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Mike DuHaime

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Mike DuHaime
Mike DuHaime.jpg
Basic facts
Organization:Mercury Public Affairs
Role:Partner
Location:New York, N.Y.
Affiliation:Republican
Education:Rutgers (B.A. political science and journalism, 1995)


Mike DuHaime is a Republican political strategist. He is a partner at the public and political strategy firm, Mercury Public Affairs.

  • DuHaime is a longtime strategist for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and served as the senior strategist for Christie's 2016 presidential campaign.
  • He previously worked as the political director for the Republican National Committee (RNC), where he was responsible for voter turnout in 2008 and for developing the state infrastructure for John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign.
  • DuHaime managed Rudy Giuliani's 2008 presidential bid and was a regional political director on George W. Bush's 2004 presidential campaign.

    • Career

    Early career

    Mike DuHaime's exposure to politics had preceded his college days. His mother, Anne DuHaime, was mayor of Bloomingdale, New Jersey, between 1993 and 1998.[1] His father, Richard DuHaime, was a four-term Passaic County freeholder, who, in 1996, ran for U.S. Senate, but lost in the primaries to Dick Zimmer.[2][3] He helped on his father's senate campaign along with Mark P. Campbell, Sen. Ted Cruz's political director for his 2016 presidential campaign. Shortly thereafter, Mike DuHaime joined Campbell Campaigns (then called Campbell & Pusateri), Campbell's political consulting firm.[4] In 1997, Anthony Bucco brought DuHaime on as his campaign manager for his New Jersey State Senate bid.[4]

    From 1998 onward, DuHaime began working on a series of campaigns. First, he worked on the Pennsylvania businessman Don Sherwood's successful state congressional race. This was followed in 2000 with the Senate campaign for Rep. Bob Franks (R-N.J.); DuHaime acted as Franks' deputy campaign manager. Franks lost the election by three points.[4]

    Republican Party staff roles

    In 2001, DuHaime founded his own political communications firm, DuHaime Communications. The following year, 2002, he was executive director of the Republican Party of New Jersey.[5]

    Then, in 2004, he was the Northeastern regional political director for George W. Bush's (R) presidential campaign.[6] The New York Times reported that for the reelection campaign, DuHaime "was involved in helping the party develop the sophisticated get-out-the-vote operation that has been a hallmark of [then-RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman's] tenure."[7]

    After Bush's re-election, DuHaime became the political director for the Republican National Committee (RNC) and remained there until 2007.[4][6]

    Presidential election, 2008

    Rudy Giuliani

    In 2006, Rudy Giuliani chose DuHaime as his campaign manager for his presidential campaign.[4][8] The Giuliani campaign's strategy initially involved forgoing the Iowa caucus. After spending some time campaigning in other early states like New Hampshire and South Carolina, the campaign moved on to Florida. DuHaime told National Review of the decision to move away from the early states before other candidates, saying:[9]

    “ We did spend a fair amount of resources in New Hampshire. We just looked and realized the inherent strength that John McCain, from 2000, had in New Hampshire and South Carolina and Michigan, and we were obviously looking at Governor Romney in New Hampshire and Michigan. And looking at those inherent strengths, and looking at the financial costs of running in all those states at the same time, we had to do what we thought was ultimately in the best interest of the candidate, that best fits the candidate.[10] ”

    The New York Daily News noted that this strategy was largely crafted by DuHaime. In December 2007, the paper reported, "Within the campaign, [DuHaime] is regarded as an early believer in the theory - still untested - that the pro-choice Giuliani can afford to do only moderately well in Iowa and New Hampshire, as long as he stages a big win Jan. 29 in Florida and slingshots into Feb. 5. Some 20 states will hold primaries that day."Cite error: Closing </ref> missing for <ref> tag

    RNC and John McCain

    After Giuliani dropped out of the race, DuHaime joined Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign as the political director, where he ran McCain's ground operations.[11] Technically, DuHaime worked for the RNC during this time, but his chief responsibilities were to the McCain campaign. Politico reported that, in addition to helping the McCain campaign with state infrastructure, DuHaime would work at the RNC to "guide the Victory effort, the voter contact and voter turnout operation run through the committee and the state parties that is meant to boost candidates up and down the ticket."[12]

