Joe Trippi
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Democratic campaign
Political campaign
A political campaign is an organized effort which seeks to influence the decision making process within a specific group. In democracies, political campaigns often refer to electoral campaigns, wherein representatives are chosen or referendums are decided...
worker and consultant. A mainstay in presidential politics, Trippi has worked on the presidential campaigns of Edward Kennedy
Ted Kennedy
Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy was a United States Senator from Massachusetts and a member of the Democratic Party. Serving almost 47 years, he was the second most senior member of the Senate when he died and is the fourth-longest-serving senator in United States history...
, Walter Mondale
Walter Mondale
Walter Frederick "Fritz" Mondale is an American Democratic Party politician, who served as the 42nd Vice President of the United States , under President Jimmy Carter, and as a United States Senator for Minnesota...
, Gary Hart
Gary Hart
Gary Hart is an American politician, lawyer, author, professor and commentator. He served as a Democratic Senator representing Colorado , and ran in the U.S...
, Dick Gephardt
Dick Gephardt
Richard Andrew "Dick" Gephardt is a lobbyist and former prominent American politician of the Democratic Party. Gephardt served as a U.S. Representative from Missouri from January 3, 1977, until January 3, 2005, serving as House Majority Leader from 1989 to 1995, and as Minority Leader from 1995 to...
, Jerry Brown
Jerry Brown
Edmund Gerald "Jerry" Brown, Jr. is an American politician. Brown served as the 34th Governor of California , and is currently serving as the 39th California Governor...
and most recently John Edwards
John Edwards
Johnny Reid "John" Edwards is an American politician, who served as a U.S. Senator from North Carolina. He was the Democratic nominee for Vice President in 2004, and was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004 and 2008.He defeated incumbent Republican Lauch Faircloth in...
. Most notably, he served as campaign manager
Campaign manager
A campaign manager is a paid or volunteer individual, whose role is to coordinate the campaign's operations such as fundraising, advertising, polling, getting out the vote , and other activities supporting the effort, directly.Apart from the candidate, they are often a campaign's most visible leader...
for presidential candidate and former Vermont
Vermont
Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
governor Howard Dean
Howard Dean
Howard Brush Dean III is an American politician and physician from Vermont. He served six terms as the 79th Governor of Vermont and ran unsuccessfully for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination. He was chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 2005 to 2009. Although his U.S...
.
He studied aerospace engineering
Aerospace engineering
Aerospace engineering is the primary branch of engineering concerned with the design, construction and science of aircraft and spacecraft. It is divided into two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering...
for three years at San José State University
San José State University
San Jose State University is a public university located in San Jose, California, United States...
before leaving fourteen credits shy of earning his degree. He was a brother of Sigma Nu
Sigma Nu
Sigma Nu is an undergraduate, college fraternity with chapters in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Sigma Nu was founded in 1869 by three cadets at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia...
.
Career
After working in several successful local elections in San Jose, California, in the mid-1970s Trippi joined the national campaign staff of Senator Edward KennedyTed Kennedy
Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy was a United States Senator from Massachusetts and a member of the Democratic Party. Serving almost 47 years, he was the second most senior member of the Senate when he died and is the fourth-longest-serving senator in United States history...
's presidential campaign in 1979.
In 1981, at the age of 24, Trippi was the Deputy Campaign Manager for Mayor Tom Bradley
Tom Bradley (politician)
Thomas J. "Tom" Bradley was the 38th Mayor of Los Angeles, California, serving in that office from 1973 to 1993. He was the first and to date only African American mayor of Los Angeles...
's successful reelection bid in Los Angeles and in 1982 was Bradley's Statewide Deputy Campaign Manager for Governor of California
Governor of California
The Governor of California is the chief executive of the California state government, whose responsibilities include making annual State of the State addresses to the California State Legislature, submitting the budget, and ensuring that state laws are enforced...
. In 1983 Trippi served in government for his first and only time, becoming Lieutenant Governor Leo McCarthy's Deputy Chief of Staff in Sacramento.
Still in his 20s in 1983 Trippi joined the campaign staff of Vice President Walter Mondale
Walter Mondale
Walter Frederick "Fritz" Mondale is an American Democratic Party politician, who served as the 42nd Vice President of the United States , under President Jimmy Carter, and as a United States Senator for Minnesota...
—first as the state director of Maine where he was credited with engineering a come-from-behind victory at the 1983 state convention for Mondale—earning him a promotion to state director of Iowa's first in the nation caucuses. After running Iowa for Mondale and winning the state by over 30 points Trippi went on to run the Pennsylvania primary effort for Mondale. Mondale defeated Gary Hart
Gary Hart
Gary Hart is an American politician, lawyer, author, professor and commentator. He served as a Democratic Senator representing Colorado , and ran in the U.S...
in Pennsylvania by 14 points.
