An Interview With Ed Rollins

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L.G.: Other than running your own consulting business, you never worked particularly in a business per se. You were a university administrator, and then you've worked in government and politics.

E.R.: I only had one election cycle where I actually earned my living as a consultant, and that's because I had five campaigns at the same time. Every other thing I've done over 40 years has been things like chief of staff to the California assembly caucus, White House political director, running the National Republican Congressional Committee, running the president's reelection campaign. I've been in a lot of campaigns, but I've also always gone in the government. I understand public policy. I understand the consequences of public policy, the good parts and bad parts. Someone like [Democratic consultant James] Carville, someone like [Lee] Atwater [the late chairman of the Republican National Committee who earned notoriety as a rabid political attack dog], could not have gone into the White House and done policy. Put Lee Atwater and James Carville in a budget meeting and have them sit there for three hours, they'd blow their brains out.

L.G.: But no less an endorser than Ronald Reagan complimented you on putting together the finest campaign organization in American history [for Reagan's 1984 reelection].

E.R.: My first experience as a Republican was in 1972, in the Nixon campaign, and George McGovern was what tipped the balance for me. I had been off teaching and then I came back. And I knew [Reagan political counselor] Lyn Nofziger, I knew the Reagan people, having worked for the speaker [Republican Bob Monagan]. And when I came back, I spoke to Bob Monagan and I told him I'd like to do a few assembly races, or help in any way. I was sort of done with academia. And he said "Well, Reagan and I are the co-chairmen for Nixon, why don't you basically come help me with the Nixon campaign in California?" Lynn then was the executive director [of the California Committee to Re-elect the President]. So then Lyn and I formed a bond.

L.G.: Is there a sense in which business acumen translates into political acumen? You worked obviously for a brilliant businessman named Ross Perot [when Rollins briefly managed the Texas billionaire's third-party presidential campaign in 1992], and there is a very successful businessman [Mitt Romney] as one of your opponents in this race.

E.R.: The key thing where business matters are involved, you need to have a plan. This is the way I would describe a campaign: You start from scratch, you build a store, you put all the advertising together, you spend a year doing it, you spend millions and millions of dollars, and then you have a one-day sale and then you close the store. That's what a campaign is about.

L.G.: You need a 50-percent-plus-1 market share.

E.R.: Absolutely. And if for some reason your clients don't show up, your customers don't show up, you're not going to win.

L.G.: Who are the customers? Are they the voters, or are they the people who are giving you money, or a combination of both?

E.R.: You know, from my perspective I've never really made my living as a campaign consultant. It's hard for a general consultant to make a lot of money. I mean, I did Michael Huffington's Senate campaign in California [1994], which was a $27 million campaign, and I made 20 grand a month. So in the course of spending seven or eight months on the road, living with Arianna, the rest of it, I mean it was $100,000.

L.G.: Oh, I didn't know you had lived with Arianna Huffington. Interesting.

E.R.: [Laughs] You know, there's not one of us who would take $100,000 to go spend six months with Arianna! [In his memoir, Bare Knuckles and Back Rooms, Rollins trashed the candidate's then-wife, Arianna Huffington, as a scheming diva. She, in turn, has accused Rollins of simply making things up.] Good days, bad days. The candidate was missing in action. It was a big, expensive campaign, and the guys who did media, [such as current Romney media consultant] Larry McCarthy, they made a lot of money. They probably made a couple million dollars. And sometimes, the general consultant goes and cuts a deal, he takes a percentage or two of what the ad buy is. I've just never done that. I figured I charge what I charge, and I always support good talent, and make sure that they get what's fair.

L.G.: And on the Huckabee campaign, you don't have a percentage of the ad buy, you're just collecting your fee?

E.R.: I'm collecting my fee.

L.G.: You want to tell me what it is?

E.R.: It will be $25,000 a month, but I haven't got a penny yet. I said I'll wait until January, and see how the money is.

L.G.: Okay, so Ed Rollins' primary customer is Governor Huckabee.

E.R.: That's my customer.

L.G.: And you basically applied for the job. It wasn't like they were searching for you, you just sent them an email, and they said, "Yeah, come aboard."
 
E.R.: I sent him an email saying "I'd be happy to help you in any way, shape, or form," and he quickly sent me an email back and was very grateful for that offer. And I said to him, "I know you've got money, but I've got to give up my other clients, I can't for the next six months do business, I gotta do this full time."

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