Red Sea Isn’t Helping | FITSNews For Now

Red Sea Isn’t Helping January 5, 2007

Posted by fitsnews in : SC Politics , trackback

SCGOP CONSULTANTS RUNNING ON EMPTY IN IDEA DEPARTMENT

FITSNews - January 5, 2007 - We couldn’t help but notice what seemed like the Red Sea touch in a recent missive from the South Carolina Republican Party attacking former N.C. Senator John Edwards.

It’s not surprising, really, as the arch-conservative Washington D.C. political consulting firm has made considerable inroads in South Carolina politics since 2002, when it helped former U.S. Congressman Mark Sanford capture the Governor’s Mansion.

Run by Jon Lerner, a protege of the famously elusive GOP consultant Arthur Finkelstein, Red Sea has parlayed its 2002 gubernatorial success into quite a bit of South Carolina business over the last four years.

How has the firm done?

Well, with the exception of Sanford’s re-election (the credit for which largely goes to the governor and his wife) not very well. Lerner guided former Attorney General Charlie Condon to a distant fourth-place finish in the 2004 GOP Senate Primary and was consultant-of-record for the only losing statewide effort Republicans had in the 2006 general election, the disastrous Karen Floyd for Superintendent of Education campaign.

“The most knowledgeable analysis of a consultant’s performance comes from the candidates and staff people with whom they actually worked who are most aware of the circumstances, advantages, and limitations that a given campaign faced,” Lerner told FITSNews.

That may be, but the most accurate analysis of a consultant’s effectiveness is whether they win or lose.