Fred Thompson hires Schwarzenegger aids who helped in CA 2003 recall [View All]

[Auggie]

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, 9-5-07

Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson's political playbook - a high-profile visit to "The Tonight Show," a splashy bus tour, the efforts to take a familiar actor and reintroduce him in a new political role - contains pages that look eerily familiar to California voters.

Maybe that's because the former Tennessee senator has at his side some of the same key aides who, in nine short weeks, helped transform Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger from "The Terminator" into the chief executive of the Democratic-leaning state that is the most populous in the nation.

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Thompson's campaign includes two veterans of another whirlwind effort - the 2003 California recall election that starred Schwarzenegger - who know firsthand at least some of the challenges ahead.
They are Todd Harris, who was Schwarzenegger's campaign communications director and will hold the same title for Thompson, and veteran Republican strategist and Fox News commentator Karen Hanretty, Schwarzenegger's press secretary during the 2003 recall effort, who will be Thompson's deputy communications director.

Adam Mendelsohn, the governor's current communicators director, said the pair provide Thompson "a big-picture thinker out of the box" - Harris - and "one of the most effective political spokeswomen in the country" - Hanretty. Both are "seasoned in translating the benefits that someone has from working in entertainment into a political reality," he said. "For Fred Thompson, it's a very smart hire: There's not a lot of people who understand taking a national entertainment figure and translating that into political value."

More: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/09/05/MNMVRUPB2.DTL