Back in 1988, when Scott Reed was field director for Jack Kemp’s unsuccessful White House run, many of the twentysomething go-getters struggling to gain a toehold in politics came away from that bewilderingly disorganized campaign with one certain belief–their candidate might be going nowhere, but Reed would one day be the man in charge of a presidential campaign.
And so he is.
As manager of Bob Dole’s presidential bid, Reed, 36, guided the former Senate majority leader through a rough primary struggle and helped him capture the prize that had eluded him twice–the GOP presidential nomination. And Reed, who has both survived and instigated several staff purges, stands as the undisputed and unchallenged top official at Dole headquarters as the election year nears its end.
But to what end?
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With the Republican ticket continuing to trail President Clinton in the polls and accused by some of failing to develop a consistent message to close the gap, critics and some political observers wonder whether both Dole and Reed lost sight of the ultimate objective.
“The secret of this campaign is that there is no strategy to win,” says one observer familiar with the campaign’s workings.
Still others wonder aloud why Dole’s faith in Reed’s abilities seems unshaken, despite questions surrounding the campaign’s tactics. Recently, GOP activists have worried that Dole erred by skirting direct attacks on Clinton’s character during much of the campaign.
On Tuesday, after days of mixed signals about his approach to the issue, Dole launched a full-bore attack on Clinton’s integrity. Many Republicans are anxious to see whether he sustains that assault by raising ethical issues during tonight’s debate with Clinton in San Diego.
“Whatever is wrong with this campaign is the fault of Dole’s staff, not Dole the candidate,” says a close Dole associate. “When that happens, the candidate should consider whether he’s being well-served by the people running his staff.”
Unusually serious and reclusive for a man involved in high-level Washington politics, Reed is not concerned by such talk from this city’s political movers and shakers. Indeed, he physically keeps his distance from them.
He lives in Annapolis, Md., about 50 miles east of Washington, with his wife and her two children from a previous marriage. An avid water sportsman and equestrian, he prefers sailing, windsurfing and horseback riding over making the rounds of cocktail parties, fund-raisers and schmooze sessions.
For much of the campaign, Reed was a reluctant source of information for most reporters covering the campaign. Nor does he like to talk about himself–he made himself unavailable to answer detailed questions for this story.
But as the clock ticks down to election day, Reed has emerged as one of campaign’s more visible public voices, making several appearances on television talk shows. He also has been defending himself against charges that he has shielded his boss from public scrutiny.
“Nobody [inside the campaign] thinks I’m a gatekeeper,” Reed told The Times. “That’s a little bit of a bum rap. If anything, I’m a little bit too loose on the gatekeeping.”
The behavior some Reed critics describe as “powermongering,” his supporters say is nothing more nefarious than shyness and a refusal to play politics with the Washington insiders.
“He’s a very private guy,” said Roger Stone, a GOP political consultant and self-described Reed admirer. “He’s close to his family and prefers to keep a low profile. He’s a country guy and he’s very relaxed among friends. You’ll never see him on the Georgetown party circuit because he wants to keep his head clear.”
While in high school in Wilmington, Del., Reed caught the fever for politics from his next-door neighbor, then-Rep. Thomas Evans (R-Del.). After graduating in 1982 from St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y., Reed campaigned for Evans and later managed a GOP candidate’s successful mayoral campaign in the heavily Democratic city of Bridgewater, Conn.
That helped land him a job in then-President Reagan’s 1984 reelection campaign. And, after his work on Kemp’s 1988 presidential race, Reed followed the former congressman to the Department of Housing and Urban Development during the Bush administration, serving as the secretary’s chief of staff.
At HUD, Reed honed his instincts for both control and management in the service of a politician. But as he works on Dole’s behalf, Reed’s penchant for a strict chain of command has generated staff dissension that contributed to two staff shake-ups and acrimonious finger-pointing.
Last month, the campaign’s two top media strategists–Don Sipple and Mike Murphy–resigned, citing differences with Reed over their independence in the campaign.
Both Sipple and Murphy declined interviews for this story. Sources said the pair left the campaign because, in their view, their work was being overlooked and undermined by Reed, and because they lacked the access needed to make their case directly with Dole.
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Earlier in the campaign, Reed was the main force behind the firing of Bill Lacy, a longtime Dole advisor and erstwhile political mentor to Reed. Lacy’s firing came after the campaign stumbled in the New Hampshire primary.
Before establishing their current rapport, Reed and Dole had to overcome early apprehensions about each other. Initially, Dole distrusted Reed’s close ties to Kemp, who was viewed by Dole as a leading rival for the 1996 nomination.
A party activist, who has close ties to Republican National Committee Chairman Haley Barbour, noted that Dole reacted with anger in 1992 after Barbour hired Reed as the party’s executive director.
The activist said Dole told Barbour he was “stacking the deck” against him for the 1996 primary campaign.
After Reed proved himself by helping GOP candidates sweep Congress in the 1994 elections, Dole became a convert. Later in the year, he asked Reed to manage his 1996 campaign.
Now it was Reed’s turn to be skeptical.
“Reed was as surprised as anyone when Dole called him,” said Stone.
One reason for his being leery was Dole’s reputation for allowing his presidential bids to be poorly organized. Stone said Reed “knew from Kemp’s try in 1988 that you couldn’t have orbits of authority roaming around a campaign. That was a management nightmare and he wasn’t going to live through that again.”
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Tom Korologos, a lobbyist and outside advisor to the Dole campaign, said he has been impressed with Reed’s ability to manage the campaign and keep Dole’s focus on his role as candidate.
“Campaign discipline is the deal Scott cut with Dole at the beginning,” Korologos said, adding that Reed demanded authority to run the staff as he saw fit. “It’s one of the things that Dole has learned from his previous campaigns. [Dole’s] in effect saying, ‘I did it wrong before and I’m going to get it right this time.’ And, he’s left the details of getting it right to Scott.”
By nearly all accounts, Reed fixates like an overprotective mother on the details of political campaigns.
Michael Caputo, who worked with Reed in the 1988 Kemp campaign, described the atmosphere of those days as similar to a college fraternity house, with staffers overjoyed at the idea of being so close to someone running for president. But not Reed, Caputo said.
Reed took his job seriously and demanded that other staffers follow his example. It was Reed’s rule, for example, that after every campaign appearance the staff would draft letters for Kemp’s signature to be sent to the numerous VIPs the candidate saw during the day. These notes had to make a personal reference to some fact or observation that occurred during Kemp’s meetings. Often, Reed himself would debrief the campaign’s letter writers to make sure they got these notes done correctly.
“It was Reed’s assertion that in these small details a campaign is won or lost,” said Caputo. “He’s a master of the finest detail.”
Times staff writer Ronald Brownstein contributed to this story.
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)
The Players
A periodic look at the behind-the-scenes aides, consultants, media members and others shaping the 1996 presidential campaign.
SCOTT REED
Age: 36
Family: Married to Beverly Johnson; two children from her previous marriage, Kelly and Brandon
Education: Degree in political science from St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y.
Background: After working for then-President Reagan’s 1984 re-election, became the Republican National Committee’s youngest regional political director. In 1988, worked on Jack Kemp’s brief presidential campaign, then joined him as chief of staff when Kemp served as Housing and Urban Development secretary during the Bush administration. AS RNC executive director in 1994, helped direct the party’s takeover of Congress.
Downtime: An avid outdoorsman with a penchant for sailing, horseback riding and windsurfing.
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“He’s a very private guy. He’s close to his family and prefers to keep a low profile. . . . You’ll never see him on the Georgetown party circuit because he wants to keep his head clear.”
–Roger Stone, Republican political consultant