Who Is She?

Donna Brazile

Brazile is the third of nine children born to Lionel and Jean Brazile. Her father was a janitor and her mother a domestic worker. "We grew up poor," she said, literally on the wrong side of the tracks. After graduating from Louisiana State University, Brazile took an offer from Coretta Scott King to help organize the 20th anniversary of the historic March on Washington. A year later, she joined Jesse Jackson's 1984 presidential campaign as an advance person.

IOP Fellow 2001 Donna Brazile welcomes students into her office with the sign “The Diva Is In.” Passion is what drives Brazile, a 20-year veteran of political campaigns, who during the presidential election was Al Gore’s campaign manager. In her weekly study group last spring, she encouraged students to become more active in the political process.

“I’ve heard that giving birth is the best experience possible,” she says. “I’ve had about 300 spiritual births during the course of my life. I’ve encouraged about 300 people to run for office and get involved.”

As a fellow, she also taught students how a multimillion-dollar presidential campaign is structured, managed, and organized. The Gore campaign lost, claims Brazile, “because we failed to educate voters, failed to remove structural barriers, failed to have every ballot counted.”

Donna Brazile, a senior fellow at the Academy of Leadership, University of Maryland, was recently appointed as national chair of the Voting Rights Institute, the Democratic Party's major initiative to promote and protect the right to vote. The Voting Rights Institute was created in response to the irregularities of the 2000 election and was headed initially by former Atlanta mayor Maynard Jackson.

Brazile served as the campaign manager for Al Gore's 2000 presidential campaign, making her the first African American woman ever to manage a presidential campaign. A veteran political organizer and campaign manager, Brazile is an at-large member of the Democratic National Committee and designed the Voter/Campaign Assessment Program for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee - a program that has been crucial in boosting black turnout in key congressional districts. Brazile has served as chief of staff to Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District of Columbia's delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives, and as host/producer of "A View From the Hill" on Radio One News in Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, Maryland.

In 1981, Brazile served as National Student Coordinator for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Committee. Later, she was appointed to serve as the National Mobilization Director for the 20th anniversary commemoration of the 1963 historic March on Washington. In 1985, she served as regional director for Hands Across America. She was the National Coordinator for Housing Now in 1989. Brazile was also founder and executive director of the National Political Congress of Black Women.

Brazile is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the prestigious Congressional Black Caucus Youth Award, and the National Women's Student Leadership Award. She was named one of Ebony Magazine's Outstanding Young Achievers, and Washingtonian magazine named her one of the city's "100 most powerful women." A native of New Orleans, Louisiana, Brazile earned her undergraduate degree from Louisiana State University.

The 2000 Presidential Campaign

Prior to joining the Gore campaign, Brazile was Chief of Staff and Press Secretary to Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton of the District of Columbia, where she helped guide the District's budget and local legislation on Capitol Hill.

The pairing of Gore and Brazile in the 2000 Presidential Campaign was a contrast in styles, pitting Gore, the self-acknowledged "stiff," against Brazile, who is loose, charismatic, chatty and vibrant. Gore speaks in cautious and measured tones; Brazile is driven and brash, given to speaking in a slew of four-letter words that do not stop in the presence of the press.

"I don't know about him," she said of Gore, "but I feel opposites attract and together we can make good music, if he lets it happen."

Known as a talented field operative and grass-roots organizer, the first black woman to head a major contender's presidential campaign did not report to Gore directly but to forceful campaign chairman Tony Coehlo. Friends of Brazile like Borosage said she sought direct access to Gore. "She's tough," Borosage said. "I am sure one of the first things she asked [after being appointed] is if she could report directly to Gore." But Gore turned her down.

Brazile said she had no problems reporting to Coehlo, and chastised members of the press corps for pushing the issue of the Gore campaign organizational chart. "Why is it men always want to know who you report to?" she said

The question has drawn attention, however, because of lingering doubts about her "maturity" that date from her notorious 1988 comment about whose bed Barbara Bush sleeps in. She was working as a deputy field operator on Michael Dukakis' presidential bid amid rumors that GOP nominee George Bush was having an affair with a woman named Jennifer Fitzgerald. The press was reluctant to publish the story. So she said, "The American people have every right to know if Barbara Bush will share that bed with him in the White House."

Her remarks were a major embarrassment for the Dukakis campaign and Brazile was forced to resign. It may be for that reason that Gore decided to take full advantage of her organizational skills while distancing himself from her personally

Oddly enough, the last time Gore ran for president, in 1987, Brazile made belittling remarks about him. Serving as director of field operations for Richard Gephardt's presidential campaign, she said, "Gore just hasn't captured their imagination. You don't hear party chairmen going around saying 'Gore, Gore, Gore.'"

It is still unclear whether in the Barbara Bush statement Brazile was following orders or acting on her own. Friends insist she made her comments only after discussing them with superiors. Others have doubts. They say she was acting on her own and cite this as evidence of her "immaturity."

For her part, Brazile wishes the whole matter would go away. "That's all in the past," she said. "That was 10 years ago. I've come a long way from that. Let's move on."

After being forced to leave the Dukakis campaign, Brazile called her mother and headed home to Kenner, La., near New Orleans. A Roman Catholic, she said she later did "penance" by spending nine months in a Washington homeless shelter with homeless advocate Mitch Snyder. She went on to run the successful campaign of Eleanor Holmes Norton for the District of Columbia's at-large seat in Congress, and served with Norton as chief of staff before joining the Gore campaign.

Brazile belongs to an informal club of four black women who meet periodically in Washington to exchange political views and chat about strategy. One member of that club is Mignon Moore, Brazile's closest friend and assistant for political affairs for President Clinton. Moore said she gave Brazile one short piece of advice: "Stay focused and do what you do best."


Source: http://www.academy.umd.edu/aboutus/staff/DBrazile.htm  http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/ksgpress/bulletin/autumn2001/charles_profile.html
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/1999/10/11/brazile/
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/lips/bios/brazilebio.html
http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/wappp/students/bios/donnabrazile.html