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In Nevada, Clinton’s campaign manager faces his biggest test - The Washington Post
> https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/clintons-campaign-manager-faces-his-biggest-test/2016/02/19/baca26e2-d4ba-11e5-b195-2e29a4e13425_story.html
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> In Nevada, Clinton’s campaign manager faces his biggest test
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> Just as they did in 2008, Nevada’s Democratic caucuses Saturday arrive at a critical time for Hillary Clinton, following her resounding defeat in New Hampshire . And once again, the state will be a testing ground for her campaign manager, Robby Mook, and the faith he has in his data-driven battle plan.
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> Eight years ago, it was Clinton’s humiliation in Iowa, not New Hampshire, that brought a gut-check moment to her struggling presidential campaign. The candidate and her husband huddled her high command at her Arlington, Va., headquarters to consider an urgent question: how hard to fight for Nevada?
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> Clinton’s defeat in Iowa had left the campaign unsure of its ability to win a caucus state against Barack Obama. There were good arguments that her time and dwindling resources might be better spent elsewhere.
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> Campaign 2016 Email Updates
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> Get the best analysis of the presidential race.
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> Campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe suggested, “Why don’t we just get Robby on the phone here?” Some in the room had never even met their man in Nevada, Robby Mook, then barely 29 years old.
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> “He got on that call and said: ‘Here’s what we’re going to do. Let me tell you the metrics, and here’s how we’re going to win this thing,’ ” McAuliffe recalled. “The future of the campaign was on his shoulders — you talk about pressure.”
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> Why Sanders might have an edge over Clinton with minority voters in Nevada
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> Play Video3:21
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> Once considered a firewall for Hillary Clinton, Nevada has sharply turned into a tight and unpredictable contest for the former secretary of state as Sen. Bernie Sanders steadily gains support from critical voting blocs. (Alice Li/The Washington Post)
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> Mook prevailed. Clinton carried the vote in Nevada, as her state director had promised she would, though Obama edged her out in delegates. Mook went on to run her winning operations in Ohio and Indiana.
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> Those victories were not enough to get the Democratic nomination, but Mook had earned his spurs in Clinton World. McAuliffe hired him to run his own successful campaign for governor of Virginia in 2013.
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> And when the former secretary of state decided to make another run at the White House, she tapped Mook as her manager for what they agreed would be a different kind of campaign, with a heavier emphasis on the kind of ground-level organizing that is Mook’s forte.
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> [How Sanders caught fire in Iowa and turned the Clinton coronation into a real race ]
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> Nevada, where Democrats will caucus Saturday, and South Carolina, which holds its Democratic primary Feb. 27, were until recently considered Clinton’s “firewall” against what is turning out to be a stiff nomination challenge from Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.).
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> Lately, Clinton’s campaign has been working feverishly to lower expectations for how well she will do in Nevada. If she loses despite her built-in advantages with the state’s labor unions and Latino voters, it will be another blow to what’s left of her aura of invincibility.
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> No drama, lots of praise
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> Even in this difficult stretch, Mook is winning praise, both inside the campaign and among Clinton’s vast circle of second-guessers, for the airtight and drama-free campaign he has built.
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> “He’s widely being viewed as the glue that is holding it together,” said one prominent Democrat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speculate about the state of the party front-runner’s campaign.
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> What glue cannot fix is the candidate herself and the fact that Clinton may be an ill fit for this angry, anti-establishment political moment.
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> “She has embraced a message of experience, but that by definition has her talking about herself and about the past,” said David Axelrod, who was Obama’s chief strategist in both of his presidential campaigns. Clinton, he added, needs to “bring down the rhapsodizing about all of her past achievements and find a way to frame it about the future.”
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> Aides and advisers to Clinton say they recognize the problem. As its next big personnel move, the campaign is expected to install a high-level communications adviser to travel with the candidate.
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> The culture of the Mook operation is a deliberate contrast from that of Clinton’s first presidential campaign.
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> In 2008, the campaign’s highly paid consultants stayed at Las Vegas’s lavish Bellagio hotel while Mook’s Nevada team was being outgunned on the ground by Obama’s campaign and scrounging to pay for office supplies.
