rudy, freddy, mitty -- be afraid, be very afraid
"Clinton's man in California a pro at digging up dirt
Carla Marinucci, Chronicle Political Writer
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has turned to Averell "Ace" Smith -- who earned his stripes as one of the nation's most feared political opposition researchers -- to steer her campaign in California.
Smith, 48, is genteel, soft-spoken and bespectacled -- but also is the epitome of a take-no-prisoners political operative who has built a reputation as a dogged researcher and, more recently, a winning California campaign manager, political allies and opponents agree.
"I've seen him walk into a room, and the opposition candidate will literally start mumbling," said former Democratic strategist Clint Reilly, who has run campaigns for U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein and former Democratic state Treasurer Kathleen Brown and has worked with Smith. "They're just totally terrified with his presence."
Smith, 48, surprised California political veterans by jumping from the role of top political researcher to the role of campaign manager during Antonio Villaraigosa's successful 2005 run for mayor of Los Angeles against then-incumbent James Hahn.
Villaraigosa credits Smith with making the "biggest difference" in the campaign's message in what became a landslide victory.
"He's single-minded in his focus, intensely disciplined and loyal," Villaraigosa said of Smith, who remains a trusted adviser. "He loves politics and thrives in the heat of battle ... (and) has an incredible intensity level. He comes to play the game, and he works from the first minute to the last."
Villaraigosa's victory was followed up by another for Smith when he oversaw Democrat Jerry Brown's successful campaign for state attorney general against Republican former state Sen. Chuck Poochigian in 2006.
"Ace is a huge addition and pickup for Hillary," says veteran Democratic strategist Chris Lehane, who has worked with Smith for years. "He's someone who knows how to win California, with a track record in different parts of the state, who understands the political fabric. ... If you're in a political campaign, you want Ace in the trenches with you."
Republicans, while acknowledging Smith's razor-sharp skills, also are critical of his tactics.
"He's extremely experienced, bright and aggressive ... but he's frequently over the top," said GOP strategist Kevin Spillane, the former spokesman for Poochigian's campaign. "Ace won't let the truth get in the way of his attacks, and he was always willing to say for Jerry that up is down and down is up."
Poochigian adviser Ken Khachigian, an attorney and an aide to former President Ronald Reagan, agrees. He lauds Smith as "very skilled," but adds, "Ace fits in with the boiler-room attack mentality of the Hillary crowd. The strategy there is rip your lungs out."
Although the race for a presidential nomination is almost certain to be brutal, Democrats said the hiring of Smith doesn't necessarily signal Clinton will be the one to attack.
"It's always good to have that arrow in your quiver," said Democratic strategist Roger Salazar, who also has worked with Smith. "Ace will use what he has to, if he needs it, and that's one thing the Clinton people see."
Being tapped by the New York senator marks another high-profile turn for the former head of San Francisco-based SCN Public Relations, a firm that developed a national reputation for assisting candidates with everything from debate prep and strategy to political opposition research, which can include digging up everything from a politician's unsavory financial or voting records to a false resume or two.
Smith's education in politics began at the knee of his father, former San Francisco District Attorney Arlo Smith. He eventually gravitated toward unearthing devastating political information because the task allowed him to work for campaigns but be at home with his family -- wife Laura Talmus, a community and political fundraiser, and children Abram and Lili, now 15 and 13.
He has amassed an astonishing array of experience, working closely with Democrats (including Garry South, former adviser to Gov. Gray Davis) and Republicans (including Arnold Schwarzenegger's chief political consultant, Mike Murphy) and in campaigns at all levels in 49 states. His widely varied stints include campaigns with Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, then political director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the mayoral races of Richard M. Daley in Chicago and Richard Riordan in Los Angeles and the Democratic presidential campaign of Howard Dean.
That's made him "the best op research guy in America on either side of the aisle. He digs under every rock," said South. But he's also "a 100 percent political junkie who has studied aspects of campaigns far beyond that. He's a terrific overall strategist."
As with any successful political opposition researcher, most of Smith's best work needs to arise anonymously with few -- other than his clients -- recognizing who found it.
Smith's arsenal of ammunition includes an encyclopedic memory of political trivia and facts and an ability to speed-read a 5-foot stack of daunting legal documents -- a talent that has come in handy for locating the mines that have blown up campaigns of opposing candidates.
"I never hire people with research backgrounds," Smith says. "I hire people who understand the significance of what they're seeing. You need to understand the big picture and how to frame the arguments that you want to make."
It was a bare-knuckled strategy that marked the race for Villaraigosa, a candidate whose first try at the mayor's office in Los Angeles was derailed by intensely personal attacks from Hahn that included a famous TV ad featuring a grainy image of Villaraigosa and a crack pipe.
Sean Clegg, a former SCN partner who is now Villaraigosa's deputy mayor for communications, said Smith was fearless about fighting back for his client in the rematch. He said he was skeptical when Smith unearthed "an obscure billing scandal in the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power" and predicted -- correctly, it turned out -- that it would have a corrosive effect on Hahn's support.
"He saw the power of that issue because Antonio ran a race centered on the issues of ethics and trust,'' Clegg said.
During Sen. Barbara Boxer's 1998 re-election campaign, Smith "knew that (Republican candidate) Matt Fong's $50,000 donation to the Traditional Values Coalition,'' a controversial evangelical and virulently anti-gay lobby organization run by the Rev. Louis Sheldon, "would ignite the closing days'' of the campaign, Clegg said.
In both cases, Smith showed "he's more than cloak-and-dagger,'' Clegg said. "He is great at distilling a race to set up a contrast that drives (up) your opponent's negatives and your candidate's positives at the same time -- and that's what good research is.''
Democratic strategist Dan Newman said that, as a campaign manager, Smith has a diverse bag of tricks -- particularly an instinct for what resonates with the voters.
"(Smith) has the brilliant ability to distinguish the things that actually matter,'' he said, "from the other distractions that too often consume a campaign's time, energy and resources."
Confidence -- a quality that apparently runs in the family -- doesn't hurt.
When Lili Smith, the campaign manager's teenage daughter, was introduced to the Democratic presidential front-runner this month at the state Democratic convention, the girl gave Clinton some advice.
"Don't worry," she assured the senator. "You're definitely going to win, because you're in good hands with my dad. He never loses at anything."
E-mail Carla Marinucci at cmarinucci@sfchronicle.com.
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