In 1985 Trippi became the deputy director of the Fund for a Democratic Majority, Senator Edward Kennedy's political action committee run by Paul Tully. Tully, along with Mike Ford, had been Trippi's superior in the Kennedy and Mondale campaigns. Bob Shrum
Bob Shrum
Robert M. "Bob" Shrum is an American political consultant, who has worked on numerous Democratic campaigns.-Education:Shrum was born in Connellsville, Pennsylvania and raised in Los Angeles. He is a graduate of Loyola High School of Los Angeles and Georgetown University...
was chairman of the Fund for a Democratic Majority. In mid-1985 Bob Shrum resigned to launch the media firm of Caddell, Doak and Shrum, and recruited Trippi to be the firm's vice president. The firm quickly became Doak and Shrum, and Trippi helped produce the media and strategy for several successful gubernatorial and U.S. Senate campaigns, including those of Virginia Governor Jerry Baliles, Senator Alan Cranston
Alan Cranston
Alan MacGregor Cranston was an American journalist and Democratic Senator from California.-Education:Cranston earned his high school diploma from the old Mountain View High School, where among other things, he was a track star...
of California, Senator Barbara Mikulski
Barbara Mikulski
Barbara Ann Mikulski is the senior United States Senator from Maryland and a member of the Democratic Party. Mikulski, a former U.S. Representative, is the longest-serving female senator in U.S...
of Maryland, Pennsylvania Governor Bob Casey
Robert P. Casey
Robert Patrick "Bob" Casey, Sr. was an American politician from Pennsylvania. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 42nd Governor of Pennsylvania from 1987 to 1995...
. Shrum has credited Trippi for his creative work in conceiving and producing the "Zschau's Greatest Hits" television spot in 1986 for Cranston's campaign.
Trippi left the firm of Doak and Shrum in 1987 when Paul Tully, who had become Senator Gary Hart's political director, recruited Trippi to become Hart's deputy political director. After the Miami Herald broke the story of Gary Hart and Donna Rice
Donna Rice
Donna Rice Hughes is the president and chair of Enough Is Enough, an American non-profit organization in the anti-pornography movement that seeks to make the Internet safer for families and children...
, Trippi became chief of staff to Hart's wife, Lee Hart. After Gary Hart withdrew from the race, Trippi became the national deputy campaign manager for the Gephardt For President campaign and is credited with the "Hyundai" ad in Iowa that catapulted Gephardt from last place in most polls to winning the Iowa caucuses.
By the end of the 1988 presidential campaign cycle/ Trippi had become largely disenchanted with the process of politics. He would appear only in cameo roles in the Doug Wilder and Jerry Brown
Jerry Brown
Edmund Gerald "Jerry" Brown, Jr. is an American politician. Brown served as the 34th Governor of California , and is currently serving as the 39th California Governor...
campaigns in 1992, but even in these less-engaged roles, he managed to, along with Joe Costello, introduce the successful interactive use of the 800 number in politics for the first time. (Brown would raise $8 million in 1992 from citizens contributing by calling an 800 number promoted in television ads and during televised debates.)
Trippi withdrew from presidential politics completely for the remainder of 1992, as well as in 1996 and 2000. In the 1990s, he worked as a media consultant for several campaigns, including Jim Moran
Jim Moran
James Patrick "Jim" Moran, Jr. is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1991. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district is located in Northern Virginia and includes the cities of Falls Church and Alexandria, all of Arlington County, and a portion of Fairfax County.Jim Moran was...
's 1990 victory over Republican Stan Parris in Virginia's 8th Congressional District and Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky
Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky
Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania and a women's right activist. She is a former journalist and a former politician for the Democratic Party. From 1993 to 1995 she was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, representing...
's 1992 win in Pennsylvania's 13th Congressional District, which had not been won by a Democrat since 1904. Trippi produced the media for Ron Wyden
Ron Wyden
Ronald Lee "Ron" Wyden is the senior U.S. Senator for Oregon, serving since 1996, and a member of the Democratic Party. He previously served in the United States House of Representatives from 1981 to 1996....
's successful bid for Oregon's US Senate seat to replace disgraced Senator Bob Packwood
Bob Packwood
Robert William "Bob" Packwood is a U.S. politician from Oregon and a member of the Republican Party. He resigned from the United States Senate, under threat of expulsion, in 1995 after allegations of sexual harassment, abuse and assault of women emerged.-Early life and career:Packwood was born in...
in a special election.