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> Now, everyone lives under a tight budget; top campaign officials traveling to Iowa, for instance, were told to fly into Minneapolis or Moline, Ill., and drive, because the airline tickets were cheaper. Mook stays with supporters when he is on the road.
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> “I’ve certainly made it a priority on this campaign that we’re going to make investments where they matter,” Mook said in an interview the morning of the Iowa caucuses. “We’ve made big investments in people, in organizers, not only in hiring really good people but hiring them early enough that they could build really good relationships.”
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> Sanders got a later start, but he is catching up fast. In Nevada, he has spent twice as much as Clinton on television ads, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, and he has moved more than 100 paid staffers into the state.
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> [Democrats backing Clinton say she must sharpen her pitch to compete with Sanders ]
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> Clinton’s team had sensed something similar going on in Iowa. In early January, the cash-flush Sanders campaign quietly doubled its number of organizers on the ground.
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> Mook refused to alter his own plan. “He put together an approach in April, and that approach we didn’t deviate from,” said Michael Halle, who played a senior role in the Iowa operation. “Of course, there were people in Iowa who were anxious. We talked about it. We talked about a lot of options. But I think had we hired 100 more staffers, it would not have made a difference.” Clinton squeaked by with the narrowest of wins.
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> Mook insisted that he, for one, has not been surprised by Sanders’s strength with the restive Democratic base.
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> “I have always believed there was at least 40 percent, but probably closer to 45 percent, of the Democratic primary electorate that is going to be, at best, open to another candidate and, at worst, insistent on drifting over to another candidate,” he said. “I tried to make that clear to the senior staff repeatedly.”
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> And as a Vermonter himself, Mook said, he has a special appreciation for Sanders’s political talent, as well as the perils of underestimating him.
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> “I literally grew up watching Bernie Sanders. I was a political junkie at a very young age, and I saw him,” Mook said.
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> In fact, Mook was all of 10 years old when he began sizing up his future nemesis. “It was that one congressional race in particular in 1990, where people just thought it wasn’t going to be possible for him to do this — that he could become the lefty mayor of Burlington, but there’s no way he would ever get into Congress,” Mook recalled. “And lo and behold, he did it.”
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> Looking to March
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> Now, the Clinton campaign is settling in for trench warfare. In a memo released as the polls were closing in New Hampshire, Mook argued for the long view, saying the real payoff to the campaign’s strategy would come in March.
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> “It’s important to understand why the campaign is investing so much time, energy and resources in states with primaries and caucuses in March,” he wrote. “The reason is simple: while important, the first four states represent just 4% of the delegates needed to secure the nomination; the 28 states that vote (or caucus) in March will award 56% of the delegates needed to win.”
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> One of Mook’s biggest challenges is managing the jitters of Clinton’s enormous circle of friends and supporters — and insulating the campaign from their influence.
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> “In politics, when you have a bad stretch, and she’s having one, you get a lot of advice from your friends, and she’s got a lot of friends,” Axelrod said.
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> So does her campaign manager, who has built a following of young operatives so loyal that they are known as the Mook Mafia. Preparing his team for a long haul, Mook has worked to keep up their morale and their sense of perspective about the ups and downs of a presidential campaign.
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> He dispatched 150 staffers from the campaign’s Brooklyn headquarters to work in New Hampshire in the final days before the primary. When they returned after Clinton’s defeat there, it was to cheers from their colleagues and an office festooned with balloons and thank-you posters in their honor. Mook got up and spoke of how proud he was of their efforts.
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> That, too, was a gesture reminiscent of his early days in Nevada. At a 2007 training session for his Silver State organizers, Mook handed out carabiners, the coupling links used by rock climbers to keep them safe if they fall.
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> Brad Komar, now Clinton’s Colorado director, still keeps his on his key chain, “and I know dozens of folks from that training session who still have it on them.”
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> It was a reminder not to lose faith in what they had built together. Or as Mook told them that day: “We’ll always be here to catch you.”
