RSS Feed MenuJeff Berkowitz may not be a name that many outside the Beltway are familiar with, but his departure as Research Director for the Republican National Committee is an immense loss for the GOP’s campaign apparatus going into the November elections.
Jeff Berkowitz plays chess while his opponents play checkers. I’ve had the pleasure of speaking with Jeff on a number of occasions, and he thinks with a surgeon’s complexity and accuracy – his depth of political knowledge is rare, even in a town like Washington, D.C.
Berkowitz has built up an enormous amount of goodwill over his time with the Bush administration, then with the Giuliani presidential campaign, and most recently the RNC. “It is a tremendous loss for the RNC to have Jeff Berkowitz leave, because he brings in an enormous amount of institutional memory as well as unparalleled strategic thinking into winning elections,” one political strategist told FrumForum.
Over the course of his time at the Republican National Committee, Berkowitz changed the research department into an office widely respected for its daily 7am research briefing, which was perhaps the best conveyance of what Republicans were thinking and doing and saying about the opposition.
During Berkowitz’s tenure, the RNC research department also formed its own twitter account to distribute its findings instantly; created its own rapid-response channel on YouTube; and regularly had their research briefings posted on Drudge or mentioned on cable news.
The RNC’s success in framing the President’s healthcare reform agenda was due in part to Berkowitz’s research department; some have pointed to the RNC’s work as being a major factor in why the President didn’t see a polling bump after passage of Obamacare.
Berkowitz’s departure was sudden and unexpected. On Friday morning he was delivering a lecture about candidate research at American University, and introduced himself as the Research Director for the RNC. That afternoon, Politico reports, he was dismissed.
When a staffer as talented as Berkowitz is let go, one has to wonder why. Jeff himself has been tremendously loyal to his former office – news of his departure didn’t make the press until two days later, an eternity in Politico’s Washington. Berkowitz also didn’t respond to FrumForum’s requests for comment.
But some of those who are familiar with the circumstances of Jeff Berkowitz’s departure suggest that he was let go because his first loyalty was to electoral success, and not primarily to the promotion of Chairman Steele’s personal image.
“It seemed that promoting Chairman Steele was the number one priority for the people who surround Chairman Steele. Jeff was probably let go because he wasn’t willing to put Chairman Steele above winning elections,” one senior official close to the RNC told FrumForum. “Jeff Berkowitz had a very high standard for everything that he did … to not recognize that success shows that [the RNC] was ungrateful for the work.”
The Republican National Committee declined to comment on the situation behind Berkowitz’s departure, except to tell FrumForum that “the Committee decided to go in a different direction.”
The Committee is currently experiencing a prolonged shakeup. Chief of Staff Ken Mackay left in early April, and Finance Director Rob Bickhart was booted earlier this month. Berkowitz’s deputy, research staffer Matt Moon, gave notice of his departure two weeks ago.
Jeff Berkowitz will not be replaced by a lightweight, but the fact remains that the Republican Party’s campaign apparatus has for now lost an incredibly capable, thoughtful and intelligent political operative, and GOP fortunes will suffer accordingly.
TerryF98 // May 25, 2010 at 7:36 am
Seems to me that Steele has managed to take a great opportunity and turned it into crap. Just how many resignations from the RNC have there been over the past 3 months, 10?
How many from the DNC, 0?
Steele seems to be a typical Republican, Incompetent at managing anything.
ottovbvs // May 25, 2010 at 8:16 am
…….More trouble in paradise?
mlindroo // May 25, 2010 at 9:50 am
Anyone old enough to remember what the state of the GOP was back in May 1994..?
Did they have porn club scandals, a controversial chairman, staff resignations, infighting, poor approval ratings etc. half a year before the Gingrich Revolution too?
It seems logical to assume the GOP will benefit immensely from record levels of unemployment and other problems with the national economy. Yet I can’t shake the feeling that the GOP’s miserable approval ratings (worse than those of Obama and the Democrats) and overall mismanagement will reduce the number of House, Senate seats won in November.
MARCU$
jquintana // May 25, 2010 at 10:05 am
Yep, the GOP is in real trouble. I predict further losses for them and continued solidification of Democratic One Party Rule.
thijsvn // May 25, 2010 at 10:11 am
“Yet I can’t shake the feeling that the GOP’s miserable approval ratings (worse than those of Obama and the Democrats) and overall mismanagement will reduce the number of House, Senate seats won in November. ”
Imagine that, unlikely as it is, if that’d happen, Democrats would still be suffering from incessant giggling during the 2012 elections. I’d still be laughing as well, because it’d be the best thing for the GOP in its current state.. which is so sad it’s gotten to the point of being funny.
