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...
bipartisan both campaigns foolishly guy ice pork recall sell strong wrongly
In both cases, he did it with very strong bipartisan backing. But they wrongly and foolishly extrapolated from the recall and the Prop. 57-58 and 66 campaigns that this guy was a masterful campaigner who could sell ice to Eskimos and could sell pork pies in a synagogue.
basically bringing forward grandiose guy history melt schemes water
This guy has a history of bringing forward these grandiose schemes that basically melt into a puddle of water on the floor.
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.
active became tried
They became active detractors and tried to do him damage.
timing
The timing was not accidental. There's more to come.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
They feel he got rolled on the worker's comp agreement. They think he got rolled on the budget.
level
We know how much we're going to have to spend. This is a (spending) level we think we can sustain.
chances high resources
Chances are he doesn't have the resources to self-finance at a high level.