The Wyden camp had developed a very rudimetary website with the ability to gather volunteer information and accept donations. Ironically, Trippi refused to include the URL in the TV commercials, claiming, "No one knows what 'www' means". Trippi also worked for John Kitzhaber
John Kitzhaber
John Albert Kitzhaber is the 37th Governor of Oregon. He served as the 35th Governor of Oregon from 1995 to 2003 and became the first person to be elected to the office three times when he was re-elected to a non-consecutive third term in 2010...
's two successful runs for Governor of Oregon. In 2002 five Democratic members of congress were redistricted into Republican majority districts held by an incumbent Republican member of congress. Trippi produced the media and strategy for Pennsylvania Congressman Tim Holden
Tim Holden
Thomas Timothy "Tim" Holden is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1993. He is a member of the Democratic Party.-Early life, education and career:...
, the only Democrat of the five to win in the double-incumbent races. During this time, Trippi also got reengaged with one of his first loves from his college days in Silicon Valley technology.
Trippi began to serve as a corporate consultant in Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a term which refers to the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. The region is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations...
to firms involved in e-commerce, online communities, and the open source movement, straddling the two worlds of politics and technology for many years. As early as 1982 he personally purchased a DEC computer and installed it in Tom Bradley's gubernatorial campaign to track targeted voter files and build a contributor database. This effort is believed to be the most advanced use of computers by a campaign at the time, if not the first actual instance of such use. In 2003 Trippi went to work for Dean For America
Democracy for America
Democracy for America is a progressive, people-powered political action committee, headquartered in South Burlington, Vermont. Founded by former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean in 2004, DFA leads public awareness campaigns on a variety of public policy issues, trains activists,...
as Howard Dean
Howard Dean
Howard Brush Dean III is an American politician and physician from Vermont. He served six terms as the 79th Governor of Vermont and ran unsuccessfully for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination. He was chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 2005 to 2009. Although his U.S...
's National Campaign Manager.
Until spring 2004, Trippi was a principal at the political consulting
Political consulting
Political consulting, beyond the self-evident definition of consulting in political matters, refers to a specific management consulting industry which has grown up around advising and assisting political campaigns. This article deals primarily with the development and nature of political consulting...
firm Trippi, McMahon & Squier, which produced advertisements for Dean's gubernatorial and presidential campaigns.
Trippi currently heads the consulting firm Trippi & Associates. In the 2006 cycle, he produced the media for John Hall's victory in New York's 19th Congressional District and for Jerry Brown
Jerry Brown
Edmund Gerald "Jerry" Brown, Jr. is an American politician. Brown served as the 34th Governor of California , and is currently serving as the 39th California Governor...
's successful bid for Attorney General of California.
Over the years, Trippi has been involved in various political campaigns overseas. He worked for then Panhellenic Socialist Movement
Panhellenic Socialist Movement
The Panhellenic Socialist Movement , known mostly by its acronym PASOK , is one of the two major political parties in Greece. Founded on 3 September 1974 by Andreas Papandreou, in 1981 PASOK became Greece's first social democratic party to win a majority in parliament.The party is a socialist party...
leader Andreas Papandreou
Andreas Papandreou
Andreas G. Papandreou ; 5 February 1919 – 23 June 1996) was a Greek economist, a socialist politician and a dominant figure in Greek politics. The son of Georgios Papandreou, Andreas was a Harvard-trained academic...
's successful campaign for Prime Minister of Greece in 1993 and advised British Prime Minister Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
during his successful bid for a third term in 2005. He also worked on behalf of Romano Prodi
Romano Prodi
Romano Prodi is an Italian politician and statesman. He served as the Prime Minister of Italy, from 17 May 1996 to 21 October 1998 and from 17 May 2006 to 8 May 2008...
in his successful bid for Prime Minister of Italy in 2006.
In 2007, Trippi consulted on text messaging
Text messaging
Text messaging, or texting, refers to the exchange of brief written text messages between fixed-line phone or mobile phone and fixed or portable devices over a network...
strategies with the opposition Action Congress
Action Congress
The Action Congress of Nigeria , formerly known as Action Congress , is a classical liberal Nigerian political party formed via the merger of the Alliance for Democracy, the Justice Party, the Advance Congress of Democrats, and several other minor political parties in September 2006. The party...
Party in Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
. In 2011, Trippi & Associates provided strategic support for the campaign of Goodluck Jonathan in the Nigerian general election.
