Meet Patty Murray’s Professional Mudslingers

By Nansen at May 17th, 2010.

Meet Paul Tewes.

Described in media reports as a low-key Midwesterner, Tewes is a former political director under Patty Murray at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

In the past few years he’s made the jump from field organizer to heavy-hitting political consultant. And he’s now got a posse of fellow-travelers who get hired to destroy Republicans. Back to that in a minute.

Washington State Connections

In 2000, Tewes was in Washington State, managing Maria Cantwell’s field efforts. In 2006, he was back again, this time as a general consultant to Cantwell’s re-election campaign. (Sidenote: no word on whether it was on Tewes’ sage advice that Cantwell not so tactfully bought off her anti-war opponent).

Tewes’ former firm, Hildebrand Tewes Consulting, Inc. also apparently did work for the Washington State Democrats (see: “Obama kids had Seattle schooling“).

Last April, Seattle news blog Publicola.net reported that Tewes’ “expensive shop” was brought in to do “oppo” on then Mayor Greg Nickels’ opponents.

So Tewes, in one way or another, has been quite enmeshed with Democratic power players in the state for some time.

But the client that many sources cite as launching Tewes into the “big leagues”? The Obama Campaign.

Hope & Change, inc (Iowa edition).

From his last campaign blog entry in February of 2007:

“…Respect, Empower, Include. … I hope that these three words – which are painted large in the entryway to our Des Moines office – serve as a constant reminder of how this campaign will be conducted in Iowa.

From the start, what drew me to this campaign was the fact that Barack wanted to bring a new kind of politics to America.”

New kind of politics. Uh-huh.

And it’s that same kind of “respect” that Tewes and his partners are now injecting into Washington State politics.

Murray’s Slime Merchants

According to reports from the Everett Herald and Politico, Tewes’ & his operatives are leading the dumpster diving against private-citizen Dino Rossi.

The hitman running point is Geoff Potter. His most recent campaign? Getting funny man Al Franken elected from the reaches of the DFL. Before that? Research Associate with Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

Now, it wouldn’t surprise me if Patty Murray & Co. handpicked Tewes & friends to head up the smear campaign against Rossi. Of course, it’s still unclear who’s signing these professional mudslingers paycheck. But to Murray, this is surely a job for professionals, not to be left alone to the likes of amateurish Dwight Pelz (at least not without adult supervision).

Given the operatives brought in to do the job, regardless of whose paying them, it wouldn’t be surprising if there was more breathless news about Murray’s potential Republican opponent to drop in the not too distant future. After all, the Jerry Cornfields of the world DO need something to write up on a daily basis.

What Goes Around Comes Around

There is a lesson here, however, for Murray. Her slime merchants can’t likely keep Dino Rossi out of this race if he thinks he can win.  And there’s a din of chatter that a decision by Rossi is imminent (perhaps as soon as this week).  Rossi the candidate isn’t likely to be as forgiving as Rossi the private citizen.  He’ll have a national platform to not just defend himself, but also return in kind.

And in this anti-incumbent environment, Murray and her allies’ smears aren’t anything close to a “new kind of politics.” They’re the same old attacks, by the same operatives, being done over and over again.

It ought, at least, to make for an interesting next couple of weeks.

Tags: Barack Obama, DNC, featured, Geoff Potter, Muckrakers, Muddy Shoes, New partners, Opposition Research, Patty Murray, Paul Tewes

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