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Mark interviews political strategist Ed Rollins. · The Mark Simone Show

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now more mark mark simone now nine till noon weekdays
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: on 710 wor.
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  Speaker 2: Well let's talk to the dean himself ed rollins nobody's
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: run more campaigns more successful campaigns been involved in more
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: elections than ed rollins and uh he knows everything about
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: this stuff ed rollins how you doing.
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  Speaker 1: I'm doing well thank you good morning uh let me
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  Speaker 1: just preface this so i don't think I don't think
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  Speaker 1: anybody knows totally what's going on out there.
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  Speaker 3: We now have early voting already on. Obviously, it's a
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  Speaker 3: very competitive, we've got four or five of these Senate
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  Speaker 3: races that are dead even.
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  Speaker 1: I think when we began this premise, we assumed that
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  Speaker 1: Republicans were going to lose the House because traditionally you
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  Speaker 1: lose in the midterms. No one thought the Republicans were
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  Speaker 1: going to be challenged in the Senate.
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  Speaker 3: They certainly are, and I.
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  Speaker 1: Think to a certain extent that's a lot of the
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  Speaker 1: focus on two weeks from time.
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  Speaker 3: That's what we'll be sitting up late at night waiting
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  Speaker 3: to watch.
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  Speaker 2: All right. Now let me ask you some questions that
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  Speaker 2: a lot of listeners ask this kind of stuff.
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  Speaker 3: Sure.
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  Speaker 2: Especially here in New York, it's a election day. You
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  Speaker 2: go to the polls or even early. How do you
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  Speaker 2: know we don't have much of a Republican party here.
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  Speaker 2: Is there anybody watching the workers at the polls or
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  Speaker 2: the make sure the ballots are correctly?
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  Speaker 1: You get some lawyers that volunteer all the time and
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  Speaker 1: go out and look at it, but we don't.
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  Speaker 3: Have a strong organization. Democrats have the labor unions.
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  Speaker 1: They've been through this process, and they control a lot
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  Speaker 1: of the mechanisms.
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  Speaker 3: We have a very competitive race, hopefully, for governor.
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  Speaker 1: We don't know at this point, but I think Blakeman
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  Speaker 1: has made a good campaign here, and we'll see.
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  Speaker 3: Everything else is pretty much... I just did my absentee
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  Speaker 3: ballot yesterday, and.
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  Speaker 3: As a, as a lifelong Republican.
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  Speaker 1: It's not, not, I couldn't find much to vote for after,
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  Speaker 1: after I checked Blakeman's name.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Okay. Let's take Bruce Blakeman. For instance, he was like
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  Speaker 2: 20 points behind. Now he's pretty close. It looks good.
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  Speaker 2: What the last, we're in the last two weeks. What,
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  Speaker 2: what do you do for a campaign when you're in
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  Speaker 2: the last two weeks? What, what changes? What do you
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  Speaker 2: do then?
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  Speaker 1: Well, the critical thing is making sure your, your, your
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  Speaker 1: workers are, are geared up. They're ready to go there. It's,
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  Speaker 1: it's all about getting out the boat. Uh, and, And,
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  Speaker 1: you know, parts of New York are very hard. The
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  Speaker 1: city itself with the apartments, you can't go knock on
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  Speaker 1: doors and you can't take voters to the polls.
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  Speaker 3: But hopefully there's a structure that's going to get voters out.
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  Speaker 3: You know, call them up, say, do you need a
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  Speaker 3: ride to the polls? Do you need this? Do you
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  Speaker 3: need that? But again, we don't have the organization. We
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  Speaker 3: don't have the labor unions.
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  Speaker 1: You can bet every labor union is out there intensely
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  Speaker 1: on the other side. I think even though Blakeman's got
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  Speaker 1: the cops endorsements and what have you.
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  Speaker 3: They don't go out and walk precincts.
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  Speaker 1: They don't, you know, they give endorsements, but they don't
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  Speaker 1: do the mechanism.
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  Speaker 3: That organized labor has and other structures.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the problem. The Democrats have an army out
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  Speaker 2: there in New York to get people.
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  Speaker 3: And they keep the army going, you know.
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  Speaker 1: When the election's over, it's a full-time job, and they hire.
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  Speaker 3: Some of the best people.
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  Speaker 1: So the key thing here, I think, in this one,
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  Speaker 1: you know, the Democrats may be more intensely Republicans have
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  Speaker 1: more money.
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  Speaker 3: Are they spending it right?
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  Speaker 4: I don't know.
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  Speaker 3: I sit here in Upper East Side in New York
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  Speaker 3: and watch the thing from afar.