Trippi has also helped train and provide strategy and advice in emerging democracies including Zimabawe and Iraq but currently works for the violently repressive
2011 Bahraini uprising
The 2011 Bahraini uprising, sometimes called the February 14 Revolution is a series of demonstrations, amounting to a sustained campaign of civil resistance, in the Persian Gulf country of Bahrain...
Kingdom of Bahrain
Bahrain
' , officially the Kingdom of Bahrain , is a small island state near the western shores of the Persian Gulf. It is ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family. The population in 2010 stood at 1,214,705, including 235,108 non-nationals. Formerly an emirate, Bahrain was declared a kingdom in 2002.Bahrain is...
.
Dean campaign
The Dean campaign, and Trippi specifically, became widely acclaimed for the innovative use of the InternetInternet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
, especially for fundraising. In particular, Trippi was largely responsible for the creation of an official campaign blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
, and the use of Meetup and other social networking technologies to connect supporters. Both techniques are widely utilized today by other social and political campaigns.
Trippi was a key voice in the Dean campaign's decision to forgo the use of federal matching funds for the Democratic presidential nomination, a move intended to help escape the fundraising limits the matching funds brought. The decision prompted eventual nomination winner John Kerry
John Kerry
John Forbes Kerry is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, the 10th most senior U.S. Senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2004 presidential election, but lost to former President George W...
to follow suit and allow his campaign to remain financially competitive with Bush in the months leading up to the convention.
Dean replaced Trippi as campaign manager on January 28, 2004 after consecutively losing the Iowa caucus
Iowa caucus
The Iowa caucuses are an electoral event in which residents of the U.S. state of Iowa meet in precinct caucuses in all of Iowa's 1784 precincts and elect delegates to the corresponding county conventions. There are 99 counties in Iowa and thus 99 conventions...
and the New Hampshire primary
New Hampshire primary
The New Hampshire primary is the first in a series of nationwide political party primary elections held in the United States every four years , as part of the process of choosing the Democratic and Republican nominees for the presidential elections to be held the subsequent November.Although only a...
. Trippi subsequently signed on as a commentator for MSNBC
MSNBC
MSNBC is a cable news channel based in the United States available in the US, Germany , South Africa, the Middle East and Canada...
; and started his own consultancy, Trippi & Associates. As of 2009, he is a political contributor for Fox News.
Recent work
In 2004, Joe Trippi was named a Fellow at the Institute of Politics at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.In 2006, Trippi produced the media and served as a consultant to John Hall in his winning bid for New York's 19th Congressional seat and for Jerry Brown
Jerry Brown
Edmund Gerald "Jerry" Brown, Jr. is an American politician. Brown served as the 34th Governor of California , and is currently serving as the 39th California Governor...
's winning campaign for Attorney General of California.
Trippi has worked closely with Mike Ford, Paul Tully, and John Sasso
John Sasso
John Sasso is an American Democratic political operative who was behind the failed 1988 election bid by Michael Dukakis.-Life and career:Sasso was born in New Jersey...
over the years. He is the author of The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Democracy, the Internet, and the Overthrow of Everything
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Democracy, the Internet, and the Overthrow of Everything
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Democracy, the Internet, and the Overthrow of Everything is a book written by Joe Trippi and published in 2004 by ReganBooks. The book describes Trippi's steps on running the campaign for Howard Dean on the Internet...
.
On April 19, 2007, Trippi announced that he would serve as a Senior Advisor for John Edwards
John Edwards
Johnny Reid "John" Edwards is an American politician, who served as a U.S. Senator from North Carolina. He was the Democratic nominee for Vice President in 2004, and was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004 and 2008.He defeated incumbent Republican Lauch Faircloth in...
's Presidential campaign. Joe Trippi & Associates were paid $750,000 over the course of the Edwards campaign.
Joe Trippi is also a fellow at the New Politics Institute, a think tank of the New Democrat Network
New Democrat Network
The New Democrat Network is an American think tank that promotes progressive Democratic candidates, especially those in a more centrist vein, although this focus has waxed and waned...
, founded by Simon Rosenberg
Simon Rosenberg
Simon Rosenberg is the founder of the New Democrat Network, an organization formerly allied with the Democratic Leadership Council, and was a candidate for the Democratic National Committee Chair in 2005.-Early life:...
in 1996. Its stated purpose is to help elect centrist Democrats, and it is considered by many to be a successor to the centrist Democratic Leadership Council
Democratic Leadership Council
The Democratic Leadership Council was a non-profit 501 corporation that, upon its formation, argued the United States Democratic Party should shift away from the leftward turn it took in the late 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s...