    DuHaime's work with McCain was widely praised for his strategy for encouraging voters to the polls. A September 2008 report for the Newark Star-Ledger noted that DuHaime's responsibilities for the McCain campaign included overseeing "a $50 million operation comprising the political teams at both the McCain camp and the Republican National Committee - currently 500 people, spread among 176 offices." The paper also quoted Republican strategist Karl Rove as saying, "This guy has a lot of raw talent. He's just got great judgment. There are three or four things that were done that were critical to the (McCain) campaign. One of them was bringing on Mike ... and giving him direct operational responsibilities."[13]

    At the same time, The Atlantic noted that the RNC's Victory 2008 directors, who were responsible for get-out-the-vote efforts across the country, were mostly selected and mentored by DuHaime. The Atlantic described the directors: "Many of them are young -- very young -- are veterans of the Giuliani presidential campaign, and before that, veterans of the 2006 RNC field operation run by Mike DuHaime, formerly the Giuliani campaign manager, and, before that, RNC's political director in 2006 and a regional political director in 2004. These hires reflect Mr. DuHaime's stamp at the RNC. The Republican turnout effort will be, for the most part, Mr. DuHaime's turnout effort."[14]

    Chris Christie and NRSC advisor

    Following McCain's loss to Barack Obama (D), DuHaime began work, in 2009, as a senior advisor on Chris Christie's (R) gubernatorial campaign in New Jersey. Christie faced the incumbent, Jon Corzine (D), and won the election by less than four percent.[4][15] After Christie's victory, DuHaime went to work at the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), managing the independent expenditure division of the NRSC for the 2010 election cycle. At that time, NRSC Chairman John Cornyn described DuHaime as having "an enormous amount of campaign experience and political expertise, and he will serve as an invaluable resource directing this important component of the NRSC’s operation during the 2010 midterms."[16][15] At the same time, DuHaime joined Mercury Public Affairs, a political strategy firm, as a partner.[17]

    In 2011, DuHaime was the chairman of the Republican Delegation for New Jersey’s bipartisan Congressional Redistricting Commission. In 2012, he repeated his independent expenditure role with the NRSC during the 2012 election cycle.[15]

    For the 2013 election cycle, DuHaime re-joined Christie for his gubernatorial re-election campaign.[15] In February 2013, he commented to the Newark Star-Ledger that the key to Christie's campaign was getting voters to the polls. DuHaime said "In a state where there are so many more Democrats than Republicans, it is just imperative that we do a good job identifying who Gov. Christie’s supporters are and turning them out to the polls."[18] Christie won the election with 60 percent of the vote.[19] For his work on Christie's reelection, DuHaime was named the Republican campaign strategist of the year by the American Association of Political Consultants.[20]

    Mercury Public Affairs and Republican Governors Association

    According to his bio on the Mercury website, DuHaime served as a consultant for the Republican Governors Association in 2014, advising on the campaigns of Gov. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Gov. Rick Snyder (R-Mich.), Gov. Scott Walker (R-Wis.), Gov. Bruce Rauner (R-Ill.), Gov. Terry Branstad (R-Iowa), Gov. Charlie Baker (R-Mass.), Gov. Paul LePage (R-Maine), Gov. Nikki Haley (R-S.C.), Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R-Ark.) and Gov. Larry Hogan (R-Md.).[15]

    Chris Christie presidential campaign, 2016

    See also: Chris Christie presidential campaign, 2016

    In January 2015, Chris Christie launched a PAC, Leadership Matters for America, in advance of his 2016 presidential campaign. Mike DuHaime was appointed political advisor to the PAC.[21][22][23]

    On July 3, 2015, after Christie officially announced his presidential bid, DuHaime was named the campaign's senior strategist.[24] In an August 2015 interview with WNYC, DuHaime addressed Christie's early struggles to be noticed in a large Republican field of candidates. DuHaime said, "The more time people see him, and, quite frankly, the more time people see his opponents, the more they're going to gravitate toward him. You have a number of people in the race who haven't been tested the way he has, whether it's through a national crisis like Hurricane Sandy or even the exposure that you get being in the New York media market. I think at some point, as other candidates become serious, they're going to go through press scrutiny and they're going to have issues."[25] In January 2016, NJ Biz ranked DuHaime in its list of the 100 most powerful people in the state, citing his relationship to Christie as one reason for the ranking. One contributor noted, "DuHaime is a strategist who, in some ways, has taken lemons and turned them into lemonade the last couple months. He's a brilliant strategist."[26]

