Posted by Nicholas Stix
I thank reader-researcher "W," who sent this along, with the following observation and question:
Kinda 'old news' by now….And who are these 'conservative' leaders?
The publicist promoting this Open Borders Orgy, Liz Mair, is recycling the identical talking points used by her old buddy, Soren Dayton, of Prism Public Affairs.
Mair calls herself a "conservative new media specialist," and is youthful, tall, lean, and, in some incarnations, quite comely. She is also as pc as the day is long, and a former RNC flack (see her 2011 press release below), as well as a "former corporate lawyer." She works with various leftwing groups infiltrating the GOP (homosexuals, Hispanics, etc.) which she claims, like her, are "conservative."
Mair has an impeccable educational background (England and Paris), and lived in England for 10 years, but apparently, rather than that making her more patriotic, it turned her into an internationalist member of the anti-American, Bohemian Bourgeoisie (aka "Stuff White People Like") made famous by New York Times "bobo" David Brooks. Aside from her ability to write in clear, literate English, none of her education shows up in her writing. In her public utterances, she uses her knowledge in knowing what not to talk about. She is a woman without characteristics.
I have long wondered who the consultants were, who were behind the destruction of the Republican Party. Well, Liz Mair is one of them. In citing her track record of crushing defeats, she brags of having been a consultant to Carly Fiorina and John McCain, in campaigns in which both vichycons were routed. Mair has apparently never helped a Republican candidate so much as win an election for dog catcher.
Mair has failed upwards, to where she was a VP at Hynes Communications (remember that name!). She now has her own shop.
[Press Release:]
| Conservative Leaders Explore Anti-Immigrant Network and Its Nativist Roots [Earlier sender:] They're going to call everyone racist "nativists" tomorrow morning.
Wanted to be sure you had received the below. Please RSVP to Katy Green on the number below if you plan to call in. For Immediate Release: Contact: Katy Green **** PRESS CALL **** Washington, DC –As the momentum behind immigration reform continues to build and strengthen, an anti-immigrant opposition is working to scuttle and kill immigration efforts in Congress. Many of these groups are deeply associated with John Tanton, the father of the modern anti-immigrant movement, and his network of nativist groups, including the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), NumbersUSA, and the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). Over the years, Tanton's network has extended its reach beyond these groups and to some of the most vocal opponents of immigration reform in Congress. On a press call tomorrow at 11am EST, conservative leaders will dive deep into the inner-workings of John Tanton's network—including its influence on legislators, its ties to radical population control activists, and its opposition to all immigration (including legal immigration)--and discuss the potential implications of the Tanton network and its involvement in the current immigration debate. See below for more call details. WHAT: Conservative Leaders Explore Anti-Immigrant Network and Its Nativist Roots WHEN: Tomorrow, June 11h at 11am EST WHO: Mario Lopez, President, Hispanic Leadership Fund Additional speakers to be announced. DIAL-IN INFO: 877-888-4319; Passcode: TANTON ### Liz Mair, President Mair Strategies LLC Email: liz@mairstrategies.com Tel.: (571) 334-8720 Twitter: @LizMair |
Former RNC Online Comm Director Teams Up With GOProud
Posted by Chris Geidner
January 25, 2011 12:40 PM|Permalink
She's no Andrew Breitbart -- a good thing to some -- but Liz Mair is the former online communications director at the Republican National Committee and the newest advisory board member of GOProud.
In the news release from GOProud, Mair said:
"As someone who has supported GOProud's mission from the beginning, I'm very excited to be joining its Advisory Council. GOProud does an amazing job advocating for limited government, free market economic principles, and a robust foreign policy -- all items of significant interest to gay conservatives, their allies, conservative activists more generally, and countless other Americans across the country.
I look forward to helping GOProud in that mission and in breaking down the myth that one party and one ideology should have a monopoly on political support from gay Americans."
Mair worked at the RNC during the 2008 elections and advised Carly Fiorina in her failed bid to unseat Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) in 2010. GOProud had endorsed Fiorina, one of only two Senate endorsements made by the group. (The other was Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.).)
For a former RNC staffer to be joining up to advance the efforts of GOProud now is just one more sign of the changing dynamics in the Republican Party -- and the country.
Read the full GOProud newsrelease below the jump.
* * *
New Media Specialist Liz Mair to Join GOProud's Advisory Council
Christopher R. Barron, Chairman of the GOProud Board – "GOProud believes strongly in the power of new media and Liz Mair is one of the brightest young stars in the conservative new media world."
(Washington, D.C.) – Today, GOProud, the only national organization of gay conservatives and their allies, announced that conservative new media specialist Liz Mair will join the organization's Advisory Council. "GOProud believes strongly in the power of new media and Liz Mair is one of the brightest young stars in the conservative new media world," said Christopher Barron, Chairman of GOProud's Board. "We are thrilled to have Liz join the GOProud leadership team."
