From today’s Richmond Times-Dispatch:
Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore announced a team of veteran Republican political strategists yesterday as he took a step closer to his actual run for governor.
[…]
Scott Howell, president of Dallas-based Scott Howell & Co., will be the media strategist. His most recent winning clients include Sen.-elect John Thune of South Dakota, Sen.-elect Jim DeMint of South Carolina and Sens. Norm Coleman of Minnesota, Saxby Chambliss of Georgia and Jim Talent of Missouri. He was a member of the Bush-Cheney re-election media team.
Scott Howell, media strategist for Saxy Chambliss’ campaign. Ring a bell?
Cleland defeated by conservative
11/6/2002
By Andrea Stone, USA TodayFew believed Republican Saxby Chambliss could paint Sen. Max Cleland, a veteran who lost both legs and an arm in Vietnam, as soft on national security. But that’s just what the conservative congressman did to score a surprising victory over the one-term Democrat. […] Chambliss even ran a TV ad picturing Cleland with Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden.
Howell is a media hit-man. Kilgore has hired the lowest of the low, demonstrating his willingness to lie and cheat, if that’s what necessary to win. Working with Howell is shameful.
That said, it’s the state of things. Tim Kaine’s campaign had best have some bad-ass staff — some seriously creative people with wide-ranging experience, ready to strike back at a moment’s notice, and not take any guff from Kilgore. If I worked on Kaine’s campaign, I’d go pre-emptive. Don’t wait for the Howell-backed hate-based campaigning — adopt the Bush Doctrine and start dropping metaphorical daisy-cutters. Or play nice and lose.