Garry South
Garry South
Garry South is a Democratic political strategist based in California and principal of The Garry South Group and California Strategies, LLC, a public affairs firm headquartered in Sacramento. He is best known for managing Democrat Gray Davis’ gubernatorial campaigns in both 1998 and 2002. In 1998, the California Democratic Party had not been successful in electing a Governor for 20 years and only 3 Democrats has won previously in the 20th century. In 2011, the journal Capitol Weekly designated South...
against antipathy easy exists fingers snap symbolic turn
They can't snap their fingers and do symbolic things and turn it all around. It ain't that easy -- particularly when you have the antipathy that now exists against him.
timing
The timing was not accidental. There's more to come.
director pick president press relations since vice
Why would you pick someone who was director of press relations for the most disliked, discredited vice president since Spiro Agnew?
decided heat protect taking worth
We just decided it wasn't worth taking the heat to try to protect donors.
accused against campaign fight knows phil replicate team wants willing
Phil better take notice. If he wants to try to replicate the Roberti campaign of 1994, he's up against a team that knows how to fight back. I've been accused of a lot of things, but not being willing to fight back isn't one of them.
campaign endorse expect groups lost nail phil roll running work
Phil is running a Walter Mondale campaign -- nail down the special-interest groups early, get all the big-name officeholders to endorse you and expect it will roll you into office. It didn't work for Mondale -- and he lost 49 states.
both democrats either handful starting virtually
Only a handful of Democrats know either one of the candidates. Both of them are starting virtually from scratch.
amount flows hard matter money proven reduce
It's just never been proven you can reduce the amount of money that flows into politics, no matter how hard you try.
active became tried
They became active detractors and tried to do him damage.
level
We know how much we're going to have to spend. This is a (spending) level we think we can sustain.
center depths falling few fingers high issues low naive notion propose pull snap spending
You do not come back from those depths just by making some shifts here and there and cherry-picking a few issues you think are popular. It just isn't that easy. The notion that you can just snap your fingers after falling from the high 60s to the low 30s, that you can give a speech, propose some infrastructure spending and say some things that you think pull you back to the center is naive in the extreme.
appeal arnold bunch campaign loaded state understand voters
That's why Arnold has loaded up his campaign with a bunch of Bush-Cheney operatives. They really understand how to appeal to voters in the bluest state in America.
They feel he got rolled on the worker's comp agreement. They think he got rolled on the budget.
buy desire expect later markets move point reach symbolic three voters
This is a substantial (advertising) buy. We're already at a point in these three markets where you would expect to be later in the campaign. This is not a symbolic buy -- but a desire to reach voters and move numbers.