Chris Nicholas

Chris Nicholas is bucking his party to stand by longtime client, Sen. Arlen Specter…

Politics: How is the Democratic establishment in the state responding to Sen. Specter? Are you finding you have to do a lot of convincing?
Nicholas: Well, his party ID may have changed, but the political outreach we do never stops. We’ve always had a really aggressive outreach program, not necessarily to Democratic Party leaders, although he always had a lot of support from Democrats. It was more so with soft Democrats and other folks like that. Now that we’re focused on the primary, we’re reaching out to a lot of Democratic Party regulars and what’s been surprising so far, especially in the southeast part of the state, is how many of them already know the senator. So I don’t think it’s convincing that we need to do, but there is some reassuring going on. Also, I think people underestimate the fact that Sen. Specter is a really good retail politician. And we’re certainly ready for the primary. The senator never has easy primaries—it’s just not in the cards.
   
Politics: Should the party establishment in state or nationally be in the business of discouraging Rep. Joe Sestak from running for this seat?
Nicholas: That’s up to them. What I will say, though, is that it’s interesting that in 2006 then-candidate Sestak benefited from that type of operation when Gov. Rendell got Brian Lentz to run for the state House instead of running for Congress. So it’s interesting that Mr. Sestak benefited from the type of outreach he’s now sounding the alarm about. But you know what—the primary will work itself out.
      
Politics: What was the decision process like for you in terms of deciding to remain the senator’s campaign manager after he switched parties?
Nicholas: It was definitely a process. They did not put any pressure on me to hurry up and make a decision, which I appreciated. And I didn’t put any pressure on myself to hurry up and make a decision either. I just wanted to experience it, because it’s not like there’s a playbook for this—at least if there is I haven’t found it. What it came down to is the commitment I had made to the senator and his family and his team to get him reelected, and I wanted to keep that commitment.

Politics: Did you think about potential business ramifications from that decision in terms of current or future clients?
Nicholas: Did I think about future clients? Yes. As for current clients, [Specter] was pretty much going to be it. But sure, it was a concern. I think people will understand my longtime work with the senator and my commitment to getting him reelected. And I’m fine with the fact that there may be ramifications, but I also know that I do good work and ultimately I think that’s what moves you along in this business. I’m confident that I will be able to move forward. Obviously it’s something you think about because I run a really small shop, but 2012 is eons away.
 
Politics: And you still consider yourself a Republican consultant?
Nicholas: Absolutely. I’ve always been a Republican consultant. I haven’t signed up a Democratic client—I was with a client who became a Democrat. I understand why the senator did that, and I’m behind him in his reelection. But I’m going to finish my commitment to Sen. Specter and go back to what I’ve always done, which is doing Republican races. The Democrats we’ve been working with in the state party and elsewhere have been fantastically helpful. And we are charting some new waters here, but I think we’re getting our footing and moving forward quickly. The senator’s always had bipartisan support in both his fundraising and political operation and that’s going to continue.

Politics: How did you revamp the fundraising operation to adjust after the senator’s finance director jumped ship?
Nicholas: We brought on board Fran Katz Watson, who did Joe Lieberman’s fundraising. She and her crew have been terrific. It took us a couple weeks to re-tool and re-engage with people. The senator has always run a vigorous fundraising operation and that hasn’t changed. Fundraising is always a grind, but everyone’s confident that we’re going to have the money we need to do what we need to do to win a primary and to win the general.
 
Politics: The senator is under a lot of pressure from labor when it comes to EFCA. When is the time to take a firm position on the issue?
Nicholas: The senator is doing his job and working on a compromise on this issue. How it will turn out we don’t know. He has said publicly that he’s committed to getting a compromise that works. I would note that he had the endorsement of organized labor in 1998 and 2004 which was very beneficial, and we hope they’re on board again.

Politics: Do you expect to have President Obama campaigning and fundraising for you?
Nicholas: I hope so. The day after the senator switched parties, both the president and the vice president said they would help in any way they could, and I expect that will be the case.  

Politics: Right now some polls have your candidate ahead of Toomey by 10 to 15 points, which some observers think isn’t strong enough at this point.
Nicholas: I’m looking forward to having the opportunity to beat Mr. Toomey again. We’ve done it once and I’m confident we will be able to do it again. We have a lot of work we have to do before we get there, obviously. But should that be the matchup, I think his brand of far-right extremism, having already been rejected by the most conservative group of voters in the state, will be rejected even more by the larger core of general election voters.
 
Politics: You mentioned earlier that you’re worried about the direction of the consulting profession. What worries you exactly?
Nicholas: I think too many folks in our business are too concerned about self-promotion and not worried enough about the important stuff, which is getting their clients elected. That’s disturbing to me. It has gotten to the point now where I can’t even watch the talking heads on MSNBC, CNN and Fox, and I do this for a living.  

Chris Nicholas is newly Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter’s campaign manager and the owner of the Eagle Consulting Group, a Republican firm based in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.