New Rochelle, NY
Despite our mistake and gaffe-filled campaign, my big break occurs as the 1984 Reagan landslide sweeps DioGuardi into office with less than 50% of the vote. I conduct my first live TV interviews with NYC network affiliates.
I’m grateful for my good fortune and realize luck was involved — but that’s when I knew you could make your own luck in this topsy-turvy, fly by night campaign business. A low level campaign staffer or intern one day can be a key staffer in a House, Senate or Governor’s office the next after a campaign win.
The downside: when you lose — which can happen frequently when first starting out — poverty is just around the corner.
I became a big believer in the campaign business — a true meritocracy where the vast majority of prep-school types I went to school with are quickly marginalized: everything handed to them, no sense of urgency or grit, and no comprehension of the desperate 24/7 hyper-work reality required to win a campaign.