    Campaign suspension

    After placing sixth in the New Hampshire primary with seven percent of the vote, Christie suspended his presidential campaign on February 10, 2016.[27]

    After Christie suspended his campaign, he went on to endorse Donald Trump. The Los Angeles Times reported that DuHaime was not likely to also endorse Trump. The paper wrote, "According to people with knowledge of the conversations, two of his longest-serving advisors, Maria Comella and Mike DuHaime, were skeptical or disagreed with his decision."[28]

    Comments on Donald Trump

    According to a June 2016 article by The Associated Press, DuHaime declined to work for the then-presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump. The article reported that DuHaime "rejected direct and indirect inquiries to sign on with the billionaire."[29]

    See also

    External links

    Footnotes

    1. ↑ North Jersey, "Former Bloomingdale mayor recognized by county and borough," April 19, 2012
    2. ↑ New York Times, "Who Needs June 4? These Candidates Do," May 19, 1996
    3. ↑ New York Times, "U.S. Senate Race in New Jersey Narrows to Zimmer and Torricelli," June 5, 1996
    4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 Roll Call, "Jersey Native Looks to Shore up GOP Senate Majority," August 3, 2010
    5. ↑ George Washington University, "Key People-Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R-NY)," March 2, 2009
    6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Roll Call, "DuHaime Tapped to Run NRSC IE Effort," May 11, 2010
    7. ↑ The New York Times, "Giuliani Picks Key G.O.P Figure for 2008," December 13, 2006
    8. ↑ NPR, "Behind the Giuliani Campaign," August 3, 2007
    9. ↑ CBS News, "Giuliani's Flawed Florida Strategy," January 25, 2008
    10. ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
    11. ↑ Time, "Can McCain Map Out a Comeback Strategy?" October 6, 2008
    12. ↑ Politico, "DuHaime to help lead RNC Victory effort," March 7, 2008
    13. ↑ Newark Star-Ledger, "Republican Convention: Amid political tumult, Jerseyan Michael DuHaime feels at home," September 1, 2008
    14. ↑ The Atlantic, "DuHaime's Stamp On McCain's Field Operation," June 2, 2008
    15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 Mercury, "Michael DuHaime," accessed June 29, 2014
    16. ↑ Roll Call, "DuHaime Tapped to Run NRSC IE Effort," May 11, 2010
    17. ↑ Politicker NJ, "DuHaime joins key public affairs group," January 15, 2009
    18. ↑ Newark Star-Ledger, "Christie hires political director for N.J. re-election campaign," February 1, 2013
    19. ↑ New Jersey Secretary of State, "Election Results," December 4, 2013
    20. ↑ The American Association of Political Consultants, "2014 Campaign Excellence Winners," accessed May 17, 2016
    21. ↑ Time, "Chris Christie Launches PAC in Preparation for 2016 Presidential Run," January 26, 2015
    22. ↑ NBC News, "NJ Gov. Chris Christie Begins Fundraising Effort Ahead of 2016," January 26, 2015
    23. ↑ New Jersey, "Christie forms PAC to explore 2016 presidential run," January 26, 2015
    24. ↑ Washington Post, "Exclusive: Chris Christie hires presidential campaign manager and appoints senior staff," July 3, 2015
    25. ↑ WNYC, "The Rose-Colored Campaign Glasses of Mike DuHaime," August 19, 2015
    26. ↑ NJ Biz, "NJBIZ Power 100: 40-11," January 25, 2016
    27. ↑ CNN, "Chris Christie suspends campaign, source says," February 10, 2016
    28. ↑ Los Angeles Times, "Chris Christie's endorsement of Donald Trump roils more than the Republican race," March 6, 2016
    29. ↑ The Associated Press, "Many experienced GOP strategists unwilling to work for Trump," June 25, 2016
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