more than they would one gaggle at a time. It is 5:15 on a Monday evening. Political strategist Lis Smith isnt a married woman, though she may one day decide to tie the knot with a lucky somebody. When I met him was right after Trump won the election, and Democrats are running around with their hair on fire for good reason. I want people to know what its like behind the scenes. The one thing you saw on our campaign in 2020 is that everywhere we went, he was introduced by young leaders, young mayors. Smith: Im not going to say who. Your knowledge of the process? While the affair may have been fun while it lasted, the two reportedly split in 2015, it cost Smith her job. Spitzer, at the time, was attempting to regain his footing in politics after resigning from his position in 2008. I love him. So it was just sort of the perfect confluence of all these things where that yin and yang dynamic got us together. The actress who is the daughter of the late Lisa Marie Presley and musician Danny Keough met. Has Gone Even Farther Right Than I Expected': Three Writers Talk About the Midterms", "Lis Smith: Why Democrats Should Go on Fox News", "Opinion | How Joe Biden Can Defeat Trump From His Basement", "Opinion | This is not the time to change how we talk about abortion", "Know Your Spox: A Look At The Obama Campaign Staff", "Check out Lis Smith on TIME's 140 Best Twitter Feeds List", "Eliot Spitzer has friends in low places, throws book party for girlfriend's former beau", "Spitzer gal pal Lis Smith, de Blasio split", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lis_Smith&oldid=1141070660, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 23 February 2023, at 05:39. We are humble and kind, to quote Tim McGraw. But more broadly, they are diagnosing the ills of the party that paid their housing for years. He's on his way into a black car to do Maddow. 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. Smith: I think its been great. Whitney Whitis. Now more than ever, people are seeing politics touch everything in our lives. 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. Theres a public Terry and a private Terry. The final indignity, she said, is that de Blasios team team wanted the statement to say her departure was unrelated to her dating Spitzer. 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. Sign up for our newsletter. He was out there. Lis knew that she had to build wide to build up, said Stephanie Cutter, who also worked on Obamas 2012 effort. Before getting involved with Spitzer, Smith allegedly became romantic with Jeff Smith, who she reportedly met at Dartmouth while he was working as her professor. At that point, reporters she had developed relationships with began to reach out, wondering what she was doing wasting her credibility on a little-known character who seemed like a step down the ladder of political prospects. And so my advice would just be, get out there more, especially with Kamala, go out there more. Pete has no battle scars. Id made some faulty assumptions, but the first was that my loyalty to de Blasio or my competence at my job mattered. I think its just shaped up to be a perfect role for him. 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. That means that shes held to a different standard than sometimes other candidates. But is it undermining its own side? 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. Lis Smith (born October 15, 1982) is an American political strategist affiliated with the Democratic Party. [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. which Politico Magazine excerpted last week. Chuck Kennedy/PFA. 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. It was from Montego Bay that Smith and de Blasio announced she would not be joining his administration. Is it your relationship with reporters and cable bookers? 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. There are probably dozens of Mayor Petes out there across the country. | Elijah Nouvelage/REUTERS. And as you saw on Fox News Sunday, as I went to bed last night, [his clip] has 8 million views. Riley Keough's husband, Ben Smith-Petersen, revealed the couple welcomed a baby girl while he gave a speech on behalf of his wife during a memorial service for Lisa Marie Presley on Sunday By. Usually, it was all good-natured. That maybe once he double-dipped his fry at Barnabys? No. Smith is a fierce New York City-based Democratic operative who helped engineer the plan to get Buttigieg in front of not just national political reporters, but anybody with a camera or microphone. Does something like Buttigieg Derangement Syndrome exist? Why would a Pete Buttigieg hire me? I had gone through this awful breakup [with former New York Gov. I am a liberal Democrat, but I was so into the McCain thing. 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. Most people do have nerdy sides to them. AFP via Getty Images She dished about the former mayor's. Rather than going after Pete, Harris trained her fire on Biden.. 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. In a clip from her memoir shared by Fox News, Smith slammed de Blasio for leaving her out to dry after firing her over the affair. I want him on everything, she told me. I thought you had cancer or something. He motioned to the bartender again`Well take two shots of Jameson on top of that roundbefore turning back to me and clearing his throat. I should know: Last October, I had my own intimate, off-the-record encounter with Mayor Pete. 