RIP Bruno Gianelli

By Will Folks

One of the greatest political consultants in American history never actually existed, except on television.

His name was Bruno Gianelli, and he advised the imaginary Bartlett administration in Aaron Sorkin’s hit series The West Wing – which until the election of Barack Obama was the most liberal Presidential administration in American history.

In spite of the show’s left-leaning rhetoric, though, the fact remained that you literally couldn’t beat the rhetoric.

Aaron Sorkin is the best in the business at turning a political phrase – even better than Obama’s teleprompter.

Anyway, one of Gianelli’s first episodes on The West Wing came right about the same time I was finding my bearings on the gubernatorial campaign of former Congressman Mark Sanford – November 2001, to be exact.

I’d just arrived on Sullivans Island – one of the most beautiful places in the whole world – and yet I was already ready to leave.

Why?

Well, accustomed as I was at the time to the lifestyle of a marginally-successful bar musician, Mark Sanford’s dictatorial, labor-intensive management style wasn’t meshing well with my need for “creative space.” And free time. And sleep.

In fact, my first week on the job he chewed me out for taking an hour off one day to shoot baskets, one of several blunt assessments he offered during those early days about my work ethic, or rather my lack thereof.

For some reason, though, I stuck it out. Or should I say he stuck it out.

Since I knew nothing about politics at the time, I tried to learn everything I could from books – and yet one night, as I was about to fall asleep reading Theodore White’s The Making of the President: 1964, a TV show caught my eye and taught me something about politics that I’ve never forgotten.

A wisdom no book ever came close to imparting.

It was a West Wing episode called The Indians In the Lobby, and it included this scene in which Bruno Gianelli explains in no uncertain terms how you win elections …

Sorry about the weird “supernatural” references there. It was the only clip I could find on YouTube.

Anyway, all of a sudden it made sense.

Mark Sanford had been preaching “attention to detail” to me for weeks, until he was blue in the face, in fact – but for whatever reason it wasn’t registering in my head.

At least not until I saw that scene.

I learned that night that something as seemingly inconsequential as me not spelling a word correctly in a media advisory could make the difference between winning and losing.

And I learned why Mark was so tyrannical about every cent his campaign spent – because every cent also meant the difference between winning and losing.

Sadly, Ron Silver – the actor who played Bruno Gianelli – passed away earlier this month.

With so much going on in S.C. politics, I didn’t get a chance to write about it when it happened. However, I did know that given everything Silver’s character meant to me as a young, clueless political operative eight years ago, I couldn’t just do a throwaway post on it.

Here’s how Sorkin described working with Silver, from Time:

You always wanted to be standing next to Ron between takes. He was either going to make you feel good about the work you were doing, or he was going to make you laugh–but usually both. He was always what we called a “generous actor”–someone who’s there for the piece and not for himself.

Silver was certainly there for me that night in 2001 – when I couldn’t figure out why the guy I was working for was forcing me to do crazy things like spending my own gas money to return a dozen glossy white folders I had bought for press kits.

You know, because they cost $1.19 apiece, which was “ridiculously expensive.” Especially when we could just “use staples.”

I’ve learned a lot in the intervening years from both Mark and Bruno, but that first lesson was the most important.

Bruno was the “political consultant” who first opened my eyes to the reality that what I did actually mattered.

Will Folks is founding editor of FITSNews.com.

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