White House aide to run governor's campaign (CA)

[struggle4progress]

Republican handles relations with press for vice president
Carla Marinucci, Chronicle Political Writer
Wednesday, January 4, 2006

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, in a signal that he'll mount an aggressive 2006 re-election campaign, has hired one of the White House's top political operatives to run his campaign -- a former California GOP strategist who has been described by Newsweek as a political "artillery shell" for his hard-charging tactics.

The governor's office would not confirm the hiring on Tuesday, but sources said Steve Schmidt, 35, is expected to be announced shortly as Schwarzenegger's 2006 re-election campaign manager. Schmidt, a deputy assistant to President Bush and counselor to Vice President Dick Cheney who is responsible for Cheney's press relations and communications, will not join the governor's campaign until February, the sources said.

That's because Schmidt is currently the White House point man in charge of strategic communications for the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Samuel Alito, whose hearings are scheduled to begin Monday.

Schmidt held the same post for the nomination of John Roberts, who was confirmed in September as the nation's chief justice. <snip>

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/01/04/MNGVOGH3TL1.DTL

[napi21]

1. What happened to the Rep who was handling Arnie's camp?

I can't remember his name, but he's middle aged, dark hair, and rumored to be a closet gay. I thought he was doing everything for Arnie. Why the new guy?

[Robbins]

2. Arnie

Dems need to use him to tie Arnie to Bush.