"As someone who has supported GOProud's mission from the beginning, I'm very excited to be joining its Advisory Council. GOProud does an amazing job advocating for limited government, free market economic principles, and a robust foreign policy -- all items of significant interest to gay conservatives, their allies, conservative activists more generally, and countless other Americans across the country," said Mair. "I look forward to helping GOProud in that mission and in breaking down the myth that one party and one ideology should have a monopoly on political support from gay Americans."
Mair joins Margaret Hoover, Grover Norquist, Andrew Breitbart and Tammy Bruce on the GOProud Advisory Council.
Liz Mair is an online communications expert, new media adviser, political consultant and blogger. She serves as Vice President for Hynes Communications, where she advises various corporate and trade association clients on new media, communications and political strategy.
During the 2010 cycle, Liz advised former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina on online communications elements of her campaign for U.S. Senate. Previously, throughout 2008, Liz served as Online Communications Director at the Republican National Committee, where she led an aggressive and groundbreaking online media outreach effort aimed at electing John McCain, Sarah Palin and Republicans across the country.
Liz is also a sought after guest speaker, having presented on a diversity of new media topics at conferences including CPAC, BlogHer, Web 2.0, the AMPSummit, and the Personal Democracy Forum and Personal Democracy Forum Europe. She is a regular commentator on CNN and MSNBC and has also guest-commentated for the BBC, C-SPAN, FOX, NPR, the Lars Larson show and countless other radio shows across the country and around the world. Her writing has been published by numerous national, international and regional publications including CNN.com, Politico, the Seattle P-I, the New York Sun and the American Spectator.
Born and raised in Seattle, Liz lived in the United Kingdom for ten years. There, she earned an MA in International Relations from the University of St. Andrews and attended law school, ultimately practicing corporate law in the City of London for three years. Liz also holds a certificate in Political and Social Sciences from the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris. She lives in Arlington, Virginia with her husband.
"Liz is a rising star in the conservative movement and GOProud is incredibly excited to have her as part of our team," concluded Barron.
[The following Daily Caller guest column from two years ago bares Mair's soul, or lack thereof. In discussing the GOP presidential field, she studiously ignores those candidates whom the party base found the most inspiring: Ron Paul and Michele Bachman, instead discussing at tedious length sure losers like Tim Pawlenty and Jon Huntsman. The most important issues to Mair were the safe ones of fundraising and spending. She completely ignored the base's concerns regarding race and ethnicity—affirmative action and immigration—which a nominee who wanted to win would have emphasized, and thereby rallied the base. If you want to lose an election, Liz Mair is the gal to call!]
The identity of the GOP nominee matters
Posted By Liz Mair On 2:01 PM 06/23/2011 In Opinion | 8 Comments
The Daily Caller
Among many political commentators, the meme du jour regarding the 2012 presidential race is that President Obama's real opponent is the economy; who Republicans nominate is of limited importance.
On its face, this characterization makes sense. As Dan Balz and Haynes Johnson note in their book about the 2008 election, as early as spring 2007, focus groups were turning out results that showed deep pessimism about the country's direction, with economic worries overshadowing all else. That was a setup that inherently put Sen. John McCain in a bind, as the candidate wearing the same partisan label as the incumbent overseeing what many voters saw as a period of deep national decline. When the financial crisis hit, the deal was sealed: McCain was, you might say, destined to lose.
But what if McCain had faced a different opponent, one less associated with the dual concepts of "hope" and "change," one less capable of raising money, one lacking a platform like MyBarackObama that gave Obama an online and offline boost? The election likely would have been closer. What if Republicans had nominated a candidate other than McCain, arguably at the time the Republican with the strongest appeal to Independent and Democratic voters? Obama would have had an even greater edge.
The reality is, in politics, myriad factors affect the outcome of races, and the identity of the candidates matters.
With the 2012 presidential race now underway, and the Republican field largely set, Obama has two major, related liabilities: The economy and the general sense of the direction of the country. He also has a number of assets: Americans like him (if not his policies); recent polling shows him scoring better on foreign policy and national security matters than on the economy; he is likely to have a very large campaign war-chest; the RNC remains in financially dire straits, and Democratic-aligned third-party groups will play in the 2012 race just as Republican-aligned groups will. Obama will do a better job than most, perhaps all, Republican candidates in leveraging technology to boost his campaign. Perhaps most importantly, he is the incumbent. To what extent any of these factors proves overwhelming, or irrelevant, depends not just on the unemployment rate, but also greatly on whom Republicans nominate.
Like Obama, each Republican contender has assets and liabilities that they will bring to the table, and which will significantly affect the outcome of the race. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, currently the man to beat, looks likely to end the current financing quarter with plenty of cash in the bank. Last month, he locked down $10 million in a single, day-long fundraising push. Earlier this year, Republican insiders indicated Romney already had the backing of about one-third of the party's big donors. The more it looks like Sarah Palin will enter the race, the more big donors will flock to Romney. In a race against a president who, news reports indicate, plans to raise and spend as much as $1 billion, money will matter — and Romney appears likely to have a lot of it.