Any bad result would be a good result at this point. It appears the only thing left to waken the GOP up.
catchison34 // May 25, 2010 at 10:52 am
I find it ironic that the Republican Party, presumably an organization which would support sound business practices, would so frequently fail to demonstrate such practices in its responsibilities. Party organizations, of course, are pretty autocratic so such summary dismissals are to be expected. What is more disconcerting is how this tendency extends to public executive offices. The most recent news item about the Minerals Management Service is an example of a failure to support and demand excellence in government service.
forkboy1965 // May 25, 2010 at 12:13 pm
@catchison34
You write “The most recent news item about the Minerals Management Service is an example of a failure to support and demand excellence in government service,” It seems difficult to imagine a political party so entrenched in the notion that government isn’t the solution, but the problem to worry about the efficacy and/or excellence of any government service.
If the Right spent half as much time trying to make government better as they do accusing it of being useless or worse, we might have a better federal government. Personally, I see no reason to put in charge that party when they appear hell-bent on destroying it.
mlindroo // May 25, 2010 at 1:13 pm
Well, thijsvn, the big prize is 2012 — not the mid-terms. It is quite possible that the GOP actually will do *better* in the long run if they come within a whisker of winning back the House and Senate this year, but still fall short. In that case Boehner and McConnell (in particular) would be able to block almost everything while the Democrats would remain the party in charge of government during a long and painful economic recession…
MARCU$
LFC // May 25, 2010 at 1:40 pm
Maybe Michael Steele is “Brownie-izing” the RNC so they too can do a heckuva’ job.
Bebe99 // May 25, 2010 at 3:03 pm
jquintana: While I much prefer the Dems in power ( at least since the Newt years), One Party Rule would be a prescription for disaster, no matter which party that might be. We need a viable two party system. But we also need both parties to be fairly moderate when they actually get to power. A lack of moderation will doom the Republican Party, which is already starting to tear at itself with Tea Party Candidates, suggestions of purity tests, and of course attacks on David Frum and those like him–the last remaining reasonable voices still calling themselves Republican. The pitfalls of turning your party over to the media will be an important political lesson for future generations.
ktward // May 25, 2010 at 3:24 pm
Meanwhile …
As the RNC continues to distract the media with all its circus drama, Rove and pals successfully strategize to continue to pull every important GOP string:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/;kw=3351,149864
Warning: image is NSFW, nor safe for holding down your lunch.
A tickle:
Rove and Gillespie, who effectively ran the Republican Party throughout the past decade, recognized that Steele’s weakness represented an opportunity to stage a quiet comeback. But taking control of the party, they knew, would require a new kind of political machine. The Supreme Court, in its recent decision in Citizens United v. the Federal Election Commission, opened the floodgates for unlimited political spending by corporations and individuals. But the court left in place strict limits on contributions to party committees – and it preserved the legal firewall that bars campaigns from coordinating directly with the outside groups now empowered to spend millions on their behalf.
That’s where Rove and Gillespie come in. As free-agent strategists, they are in a unique position to skirt such prohibitions and coordinate all parts of the GOP – both inside and outside the official party structure – because they’re not officially in charge of any of it. In the run-up to November, they will be the ones ensuring that the many tentacles of the court-sanctioned shadow party – from startups like American Crossroads to stalwarts like the National Rifle Association – operate in concert. “They will be making sure that everybody is expending themselves properly, as opposed to duplicating efforts or working at cross-purposes,” says Mary Matalin, who served with Rove in the Bush White House. “That’s something that the committees and the campaigns really don’t do – legally cannot do.”
forgetn // May 25, 2010 at 4:03 pm
Are you by now all getting the feeling that Steel is a DNC mole whose job is to destroy the RNC. They cannot fire the bastard ’cause he’s the GOP token black man! I don’t know but the fact that the DNC doesn’t say a word about Steel and the RNC is troubling… I smell a deep deep mole.
ktward // May 25, 2010 at 4:28 pm
… the fact that the DNC doesn’t say a word about Steel and the RNC is troubling
The DNC is too overcome with both giddiness and laughter to speak.
(Though I might point you to some altogether sharply vocal DNC thoughts on Steele and the RNC, but I’m sure you can work the google.)
Not everything is a conspiracy.
Some stuff is just real life that even the most imaginative among us could never foresee.