Mandy Grunwald

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mandy Grunwald (born c. 1958)[1] is an American professional political consultant and media advisor for the Democratic Party.

She is the daughter of the late Henry Grunwald, former editor-in-chief of Time magazine. She grew up on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and on Martha's Vineyard.[1] She attended the Nightingale-Bamford School in New York,[1] and then graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University.[2]

Upon graduation she worked at the Sawyer-Miller Group in New York.[1] Gaining prominence through her work on the successful 1992 Bill Clinton presidential campaign, in which she was director of advertising[2], made television appearances defending Bill Clinton,[1] and helped produce The Man From Hope, the biographical film that was the centerpiece of the 1992 Democratic National Convention.[3] The Washington Post subsequently identified her as one of the key members of "Hillaryland", Hillary Rodham Clinton's closest advisors beginning with her First Lady days.[4] Grunwald's position as a White House advisor faded after 1995, when she and others were supplanted by Dick Morris.[1]

Mandy Grunwald subsequently became president of Grunwald Communications in Washington, D.C.[2] She served as media consultant for three successful Senate campaigns for Daniel Patrick Moynihan[2] (presumably 1982, 1988, and 1994) as well as for the Ruth Messinger's losing effort in the 1997 New York City mayoral election.[2] In 1999 she served as a broker across the frosty relations between the retiring Moynihan and Hillary Clinton, who would successfully gain his seat in the 2000 New York senatorial election.[5][1] In 2004 she worked for the senatorial campaign of Ken Salazar in Colorado and gubernatorial effort of John Lynch in New Hampshire, both of whom won.[6] She then worked for Gifford Miller's poorly-finishing Democratic primary campaign in New York City's 2005 mayoral race.[6]

She is currently the head of campaign media relations for the 2008 Hillary Rodham Clinton presidential campaign.[3]

In 1997 Grunwald married journalist and future Plame affair figure Matthew Cooper.[2] They have a son, born in 1999.[1]

She is believed to have been the inspiration for the character "Daisy Green" in the roman à clef of the 1992 presidential campaign, Primary Colors, published by "Anonymous" in 1996.[7] Moreover, before Joe Klein was revealed to be the creator, Mandy Grunwald and her novelist sister Lisa Grunwald were among the authorial suspects.[7] In the 1998 film Primary Colors, the character based on her was portrayed by Maura Tierney.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Elisabeth Bumiller. "Public Lives: A Top Adviser to a Much-Advised First Lady", The New York Times, 1999-07-20. Retrieved on 2007-10-24. 
  2. ^ a b c d e f "WEDDINGS; Mandy Grunwald, Matthew Cooper", The New York Times, 1997-11-30. Retrieved on 2007-10-23. 
  3. ^ a b Mark Leibovich. "A No-Nonsense Style That Was Honed as Advocate and First Lady", The New York Times, 2007-10-26. 
  4. ^ "Gatekeepers of Hillaryland", The Washington Post, 2007-06-21. Retrieved on 2007-07-16. 
  5. ^ Gerth, Jeff; Don Van Natta, Jr. (2007). Her Way: The Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton. New York: Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 0-316-01742-6. , pp. 208-209.
  6. ^ a b Greg Sargent. "The Clinton Factor: Can Bill and Hillary’s former media guru help Gifford Miller beat Bloomberg?", New York, 2004-11-22. Retrieved on 2007-10-24. 
  7. ^ a b Todd S. Purdum. "The Author Could Not Be Reached for Comment", The New York Times, 1996-02-01. Retrieved on 2007-10-24.