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  Speaker 1: I talk to people around the country, and I can
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  Speaker 1: just tell you, everybody is very worried about this race.
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  Speaker 1: And the key thing is, we don't know whether the
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  Speaker 1: president's helping us or not. I mean, what he is
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  Speaker 1: doing is he's dominating the media, as he always does.
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  Speaker 1: But is he talking about the issues that we need
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  Speaker 1: to be talking about? And if I was the White
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  Speaker 1: House political director, which I was many years ago, I'd
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  Speaker 1: be saying, we have a mission to finish, Mr.
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  Speaker 3: President.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you for what you've done. We need a Republican majority.
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  Speaker 1: We need a Republican Senate majority, certainly, to continue to
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  Speaker 1: finish the job. You haven't heard that conversation. What you've
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  Speaker 1: heard is all about, I did this, I did that,
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  Speaker 1: I did this. It's all the stuff we've heard, and
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  Speaker 1: I think to a certain extent it's not. I see
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  Speaker 1: a lot of.
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  Speaker 3: Energy going into these rallies and what have you, but
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  Speaker 3: I don't see a lot of votes coming out of it.
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  Speaker 2: Hey, New York city, the problem, uh, Republicans don't have
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  Speaker 2: much of a party and all they got are these
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  Speaker 2: Republican clubs and all they do is throw cocktail parties
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  Speaker 2: and take pictures of them.
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  Speaker 3: So I, I agree.
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  Speaker 1: It's been, you know, it's been, it's been the same
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  Speaker 1: chairman for a long time. And, and, uh, the Manhattan
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  Speaker 1: chairman's been the same.
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  Speaker 3: And, you know, Ms.
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  Speaker 1: Castormedes is a young woman and she does the best
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  Speaker 1: she can do to recruit candidates. But, you know, we, we,
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  Speaker 1: we've not made progress.
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  Speaker 3: We don't, uh, uh, you know, it's just, and I
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  Speaker 3: think if we, for.
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  Speaker 1: Some reason, don't win this governor's race, we've got to
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  Speaker 1: tear this thing apart and figure out what we want
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  Speaker 1: to do in the post-Trump period.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. The Trump rallies, whatever's wrong with them, that's one thing,
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  Speaker 2: but they do use those to sign up, get the emails,
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  Speaker 2: get the phone numbers of everybody there. That's going to
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  Speaker 2: help because they can push them to go.
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  Speaker 3: Well, hopefully, I don't know what the step is afterwards.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, that goes back.
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  Speaker 1: To you know, usually you can't do much in the
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  Speaker 1: last two weeks of a campaign.
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  Speaker 3: You've got to be in place and you've got to
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  Speaker 3: have everything ready.
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  Speaker 1: And I think to a certain extent, you know, when
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  Speaker 1: you look at, you know, probably every predictor is predicting
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  Speaker 1: anywhere from 15 to 25 seats that we're going to
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: lose in the House.
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: Are we fully in those 25 seats?
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  Speaker 1: That's the key that I need to know and I
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: don't know. In the Senate races, you know, we've got Alaska, Iowa.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: We've got seats we should never have ever been competitive.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: Alaska's been ours for a long time. Iowa's been ours
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: for a long time. Maine has been ours for a
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  Speaker 1: long time. Michigan has been ours for a long time.
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  Speaker 1: And now we're going to fight for all of us.
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  Speaker 1: And North Carolina's gone, and that's a race that's always ours.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: And South Carolina, where Lindsey Graham has been for a
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  Speaker 1: long time, is just not a good candidate.
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  Speaker 3: She may win it. I hope she does. But she's
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  Speaker 3: not a good candidate. And Kansas, my goodness.
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: You know, we haven't had a Democrat win the Kansas
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  Speaker 4: Senate race since the 20s. When you're worried about Kansas, Iowa, Texas,
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  Speaker 4: and Alaska and South Carolina, then you know you've got
• 6:24
  Speaker 4: a tough year. We may get it, but it's just
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  Speaker 4: a lot of concerns I have, and I think the
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  Speaker 4: professionals all have, too.
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  Speaker 2: I want you to explain something to people, because you
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: run a lot of campaigns. And actually, the last time
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  Speaker 2: we had a billionaire trying to run for president was
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: Ross Perot. You ran that campaign.
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  Speaker 1: Right.
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: Everybody always, you know, they'll yell and scream. You got
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: to tell Trump to stop doing this. Tell him to
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: stop saying this. Tell him to explain to people. You
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: can't tell anybody like that to stop doing something, can you?