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. Neither Eliot nor I was gonna win a gold medal in the not reckless competition at the Olympics. POLITICO Weekend delivers gripping reads, smart analysis and a bit of high-minded fun. [39] Time and Politico included her on their lists of the best political Twitter feeds. But I understand that what I do isnt just a game. He knows the importance of building up our bench. She is the most competitive person I have ever known.. [44] She describes herself as an "oyster-tarian," which she defines as a vegetarian who will eat oysters. [31][32], Smith is also known for her commentary and analysis of United States politics. This is how we stop there from being a day three. 90 minutes with one of America's top political consultants. [40], Smith dated Missouri politician Jeff Smith after meeting him at Dartmouth and handled some of his publicity during his campaign. Smith said she learned a hard lesson: Even a professional cant try to manage a personal crisis without help. Smiths mother is a descendent of a signer of the Mayflower Compact, and a cousin of lead Watergate investigator Sam Ervin. People read about my personal life in Page Six, and they think Im going to be sort of an out-there type of person that is attention seeking and all of that. Letting Claire be Claire. Smith: We check in here and there. Mistakes Ive made in my professional life. (For the record, I can totally envision him sitting on the floor singing Kumbaya just not for me. People may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Lisa Smith (soldier) Lisa Smith (born c. 1981) is a former Irish soldier who converted to Islam and later travelled to Syria during the Syrian Civil War to join the militant group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) during the Syrian Civil War. Smith is 31; a Dartmouth graduate who apparently has a thing for bad boys. It wasnt just the biggest names, people you know, Smith says. Lis Smith is recording this call. . Lis Smith, a Democratic communications operative, has written a memoir that pulls back the curtain on how campaigns are won and lost. Now that they have achieved liftoff, as it were, Smith is preparing for the next part of the campaign. 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. Theyre just not looking in the right places. We needed to be the antidote to him. I have talked to all the guys who see in the shots. The guy didnt have time to say hello before Smith could hear screaming over the line. 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. These days, Smith seems to be heavily involved in promoting her new book. It wasnt an ideal situation, but it taught me a lot, Smith says. The attack we had been dreading was coming. Pete Buttigieg emerges as Democratic rock star proclaimed Business Insider during the race. The "Dame of Dish" passed away on Sunday. Each was the political id the candidate couldnt, or wouldnt, express. Hes someone who is very special to me, and I hope hes always a part of my life. (The rapid-response job, Smith says, was for her like being a pig in shit. (Todd Maisel/New York Daily News) "They're both consenting adults and can do what they want," said a former Spitzer. I fucking love John McCain. Theres just no one who can do a TV interview like Pete Buttigieg. Eliot Spitzer while working for incoming Mayor Bill de Blasio. 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. But the Post discovered where they were. [9][15] She later modeled a New Hampshire bus trip off of John McCain's Straight Talk Express during his 2000 presidential campaign in which reporters were invited on board to travel and question the candidate. 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. You never get in a fight with someone whos trying to promote a book. You deploy the F-bomb like Picasso used drypoint. The speed with which Buttegieg emerged has been astonishing, which happens to be the speed at which Smith works. His resignation came after it was discovered he had been involved with prostitutes. But it is kind of fascinating to watch., Smith met Buttigieg on the recommendation of Axelrod and former Maryland Governor Martin OMalley. Youve got this hard-nosed New York-style political operative and this friendly Hoosier mayor, he said. Lis Smith was supposed to become de Blasio's press secretary until The Post revealed that she was dating former Gov. Wren: I want a window into how you advise candidates amid a crisis. After 20 campaigns flacking for candidates such as Transportation Secretary and former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, former Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, former Virginia Gov. But I dont know whats inside him. Based on that experience, how should Democrats make gains in those kinds of states in 2022? Lets just blow it out. Both Miller and Smith come off as quasi-heros, semi-savants, pseudo-sociologists. 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). The private Terry is a lot more low-key, and lot more humble, a lot more thoughtful. Wren: Based on how you characterized the vice presidency, would you ever counsel the transportation secretary, regardless of what year it is, against taking the vice presidency? Cuomoresigned last August amid claims of sexual harassment and misconduct. How consequential was that looking back? Eight hundred have showed up. Smith: It made me want to be better at my job. Well, of course someone running for president would need to talk about it with me first, right? I think hes a really good person. Smith tells Politico:. 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. Wren: Could see a political career for him? [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. 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