(Todd Maisel/New York Daily News) "They're both consenting adults and can do what they want," said a former Spitzer. 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. Political strategist Lis Smith reveals in her new book how The Post exposed that she was dating prostitution-loving former Gov. Our resort was more Leave It to Beaver than Debbie Does Dallas,' she claimed. 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. [10], In 2016, she was the spokesperson for Marisol Alcantara's successful New York State Senate campaign. What do I get if I pay for your consulting services? Politics is really personal to me. That was my philosophy. Smith is 31; a Dartmouth graduate who apparently has a thing for bad boys. You write: Here we go said Larry Grisolano, Petes media consultant, stating the obvious. 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. Martin OMalley, who got like 1 percent in the Iowa Caucuses. 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. 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. 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. I worked in states like South Dakota, Missouri, Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia. 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. What is this new phase of your career about? And if I can help you with my experience, my profile, my contacts, to do that, then I will do it. It takes the edge off a bit. I am a liberal Democrat, but I was so into the McCain thing. And when I began asking around to figure out who was behind that strategy, the same name kept coming up: Lis Smith. 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. [6] She became communications director for the Democratic Governors Association in 2011. She ran it like he was trying to be president, getting him in front of as many microphones as she could. 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. The scandal would serve as a distraction for both Smith and mayor-elect de Blasio but the political crisis communications guru thought she could ride out the storm. They lead with emotion. Ahead of the release of her highly anticipated political memoir (which Politico Magazine excerpted last week), that includes figuring out how to get her computer to record our phone interview ammo to use in the event that its needed to set the record straight. Smith: I think a lot of people get a very one-dimensional view of me. She was also communications director for Dan Seals' 2008 Illinois House race. Whats especially important to me, is, you know, making sure to take a lot of young women under my wing. She recalled tellingde Blasio chief of staff Phil Walzak over drinks that she and Spitzer were a couple. 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. The late Lisa Marie Presley is a grandmother. Lis Smith Wiki Bio: Age, Husband, Net Worth, Children, Education, Career, Family, LinkedIn. Most people do have nerdy sides to them. Her plan is to emulate maybe the best-known and most successful insurgent move of recent campaign history: John McCains 2000 Straight Talk Express. The first time people saw Pete, it was the same as the reaction I had when I first met him, which is where the hell has this guy been my entire life?. And its something that forever Ill be thankful to him for. The speed with which Buttegieg emerged has been astonishing, which happens to be the speed at which Smith works. Click here. And as you saw on Fox News Sunday, as I went to bed last night, [his clip] has 8 million views. Otherwise, I would kill myself. Which is to say that Buttigieg may know seven languages and carry around Ulysses and sit in with the South Bend Orchestra on piano, but as far as his top aide is concerned, it is only because he has an extra year on her. He was a once-in-a-generation talent, someone who perfectly met the moment. All Rights Reserved. After 20 campaigns flacking for candidates such as Transportation Secretary and former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, former Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill,. After news broke on the relationship, more photos were released, and Smith was eventually forced to come clean to fellow campaign members about the love match she had formed with Spitzer. . I should know: Last October, I had my own intimate, off-the-record encounter with Mayor Pete. | Scott Olson/Getty Images, Lis has an insurgent mentality, said Axelrod, a top aide for both of President Obamas campaigns. The Buttigiegs announced last month that they were engaged in the adoption process. I dont live and breathe politics every day. And if people like it they like it, and if they dont they were probably never going to vote for you anyway.. He was also married. I tell her that I have been calling around to former coworkers and associates, trying to get a sense of how she operates. In the car, wed go back and forth on random trivia, and pulling up things on Google. [20] She was a senior advisor on Corey Johnson's 2021 campaign for New York City Comptroller, and raised $3.5 million in funds for a PAC supporting Andrew Yang's 2021 mayoral campaign. [24], Smith authored the 2022 book Any Given Tuesday: A Political Love Story. Its a role that clearly lends itself to his skill set. She had an "itch," the political consultant writes in her. Smith: It made me want to be better at my job. Wren: Fair enough. When they gave me the job I thought, first of all this job exists? This story has been shared 127,012 times. It was a long shot. 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. 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. Smith: Im not going to touch that with a 10-foot pole. And although Smith would never say it, it plays on political reporters' narcissism, too. 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. Her father was a partner at the white-shoe law firm Sidley Austin. 20 2022, Published 11:56 a.m. [44] She describes herself as an "oyster-tarian," which she defines as a vegetarian who will eat oysters. This 35-Year-Old Mayor From Indiana Is Wowing National Democrats The New Republic declared. How has it turned out so far? [11][12] In 2018, Smith became spokeswoman for Andrew Cuomo's successful re-election campaign, who had endorsed the political entity. Andrew Cuomo's. | Lorenzo Bevilaqua/ABC via Getty Images. And yet you signed on anyway. With Bill de Blasio, that was a different situation. Spitzer leaves the apatment of Lis Smith at 5:44 a.m. on Dec. 19. [42] The relationship ended her role in de Blasio's mayoral campaign after tabloids published stories about it. Andrew Cuomo, had turned into a Nicorette-chomping ahole who ruined the lives of his staffers after letting national fame get to his head during the coronavirus pandemic. 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. The final indignity, she said, is that de Blasios team team wanted the statement to say her departure was unrelated to her dating Spitzer. She most recently worked as a senior advisor in communications to presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg. As someone who was a mayor who was on the ground, who knows how important this stuff is, hes a great messenger to send out there to these smaller media markets everywhere, where he can meet with the mayors, speak to them in their language, help make sure that theyre getting the resources they need. After winning the election, the candidate joined the Independent Democratic Conference (IDC), and Smith consulted briefly for the group. And you dont know who is actually going to attack you. He looked white as a ghost, didnt say anything, just nodding along. Smith ended up dropping most of her other clients, politicians and nonprofits alike. He was a once-in-a-generation talent, someone who perfectly met the moment. | Pete was completely different. David Freedlander writes about politics and culture. It might not get you the votes, but I am not the political director. ), Smith quipped. But is it undermining its own side? [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. 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.. That means that shes held to a different standard than sometimes other candidates. 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. [39] Time and Politico included her on their lists of the best political Twitter feeds. And I agree with him that you cant get sucked up in the game. William C. Lopez After leaving the eatery at around 12:30 a.m., Smith gave Spitzer a flirtatious look over her shoulder before the . You couldnt have pulled off that strategy with a Bill de Blasio. He hung up and looked at me in horror, and then my phone started ringing. He was an incredible leader at Louisiana State University someone that team could rally around, and such a maturity to him. She did, however, date a married. 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. One thing I find incredibly admirable about him is what you see is what you get. [8], In 2012, she became director of the rapid response team for Obama's 2012 presidential campaign. Based on that experience, how should Democrats make gains in those kinds of states in 2022? No. Just before he was sworn in, de Blasio yielded to Peysers prodding and cut Smith loose just before he moved into the mayors office. In 2001, she graduated Bronxville High School. Im joking. Politics has a bias toward the status quo, she says. In her book, Smith also called another client she worked for,ex-Gov. Lis Smith is a veteran of twenty political campaigns. Honesty is really, really important to handling a crisis because you have to have all the facts at your disposal. I romanticize it. And its really heartening because you realize the future of the Democratic Party is really bright, and that all we need to do is help lift these people up. Id worked for former [Former Maryland Gov.] Even in decline, AM radio matters more than you might think. The good candidates have humility. Mistakes that Ive made with media. Why? Both Miller and Smith come off as quasi-heros, semi-savants, pseudo-sociologists. 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