Fwd: ABC/RM Emails
More re this
cdm
Begin forwarded message:
> From: Heather Samuelson
> Date: November 14, 2014 at 10:17:21 AM EST
> To: Cheryl Mills
> Subject: ABC/RM Emails
>
> http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/exclusive-read-secret-emails-men-run-hillary-clintons/story?id=26898758&singlePage=true
>
> EXCLUSIVE: Read the Secret Emails of the Men Who May Run Hillary Clinton's Campaign
> Nov 14, 2014, 6:01 AM ET
> By RICK KLEIN
> RICK KLEINMore From Rick »
> Political Director
> via WORLD NEWS
> Share
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> Share on email351 Comments
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> Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton campaigns for U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) during the "Women with Mary Geaux Vote" event at the Sugar Mill, Nov. 1, 2014 in New Orleans.Stacy Revere/Getty Images
> For the past five years, a prominent Democratic operative who is a leading contender to manage a Hillary Clinton presidential campaign has maintained a private email listserv for friends and associates that carries a provocative name: the “Mook Mafia.”
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> The listserv, which one member said reaches more than 150 fellow campaign veterans, has been a means for Robby Mook and a close friend Marlon Marshall to stay connected with many of the operatives who would likely populate a Democratic presidential campaign in 2016. Mook and Marshall have both been mentioned as possible Hillary Clinton campaign managers.
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> Emilys List/Flickr
> PHOTO: DCCC's Robby Mook speaks with members of Emily's List in this Oct. 25, 2010 file photo.
> Pete Souza/The White House/Flickr
> President Obama receives an update on the Affordable Care Act in the Oval Office, April 1, 2014. With the President, from left, are: Phil Schiliro, Tara McGuinness, Marlon Marshall, Jeanne Lambrew, DKristie Canegallo and Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett.
> Copies of a cache of the emails obtained by ABC News, and revealed publicly for the first time, show Mook and Marshall demonstrating an aggressive tone in rallying their friends behind political causes, in exchanges that are often self-mocking and sometimes border on being profane.
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> They include rallying cries to, in Mook’s words, “smite Republicans mafia-style,” and, to quote Marshall, “punish those voters.” Mook sometimes calls himself “Deacon” in the emails, while Marshall, now a senior White House aide, refers to himself as “Reverend” in many of the exchanges.
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> “This is even more exciting than walking through the back of the Bellagio.”
> Their inside jokes sometimes come at the expense of fellow Democrats, including former President Bill Clinton. A November 2009 mock news release announcing the listserv in addition to a new website and an upcoming reunion for the “Mook Mafia” included a fabricated quote from the former president.
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> “The Mafia has finally built a bridge to the 21st century,” Bill Clinton is jokingly quoted as having said in an email that appears to have been written by Marshall. “This is even more exciting than walking through the back of the Bellagio.”
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> The private emails were provided to ABC News by a Democrat on the listserv who has worked alongside Mook and Marshall on previous campaigns. The person who provided the emails is, like the vast majority of those on the listserv, supportive of Hillary Clinton, but does not support the idea of Mook or Marshall holding leadership roles in a second presidential bid. They were provided on the condition of anonymity.
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> That the emails are emerging publicly reflects the ferocious intra-battle to populate the top positions of an expected Clinton campaign.
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> Neither Mook nor Marshall responded to requests for comment. ABC News first reached out to both men Thursday morning, by email and phone.
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> "Crushing it mafia style."
> On one level, the listserv is a testament to the loyalty Mook, 34, has inspired over a decade in national politics. His resume includes stints on Howard Dean’s 2004 campaign, running a series of state efforts for Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential bid and managing Terry McAuliffe’s successful run for governor of Virginia last year.
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> Marshall is also a veteran of Clinton’s 2008 campaign. He joined Obama’s field operation after the primaries, and he then served in top positions for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, often working alongside Mook along the way. He is now a special assistant to the president and serves as principal deputy director of the White House Office of Public Engagement.
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> The exchanges provide a window into the clubby and pugnacious motivational styles of both Mook and Marshall, two stars of their party’s universe of field organizers and operatives.
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> The two most-recent messages to the group came just last week, on Election Day. They included a reference to a team reunion that would likely be held in New York early next year.
