We met at the Roxy Hotel in Tribeca. [2][9] She later worked as the spokeswoman for Bill de Blasio's mayoral run in 2013. Smith ended up dropping most of her other clients, politicians and nonprofits alike. But I compartmentalized this knowledge like other things in my life. I think thats probably the biggest misconception about me. I think we saw that Kamalas attack on Biden was obviously was pretty pointed. The spinmeister hooked up with the still-married luv guv after working on his failed comeback bid to become city comptroller in 2013. 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. They just get swallowed up by the next news cycle, and never reach the voters who matter anyway. AFP via Getty Images She dished about the former mayor's. She recalled tellingde Blasio chief of staff Phil Walzak over drinks that she and Spitzer were a couple. I had that early rush of love on the brainI wasnt thinking clearly. But the Post discovered where they were. It wasnt just the biggest names, people you know, Smith says. Andrew Cuomo's. Everyone thought I was crazy. Smith: I think its been great. How could they claim my dating life had nothing to do with the decision when it was the sole reason I was leaving,? she said. And also keep in mind she was wasnt working on my campaign. . I want political people to read this book, because I think its fun. Did I think hed sit on the floor with me and sing Kumbaya and tell me it would be all okay? You never get in a fight with someone whos trying to promote a book. And someone needs to be. The great media disruption comes for the Des Moines Register. Lis Smith is recording this call. He wrote a paper praising Bernie Sanders at Harvard? Pete asked the bouncer what the scene was like inside, and the bouncer told him it was lit. The term was lost on him. After the fundraiser, Smith and Buttigieg climb into an SUV and head to 30 Rock. Youve got this hard-nosed New York-style political operative and this friendly Hoosier mayor, he said. [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. Theres a public Terry and a private Terry. And what Pete understood, and why I believed in him, was that to beat Trump, we didnt need to be him. I love him. Did I think I was going to walk into his office and tell him that I was dating Eliot Spitzer? Does something like Buttigieg Derangement Syndrome exist? | He weighed in after the Supreme Court decision. 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. These days, Smith seems to be heavily involved in promoting her new book. 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. Smith: So with John Edwards, I was a college student. 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. 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. The whole saga also taught her the rhythms of the New York tabloids, which have similarities to the national political press. They are doing things that are more directly relevant to peoples lives. When Smith opens her laptop, there are saved tabs about Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton, a YouTube video of a facial massage routine, kale recipes, a Time Out City Guide to Dubai and a 2012 Huffington Post article about how the Obama and Romney campaigns used Twitter. [1], Smith was born to lawyers Thomas, cousin of Senator Sam Ervin, and Adrienne Smith and was raised in Bronxville, New York, along with her twin brother Angus, and older siblings Ashley and Toby. 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 tell her that I have been calling around to former coworkers and associates, trying to get a sense of how she operates. 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. Wren: What is your relationship with Pete like now? Running for politics theres got to be a little element of narcissism or whatever you want to call it in you. Ourmost scandalous transgression was showing up three minutes late to the breakfastbuffet and sweet talking our way into cheese and jalapeo omelets.. | Elijah Nouvelage/REUTERS. It was total bullst. 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. [26][27][28] Philip Elliott of Time praised its transparency and wrote that it "may just rewrite the template for what a political memoir can be. A New York Post photographer had been surreptitiously posted outside my SoHo walkup apartment. Usually, it was all good-natured. When I was starting in politics, we didnt have women. What we did is fucking ridiculous. Shes on her phone talking to another Buttigieg aide. And that was our media strategy. Maybe Im done. The late Lisa Marie Presley is a grandmother. While her work history list might be lengthy, her dating track record isnt very long. He did. Tom Ford. She figured that Buttigiegs sexual orientation and impossible-to-pronounce last name rendered him dead on arrival, but started researching the 35-year-old Indiana mayor and promptly took an eight-hour fall down a Google rabbit hole. Pete was completely different. The attack we had been dreading was coming. The one thing you saw on our campaign in 2020 is that everywhere we went, he was introduced by young leaders, young mayors. From the second I met Pete, I knew that there was something special about him. [4] In 2006, she went to work on Claire McCaskill's Senate campaign in Missouri. Offers may be subject to change without notice. Spitzer, at the time, was attempting to regain his footing in politics after resigning from his position in 2008. Cuomoresigned last August amid claims of sexual harassment and misconduct. It was in 2013, the time when Smith was working for the de Blasio campaign, that she began dating Eliot Spitzer. Hes someone who is involved fighting childhood hunger. She is practically shaking with excess energy. Most people do have nerdy sides to them. 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. 