Last in series of profiles of independent expenditure committee directors.
The Rothenberg Political Report
As director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committees independent expenditure effort Brian Smoot will oversee tens of millions in spending without coordination with DSCC staff in the middle of a deteriorating national environment for his party. Democratic operative Smoot has been in tough spots before but preserving the Democratic majority in the Senate this fall tops the list.
A tough cycle doesnt scare me" Smoot said with a smile on his face sitting in the Chinatown offices of his firm 4C Partners.
A friend gave him the framed black-and-white Willie Stark for Governor poster that hangs on the wall behind him. A dartboard hangs on another wall.
I like a challenge" he said.
Its a good thing. While the Democratic target list includes a handful of opportunities in Republican-held seats the list of
Democratic vulnerabilities has grown to a dozen.
Brian Smoot is a guy who is fearless" according to Democratic consultant John Lapp who knows Smoot from their past work on House races. Hes gone into unwinnable races in Louisiana and Florida and won."
In 2002 Smoot moved to Louisiana to become finance director for Democratic state legislator Rodney Alexander who was running for Congress in a Republican open seat that George W. Bush had won by 17 points just two years earlier.
It was a big job for someone with a thin political rsum at the time.
974 Votes
Smoot was born and raised in Kingston N.Y. southeast of Woodstock the son of a recently retired Methodist minister.
He came to Washington D.C. for college earning his degree in international politics from American University before getting a job on Wall Street working in investor relations. It took him six months to realize this wasnt for me" and he started to look for ways to get back to the capital.
Smoot now 33 attended George Washington Universitys Graduate School of Political Management and interned for Tina Stoll at Campaign Finance Consultants. It didnt take long for him to put his graduate degree to the test in the competitive Louisiana race where he needed to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars.
He was persistent" Alexander recalled in a recent interview about Smoots fundraising efforts. He always had a routine and a list of names so that when we sat down to make calls he wasnt wasting your time. He was very good at that."
With Smoots help Alexander raised and spent more than $830000 in the race finished first in a six-way contest in November and defeated Republican Lee Fletcher by 974 votes in a December runoff. It was the second-closest race of the cycle and one of the few Democratic takeovers that year.
The victory earned Smoot a ticket back to Washington where he worked part time as the Congressmans deputy chief of staff and part time on the campaign side. From the first days in office Smoot emphasized the need to raise money and be prepared for the next race according to Alexander. But that next race would get complicated.
Smoot was promoted to chief of staff in early 2004. But in August Alexander shocked the political world in Louisiana and Washington by switching parties just minutes before the candidate filing deadline. Smoot and the rest of Alexanders staff parted ways with the new Republican Congressman.
The General
Out of a job in August of an election year Smoot finally landed in Pennsylvanias 8th district in the middle of a tense situation. He was sent to manage Democrat Ginny Shraders campaign but she was one of the first net-roots candidates who bridled at all things Washington and the liberal blogosphere vehemently disagreed with how the DCCC in Washington was handling the race.
In the end Schrader lost to Republican Mike Fitzpatrick 55 percent to 43 percent in the 2004 general election.
It didnt take long for Smoot to land in the middle of another tough race. In 2005 he signed on to manage state Sen. Ron Kleins (D) race against 13-term Rep. Clay Shaw (R) in Floridas 22nd district.
I had run many races in the past but never one this competitive" Klein remembered. Rahm Emanuel recommended Brian and after meeting him I offered him a job on the spot."
Brian was the general that executed the plan everything from fundraising to polling back to fundraising to field strategy and back to fundraising again" explained Klein who raised and spent $4.2 million compared with Shaws $5.2 million in one of the most expensive House races in the country.
The race was difficult because Shaw was a well-regarded Congressman. But the Klein campaign was relentless in tying the Republican to an increasingly unpopular President George W. Bush and Klein won by 4 points.
Brian has learned the art of message discipline" said Democratic direct-mail consultant Wooten Johnson who worked closely with Smoot on the campaign in Louisiana and preceded him as Alexanders chief of staff. Brian is hard-driven and hes a kick-ass type of guy to take it right to the gut of Republicans."
Founding 4C Partners
After working as Kleins chief of staff Smoot moved to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. He started as director of incumbent retention and campaign services and moved to become political director when Jon Vogel left the official DCCC staff and went to the other side of the wall to run the IE.
Democrats expanded their majority by another 21 seats in 2008 and Smoot and some of his DCCC colleagues formed their own consulting firm: 4C Partners. He was also briefly executive director of the National Redistricting Trust (which was formed to coordinate the Democrats legal strategy surrounding redistricting) before Senate Democrats came calling.
As political director at the DCCC in a very successful cycle hes got talent and acumen for challenging races" DSCC Executive Director J.B. Poersch said. Hes bright and talented and full of energy. Hell do a great job."
Smoots role must be bittersweet as he focuses his efforts this year on the Senate and away from dozens of Democratic incumbents in the House that he helped elect or re-elect.
Hes a heck of a multitasker which you need in that job" explained Lapp who ran the DCCCs IE in 2006 and is consulting with the DCCC IE this year.
The IE is slightly different on the Senate side. Instead of one operation Smoot will essentially compile teams of pollsters and media consultants in a dozen or so different states.
It aint always a wave election in your favor" said Smoot who is clearly aware of the difficult task at hand and knows hell need to rely on others for help. But hes always willing to learn. In this business if you pretend that you have all the answers youll be led astray."
