For full disclosure, I was honored to be AFP’s Activist of the Year for New Media in 2011 while he was it’s NH Executive Director and Steve was selected as one of their Bloggers of the Month; take that for what you will. Anyways, I’ve known Corey for a few years now and while we haven’t agreed on every jot and tittle on policy and issues, I think this piece at Politico is a fair one with just a couple of “shots to the back” that are unwarranted. Hard working, always on the go, juggling multiple things at the same time; the one thing I can say is probably the best that can be said of a political operative, at least in my dealings with him: honest broker. I emailed him back a few weeks ago and told him, after I had heard he was going to be working for Trump to “hold on tight, this is going to be the wildest rocket ride you’ve ever had”.
So far, it seems, that prediction is coming true. And living up to #2! A couple of excerpts (reformatted, emphasis mine):
The man behind Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has a knack for spectacle, an eye toward making money and a proven willingness to defy the Republican Party. In other words, Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski is a lot like his new boss. Lewandowski, who has been advising Trump since January and managing his improbable — and, for many Republicans, headache-inducing — run to the top of the GOP primary field in national polls has spent the past decade and a half drifting away from the party establishment.
…In that time, Lewandowski cemented a reputation in New Hampshire political circles for getting things done, even if it means ruffling feathers. “He’s a good guy personally, [but] he’s a bomb thrower,” said one longtime New Hampshire Republican political operative. “Corey was a pretty aggressive guy on issues. He was a go-getter … and he was not afraid to air out an issue,” said Bruce Berke, a Granite State lobbyist and an adviser to the Republican primary field’s latest entrant, Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
…“He certainly wouldn’t be supporting Donald Trump if he didn’t believe in him,” said Jerry DeLemus, a Republican activist in New Hampshire best known for his support of rogue Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who officially became a Trump supporter over the weekend and called Lewandowski a “really decent man.”
Drawn to Ronald Reagan’s unabashed work-hard, get-rich version of the American dream, Lewandowski became an active Republican and moved to Washington after graduating. There, he worked on Capitol Hill while earning a master’s degree in political science at American University. Lewandowski worked briefly for the RNC in 2001, as the legislative political director for the Northeast, before leaving the establishment behind.
He spent five years as a lobbyist, starting at the New England Seafood Producers Association, before landing with the deep-pocketed Americans for Prosperity in 2008. AFP’s ability to outspend candidates in small, local races made it a factor in New Hampshire Republican primaries, and Lewandowski again became a thorn in the state party’s side.
Trust me – it needed that thorn and the ‘Grok has been that as well – trying to hold the Party to its own words and aspirations even as it oft acts contrary to them. They hate us for doing so. I guess it must be rather uncomfortable to have your own words used to club you with.
Most notably, in 2012, AFP backed computer-repair magnate Josh Youssef over a more moderate Republican in a state Senate primary, despite reports that Youssef owed $50,000 to the IRS and allegations that he was hiding assets to avoid making child-support payments to his ex-wife, because Youssef’s views aligned more closely with the group’s anti-tax, anti-regulation agenda.
You know the PARTY’S Platform? What a concept! Actually, to the Establishment, it must be quite a foreign concept given how often they just simply ignore it.
Days after Youssef won the primary with Lewandowski’s support, the Republican leadership publicly called on their nominee to answer for allegations that he violated campaign laws by misusing the identities of local Republicans to make it look like they supported his candidacy. Youssef lost in the general election, contributing to a narrowing of the Republican majority from 14 seats to two in the Senate and hard feelings in the party. “That’s a seat that Republicans should hold,” said Berke. Youssef is now a county chairman for Trump in New Hampshire.
Showing that if you aren’t part of the Old Boy/Establishment Network, the NH GOP is very willing to throw it’s #1 principle (just win, don’t care what happens afterwards, just win) and start its siren on: “Keeping The Others at bay!” and Josh was a textbook example of how it was done.
At AFP, Lewandowski also showed an ability to draw crowds to events and pull off attention-grabbing gimmicks. At the group’s Tax Day rally in 2010, he pulled a cardboard cutout of Democratic Gov. John Lynch onto the steps of the Capitol building in Concord and began debating it, to the crowd’s delight. In April 2014, AFP and Citizens United held a “Freedom Summit” in New Hampshire, the first Republican cattle call of the 2016 presidential cycle, where Trump and Lewandowski met. They kept in touch over the intervening months, and Trump evidently decided he had found a kindred spirit.
The operative, who did not want to speak negatively about a fellow Republican on the record, had another theory of Lewandowski’s and Trump’s decision to partner up: They both had few other options. “Any serious person in Washington could never work for [Trump], because it would just destroy your career and you’ll never be respected by anyone around here.”
Yeah, that last ‘graph? This is also a part of the “Stab in the back” politics that is especially unkind here in NH because it is such a small state. All of the political operatives and activists either know or know of everyone else. It’s also something that happens here a lot – political cowardice covered by intense jealousy. And the split between the Establishment and the Libery & Freedom wings of the Party – any time the Establishment can belittle the good fortune of hard work and hussle, well, there you go!
Since the two joined forces in January, Trump has taken care of the bombast, while Lewandowski has been executing on the logistics, which so far consists largely of getting Trump in front of cameras and crowds.
And if nothing else, Corey has always been good on the small details and making sure they are right.
Despite all the bridges burned, an ability to execute may save Lewandowski from political career exile should Trump’s campaign fizzle, as many Republican leaders say they expect it to, when the cameras and the crowds move on. Greg Moore, who replaced him as AFP’s New Hampshire director, said his old boss excels at the “blocking and tackling” of political agitation. “He always made sure the ‘i’s are dotted and ‘t’s are crossed,” said Moore. “I assure you the trains will run on time.”
Community organizing should never be an artifact and purview of the Left – we need folks like Corey. I count him as a friend. It’s just a bonus that he irritates all the right people for all the right reasons!