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. Smith: We check in here and there. What makes him such a magnet for criticism on both the left and the right? Keep in mind she was 22 at the time, Smith said. James Devaney/Getty Images. People get stuck in a rut because something worked last cycle, and so they think it will work this cycle and it doesnt. [2][3] During her time at Dartmouth, she volunteered for John Edwards' 2004 presidential campaign. This is what day one looks like. She texts the buzziest bits to her sprawling network of journalistic contacts, who tweet them out. 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. 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. 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. No, actually, it shows a fundamental disrespect for the people who consume their news on this platform if you arent willing to go where they are.. She knew Axelrod from 2012, when she worked as director of rapid response for President Barack Obamas reelection effort. Wren: Fair enough. I lost the media war thatId thought I commanded, Smith said. Smith starts texting me, wanting to know if Id seen the celebrities in the audience, including George Takei, Kal Penn and Kate McKinnon. But more broadly, they are diagnosing the ills of the party that paid their housing for years. John Edwards comes to mind. I know youre asking it in good faith, but I am declining to answer it in good faith. I know of one person in particular who said you were making a catastrophic career mistake working for a total nobody. How did that manifest itself with Pete, the first candidate youve ever advised who was approximately the same age as you? I thought everybody knew that.. Thats a pretty ballsy thing to do. Some are even in the White House, like Deputy Press Secretary Chris Meagher, who briefed the press not too long ago. I am here to get you clips. 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. [21][22][23] In 2022, Smith became a communications adviser for Michigan State Senator Mallory McMorrow. `Jesus, you always keep it interesting.'. Lis Smith (born October 15, 1982) is an American political strategist affiliated with the Democratic Party. But another thing is that Im not someone whos just worked in New York. God, you fucked that up. This is how we stop there from being a day three. In that moment, in retrospect, it seems like Harris couldve ended Buttigiegs campaign. 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. 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. Smith: Im not going to touch that with a 10-foot pole. She has also directed communications and strategy for a number of other gubernatorial, mayoral and congressional campaigns. ET Political strategist Lis Smith isn't a married woman, though she may one day decide to tie the knot with a lucky somebody. 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. Smith plotted the rollout of Pete Buttigiegs longshot presidential campaign. Smith double majored in government and anthropology at Dartmouth College, graduating in 2005. Wren: Could see a political career for him? Like we saw with Hillary Clinton, women are sometimes held to a different standard. The Covid pandemic. Shes had some very forceful moments as vice president. How Trump Took the Shine Off Washingtons Glitziest NightBy John F. Harris and Daniel Lippman. And they all lack humility. I think now more than ever, people need to understand how the media works. Pete has no battle scars. Wren: Did you have a good handle before the campaign on Petes vulnerabilities? Honesty is really, really important to handling a crisis because you have to have all the facts at your disposal. So the Post is about to report that Im dating Eliot Spitzer. The two of us talked this week about Buttigiegs political future, whether Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow could jump into politics, and the ingredients of a good political candidate. (Todd Maisel/New York Daily News) "They're both consenting adults and can do what they want," said a former Spitzer. Let Pete be Pete. 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. Not long after that, at the presidential primary debate in Miami on June 27, you take us inside the greenroom backstage as you watched Pete get asked about this incredibly fraught moment. But I understand that what I do isnt just a game. 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 hung up and looked at me in horror, and then my phone started ringing. Yeah. | And if people like it they like it, and if they dont they were probably never going to vote for you anyway.. I romanticize it. 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. Obama had David Axelrod. The way Smith tells it, she thought she was done with presidential politics after OMalleys campaign fizzled in 2016. 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. 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? Letting Pete be Pete. I want people to know what its like behind the scenes. [9] Smith was credited with implementing a campaign strategy that emphasized one-on-one interactions between Buttigieg and the press which helped raise his profile from the mayor of the fourth-largest Indiana city to a top-tier presidential candidate. He was a once-in-a-generation talent, someone who perfectly met the moment. 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. Politics is literally a matter of life and death. 20 2022, Published 11:56 a.m. I think thats always been part of Joe Bidens appeal. 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. He knows the importance of building up our bench. 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. What else was the oppo they were dropping? Gripping reads, smart analysis and a bit of high-minded fun. 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