That's a big help, but of course, Romney has his liabilities, too. While his record in business will prove inherently attractive to some voters, should he win the nomination, it will be the subject of hard-hitting attacks ads with which Democrats can be expected to blanket airwaves, especially in the Midwest. That's a strategy that could prove highly effective, particularly if Romney is forced to spend more time and energy on states that traditionally go Republican because of skepticism over his ideological commitment, religion, or both (no matter how unfair concern about the latter of those is). Significant segments of the Republican base dislike Romneycare, his health care plan that formed the basis for Obamacare, which remains controversial and unpopular among voters in his own party. Romney also can strike observers as plastic, robotic, and inauthentic. More Piers Morgan-esque interviews may diminish that, but for the time being, it should not be discounted.
Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty frequently is charged with being uncharismatic, boring, and in the aftermath of the most recent Republican debate, shy about throwing punches. However, one of those liabilities could in fact prove an asset: Obama continues to strike some as a lavish-spending, fiscally irresponsible celebrity-esque president at a time when voters might prefer the less-exciting, responsible, trustworthy, relatable guy from next door. Pawlenty also has a clearly positive outlook and is capable of making Americans feel good, much like candidate Obama from 2008 — coincidentally, the Obama Americans would probably like to see more of, but who may or may not make routine appearances over the next year-plus.
Pawlenty also has a record, particularly on health care and spending, that presents a clearer contrast with Obama's than other Republicans — and Minnesota's population is among the better-off, healthiest and most educated in the U.S. If health care remains a high-profile issue, he could benefit (the same is true to a degree with spending). If it does not, he could suffer. His campaign is also generally regarded as more tech-savvy, potentially enabling him to better match Obama on that front. Currently, however, Pawlenty lacks Romney's fundraising base. He will need to bring in quite a bit more money to match Obama should he win the nomination.
Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman has, since before his appointment as ambassador to China, been the prospective contender the Obama camp has reportedly been most worried about, with campaign manager David Plouffe saying in 2009 that Huntsman makes him "a wee bit queasy." Of course, some parts of the Republican base might take a similar view, unnerved by Huntsman's more moderate profile and quick transition from ambassador to China to Obama opponent, which might diminish enthusiasm for phone-banking, door-knocking, and other essential volunteer activity in some quarters should he win the nomination.
Huntsman also has a record in business, which is potentially exploitable in view of voter angst about unemployment numbers. Huntsman's business connections could enable him to finance a tough, expensive campaign (which he does not plan to pay for out of his own wealth) and bolster arguments that he knows how to create jobs. As a Republican nominee, the Utahan might run a more attention-grabbing, earned-media dominating campaign than other Republicans or indeed Obama (see ads created by Huntsman adviser Fred Davis), which could minimize the impact of advantages Obama might otherwise have. Huntsman has also done smart things from a new media standpoint, and that will help. In the event that a major national security event occurs in the run-up to November 2012, and if Obama missteps or voters' priorities shift, Huntsman could clean up. Bill Clinton benefited when the 1992 election became focused on "the economy, stupid" and George H. W. Bush's leadership in the context of the Gulf War was disregarded as yesterday's news. In 2012, that scenario could occur in reverse.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry, the (current) non-contender around whom attention swirls, could, if he runs, be Obama's toughest opponent or his easiest of these four, depending on what circumstances prevail. Some Democratic insiders see him as the real-life equivalent of the West Wing's Gov. Robert Ritchie, depicted in the show as a conservative, ideological, dim-bulb Southerner. Others say Perry is just too similar in terms of his appearance and demeanor to George W. Bush to pass muster with voters quite yet.
But Perry could be a real threat to Obama in an election about jobs. Texas currently boasts an unemployment rate of 8 percent, more than a percentage point lower than the national rate. According to the Wall Street Journal, Texas accounts for 45 percent of net U.S. job creation in the "post-recovery" period, using non-farm payroll employment numbers. As several conservative bloggers and commentators have been quick to quip, like Obama, Perry too inherited an economy from George W. Bush — it's just that Texas's looks very successful compared to what we see nationwide.
A Perry campaign would have the money it needs to ensure voters understand which candidate knows how to create jobs, no matter what else is happening in Republican-land. Arguably more than any other candidacy, a Perry run would diminish Obama's ability to claim credit for anything that even remotely appears to be going right. And say what you will about Perry's superficial conformity with stereotypes often associated with Republicans, unlike most politicians, Perry does not come off as putting on an act.
A lot can change in a year-and-a-bit, and yes, factors like the state of the economy will be important in deciding the outcome of the 2012 race. But they will not be the sole determiner; who Republicans nominate still matters greatly.
Liz Mair is a political consultant focusing on communications and new media. During 2008, she served as the Republican National Committee's Online Communications Director. Her clients include several Fortune 500 companies and major trade associations; she previously consulted for California Senate candidate Carly Fiorina and Gov. Tim Pawlenty's Freedom First PAC.
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