Steve Jarding

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Steve Jarding is one of the leading political operatives in the Democratic Party who worked at the highest levels in state-wide and national political campaigns. The former Executive Director of the South Dakota Democratic Party and Communication Director for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) as well as for Bob Kerrey's Presidential campaign gained new fame in recent years with his successful direction of Mark Warner's Virginia gubernatorial campaign in 2001 with fellow political operative Dave "Mudcat" Sanders and his successful direction of former Secretary of the Navy James Webb's win of a seat in the US Senate from Virginia in 2006.

Jarding and Sanders are notable in Democratic political operative cricles for their focus on the overwhelmingly white male voters in the South and Midwest that they believe the Democratic Party has needlessly ceded to their Republican counterparts. According to Jarding and Sanders, Democrats have proven distinctly incompetent at expressing their common values with Bubba voters (alternatively referred to as NASCAR Dads by other analysts). To rectify the problem their Mark Warner campaign sponsored a NASCAR team and a bluegrass band to convey to these voters that Warner did not condescend to them and was not the stereotypical Democrat. Warner and Jarding spelled out this thesis in their recent book called Foxes in the Henhouse.^[1]

Jaring is also a Lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.^[1]