(DLC), an organization that Simon Rosenberg resigned from in 1996. (Rosenberg was one of Howard Dean's rivals for the chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee in 2005.)
Trippi is a member of the advisory board of Why Tuesday?
Why Tuesday?
Why Tuesday? is a nonpartisan election reform organization. Their goal is to increase voter participation in the United States by creating a dialogue about election reform. The group publishes a weekly documentary video blog in order to highlight the state of America's voting systems.Members of the...
, a nonpartisan organization dedicated to increasing voter participation. Trippi is also a member of the board of directors for the conservation organization the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy.
Trippi has been hired by the Libertas political party to work on their European Parliament election, 2009
European Parliament election, 2009
Elections to the European Parliament were held in the 27 member states of the European Union between 4 and 7 June 2009. A total of 736 Members of the European Parliament were elected to represent some 500 million Europeans, making these the biggest trans-national elections in history...
campaign.
In late January 2010, Andrew Romanoff
Andrew Romanoff
Harlan Andrew Romanoff is an American politician. A Democrat, he was a member of the Colorado House of Representatives from 2000 to 2008, serving as Speaker from 2005 to 2008...
, who challenged the incumbent Senator Michael Bennet
Michael Bennet
Michael Farrand Bennet is an American businessman, lawyer, and politician. He is currently the junior United States Senator from Colorado, and a member of the Democratic Party...
in the 2010 Colorado Senate election, announced his campaign had hired Trippi as one of its four new, prominent consultants.
In the California gubernatorial election, 2010
California gubernatorial election, 2010
The 2010 California gubernatorial election was held November 2, 2010 to elect the Governor of California. The primary elections were held on June 8, 2010. Because constitutional office holders in California are prohibited from serving more than two terms in the same office since 1990, incumbent...
Trippi produced the media, television, radio and social media for Jerry Brown
Jerry Brown
Edmund Gerald "Jerry" Brown, Jr. is an American politician. Brown served as the 34th Governor of California , and is currently serving as the 39th California Governor...
's campaign for Governor of California
Governor of California
The Governor of California is the chief executive of the California state government, whose responsibilities include making annual State of the State addresses to the California State Legislature, submitting the budget, and ensuring that state laws are enforced...
, and Brown defeated Meg Whitman
Meg Whitman
Margaret Cushing "Meg" Whitman is an American business executive. She is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Hewlett-Packard. A native of Long Island, New York, she is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Business School...
. Trippi also produced the media for Congressman Tim Holden
Tim Holden
Thomas Timothy "Tim" Holden is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1993. He is a member of the Democratic Party.-Early life, education and career:...
's re-election in Pennsylvania's 17th District. Holden was one of the few Democrats running in a district that had been won by John McCain in 2008 to win re-election in 2010.
In October 2010, Trippi appeared in the CBS drama "The Good Wife" as himself.
Bahrain Controversy
In 2011, it was revealed that Trippi had signed on to do public relations work for BahrainBahrain
' , officially the Kingdom of Bahrain , is a small island state near the western shores of the Persian Gulf. It is ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family. The population in 2010 stood at 1,214,705, including 235,108 non-nationals. Formerly an emirate, Bahrain was declared a kingdom in 2002.Bahrain is...
following its violent repression of protests by Shia citizens during the Arab Spring
Arab Spring
The Arab Spring , otherwise known as the Arab Awakening, is a revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests occurring in the Arab world that began on Saturday, 18 December 2010...
. The timing of Trippi's involvement with the Bahraini government coincides with their efforts to buy arms from US manufacturers .
Personal life
He currently resides on the Eastern Shore of Maryland with his wife Kathleen Lash. He has three children from a previous marriage: Christine Marie Trippi (born 1986), James Ellis Trippi (born 1988) and Ted Casey Trippi (born 1991).Published work
- The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Democracy, the Internet, and the Overthrow of EverythingThe Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Democracy, the Internet, and the Overthrow of EverythingThe Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Democracy, the Internet, and the Overthrow of Everything is a book written by Joe Trippi and published in 2004 by ReganBooks. The book describes Trippi's steps on running the campaign for Howard Dean on the Internet...
(2004) (ISBN 0-06-076155-5)
Quotes
- "There is only one tool, one platform, one medium that allows the American people to take their government back, and that's the Internet."
- "Politics is a strangely addictive game."
- "You gotta believe."
- "You just don't get it."
- "It doesn't get much better than this"
- "Ron Paul is the Republican version of John Edwards. Apparently Democrats have a better name."
- "So, in the NBC debate, Gephardt takes out a .357 Magnum and blows Bambi's head off."
External links