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  Speaker 3: No, no, you can't.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: And, and, and Trump, Trump has, you can go back
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  Speaker 1: to what he was in New York.
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: He's the same, same man.
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  Speaker 1: He's the same, you know, a lot more experienced than
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  Speaker 1: a national forum, but he believes in himself and his
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: people around him basically are not going to walk in
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  Speaker 1: and say, uh, Mr.
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: President, you shouldn't do this.
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: Mr.
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  Speaker 3: President, you're going to go here whether you want to
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  Speaker 3: or not. Trump's going to do what Trump wants to do.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: That's just the reality of it. Anybody who stands in
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  Speaker 1: his way or tries to change his mind is going
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  Speaker 1: to happen.
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  Speaker 2: You must have gone through that with Ross Perot. He
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  Speaker 2: was a very successful billionaire.
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: He didn't know anything about politics.
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  Speaker 1: There was a period in time when I was first
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: running the campaign where he was ahead. He was at 39%
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  Speaker 1: of the poll and bush and and uh clinton were
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: behind him uh he could have been a viable candidate
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: but he he chose to not do the things you
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: need to do.
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  Speaker 3: You got to run a campaign and there's there's three.
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  Speaker 1: Major things in a campaign one is you can have
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  Speaker 1: a district you can win in uh or a state
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  Speaker 1: you can win in second you have to have a
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  Speaker 1: candidate who is a good candidate uh and you got
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: to have run a good campaign if you have those
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  Speaker 1: three things you can win if you don't have you're
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  Speaker 1: missing one of those along the line uh if you
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: have an overwhelmingly Democrat can't, uh, district, you're not going
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  Speaker 1: to win it.
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: Uh, New York, you know, going down the ballot here yesterday.
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: There's, there's, you know, as for 25 years, I've looked
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  Speaker 1: for people to vote in this city because I'm Republican.
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: There aren't many, aren't many.
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: So, uh, Hey, Ed Rollins, I'm trying to remember what
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  Speaker 2: happened to Reagan in the midterms. Did, did he lose
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: both houses?
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: I know we, we held it. We held the Senate. Uh,
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: we lost the Senate the second time. Uh, What happened
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: is we had a big victory in 80. We picked up,
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: we got up to 192 seats, which was a big gain.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: And then the Democrats took reapportionment and they changed, they
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: redid it.
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: So we lost 14 seats in the 82 cycle. And
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: then basically we held the Senate until 86 and then
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  Speaker 3: we lost the Senate.
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  Speaker 2: Now, of course, 84, you ran that campaign. That was
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  Speaker 2: the most successful presidential campaign ever, Reagan re-election. You could
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: have had 50 states. You deliberately gave up Minnesota, didn't you?
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  Speaker 3: I didn't spend any effort there.
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  Speaker 1: I gave the chairman, who was Congressman Weber, a good guy,
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: I gave him $ 10, 000 to open a headquarters.
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  Speaker 3: Never spent a penny.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: Went there one last day of the campaign.
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  Speaker 3: We went to the airport and stood there for 15 minutes.
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  Speaker 3: And the president wasn't anxious. The president wasn't greedy in
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  Speaker 3: any way.
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: He didn't want to embarrass Mondale.
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  Speaker 3: If I knew it was that close, I'd have still
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  Speaker 3: gone in and I could have won it.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, but basically he didn't want to embarrass Mondale, so
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  Speaker 2: he let him have his own.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: He didn't want to embarrass Mondale, and we lost it.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: A shift of 1,700 votes would have won it.
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: For those of you young people, there was a thing
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: back then called courtesy in an election.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: And the other thing, we never ran a negative campaign.
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: It wasn't a negative campaign.
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: On our side at all. And it was all about.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: What we had done and kind of a feel-good campaign.
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: And the only negative campaign, as Mondale said in the convention, I'm.
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: Going to raise your taxes. Reagan isn't.
• 10:17
  Speaker 4: Reagan won't.
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: And we ran that camp. We just repeated his message.
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: So that's the only negative thing we did.
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: Well, that was the all-time greatest campaign. But Ed Rollins,
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  Speaker 2: brilliant as always. Thanks for being with us. We'll do
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: it again soon.
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: My pleasure. Take care.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: Bye-bye.
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: Take care. Hey, don't forget at noon, Buck Sexton and
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: Clay Travis. That's a really good, informative show every day,
• 10:37
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• 10:40
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• 10:43
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• 10:47
  Speaker 2: Fallon with a Brilliant show every night, 9 o'clock, here
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: on 710WOR.