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> At least some recipients saw that reference as presuming that “Mook Mafia” members would be involved in running Clinton’s likely presidential candidacy. Clinton represented New York in the Senate and is said to be considering a campaign headquarters in Westchester County.
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> “TEAM! I was just at the DCCC last night for the GOTV [get-out-the-vote] rally, where we were in the middle of GOTV calisthenics when Nancy Pelosi walked in and said we looked like the Village People. Some things you can’t make up,” Mook wrote at 2:59 pm on Election Day.
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> Mook continued: “This has been a tough cycle -- midterms always are -- but what's been so amazing to me is how from the Senate to the House to Governor's races and beyond, we've been keeping the other side on defense. So many of you have played leadershp [sic] roles building field programs, managing campaigns, or running programs from allied groups. It's been incredibly insipiring [sic] to see.”
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> Marshall had written the group earlier that day from Florida, where he was working – apparently in a volunteer capacity because he still works for the White House -- to elect Charlie Crist as governor.
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> “I know many of you are out there on campaigns, crushing it mafia style,” Marshall wrote. “We unfortunately didn’t do a call this year, but Robby and I wanted to start a chain to acknowledge many in our great family who have been out there busting their tails for all that is right in the world.
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> “We also wanted you to know that this years [sic] reunion will actually be held early next year, January or February, and likely in New York for a weekend. Apologies for the late notice and for not sending anything out on a reunion. Please believe there will be one. The planning committee has just been a tad busy!”
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> The email was signed “MM,” with Marshall adding a hashtag: #mafia4life.
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> "F U Republicans."
> The existence of a “Mook Mafia” of friends and loyalists who extend through Mook’s previous campaign work has long been known. Scattered references to the informal group have appeared in favorable Mook profiles, and a Politico story last week referenced the possible New York reunion that was mentioned on the listserv.
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> The emails themselves, though, have not been seen publicly before. Much of the email traffic on the listserv appears to have been mundane: announcing job openings and new assignments, advertising or seeking rooms for rent in battleground states and organizing reunions in places including Las Vegas and Columbus, Ohio.
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> In the more substantive messages, though, Marshall emerges as the more aggressive of the duo. Writing in January 2010 to urge fellow “mafia” members to work hard on behalf of Massachusetts Senate candidate Martha Coakley, Marshall offered “an overall big thank you to everyone on this list who continues to fight the good fight.”
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> “F U Republicans. Mafia till I die,” he wrote. “If you have just a few minutes, hop on that activate and punish those voters!” (“Activate” is an apparent reference to a software program allowing volunteers to contact targeted voters by phone from anywhere in the country.)
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> "The Mafia never separates."
> The following year, in confirming news that he would be taking a new job that would include a move to Chicago, Marshall offered special thanks to Mook.
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> “First, the mafia never separates, it just continues to grow and expand and move into other states in order to destroy Republicans,” he wrote. “A special thanks to none other than the namesake himself, Deacon Robby Mook. Without him, there would be no mafia and I for sure know I would not have learned as much as I have in this business and have this opportunity.”
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> Mook responded by announcing “mandatory” attendance at a goodbye party for Marshall at a Capitol Hill bar.
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> “It's true: Marlon Marshall is leaving our fold. Today is the day the grownassman [sic] grows up and leaves for America's Second City. I know this prodical [sic] son will return to the mafia manger soon enough to smite Republicans mafia-style,” Mook wrote.
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> “If you can't be here in person, join me in spirit by sending your words of love and encouragement to the Most High Grown Ass Reverend Marlon D as he embarks on his pilgrimage. Please believe and obey the beard.”
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> Both Mook and Marshall have been discussed as potential Clinton campaign managers, should she run for president. Another top contender, Guy Cecil, may have seen his chances damaged by last week’s Republican rout because Cecil was running the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee for this election cycle.
Now, they are the ones making the claims of mafia ties and that mook is mafia. I have no reason to doubt that. Hence, Terry McAuliffe's ties to the mob. Not the Italian mafia like most people like to think, but still a brutish gang of gangsters none the less.
