Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With help from Allie Bice. Send tips | Subscribe here| Email Eli | Email Lauren After eight years at the helm of one of the Democratic Party’s most powerful super PACs, GUY CECIL announced this week he was moving on. The Priorities USA chairman had an indelible impact on the political landscape and the Democratic Party. He raised more than $650 million during his tenure and helped produce more than 12,000 ads. He sat down with West Wing Playbook to talk about that legacy, the guilt — if any — he feels about the proliferation of money in politics, JOE BIDEN, what his party gets right about campaigns, what they get wrong, and more. Below is a condensed and edited version of our conversation. Have you ever felt a sense of conflict internally, knowing you're part of the problem with money in politics? I personally don't feel conflicted. I think that we have the campaign finance system that we have and my job at Priorities is to figure out how to most effectively put those resources to use. How skewed is politics by fundraising? When I was political director for the DSCC, I remember when we would set an aggressive benchmark of $1 million a quarter for a new candidate. Elissa Slotkin raised over a million dollars in one day. So on the candidate's side, I think in many ways some of the pressure has been released because there is so much small dollar and online fundraising. Has the role of super PACs evolved along with that? One of the most important roles of super PACs early on was in spending money early when candidates were just getting off the ground. Now, our job is to create an environment that helps the candidate... If you look at the advertising that we did in the last four years in particular, a good portion never mentions the candidate. It centers on the voter, which is a more effective way to communicate. What other discoveries have you made that have changed your view of politics? There was a real lack of year-round infrastructure on our side. We have organizations, appropriately so, focused on climate, LGBT rights, criminal justice, the labor movement and so on. We have donors and institutions that are very candidate driven. And what I thought we lacked was some institutional infrastructure, in particular, online. What’s the biggest mistake Democrats continue to make as a party? The thing I've been most focused on, not always successfully, is the data and analytics. We have too many Democrats that use data and analytics to divide and micro-target. We try to find the one thing to appeal to this specific type of voter. And I think it turns the voters, in many cases, into caricatures. Joe Biden doesn't strike me as a data and analytics guy. He seems to talk in a way that doesn't micro-target voters. That's why I think he's been successful. I think Barack Obama spoke that way. I think that Bill Clinton spoke that way. Are you surprised that Biden emerged as the standard bearer of the party at this particular juncture? I think it was silly to discount a vice president with a good amount of political experience and backing. But I think multiple people went through different iterations of who was most likely to win [in 2020] and who wasn't. The thing that was Biden's strength, and frankly it’s his strength as president, is he brings perspective and experience that means he’s not always sweating the small stuff. He knows the difference between the signal and the noise? Yes. And, look, by every measure, when you look at what he’s done legislatively, Joe Biden's first two years were among the most successful of any president. It’s just a fact. And I think it’s unlikely that would happen with anyone else running for president last cycle. So why are so many Democrats eager to move on from him? Democrats always like to bellyache and express anxiety and concern. It is our love language. Are you leaving Priorities to work on his campaign? I am not. But is that Shermanesque? Well, I haven't been asked. I haven’t talked to anyone about it. I don’t intend to do it. MESSAGE US — Are you RACHEL LIPSON, incoming senior policy adviser for the Commerce Department? We want to hear from you. And we’ll keep you anonymous! Email us at westwingtips@politico.com. Did someone forward this email to you? Subscribe here!
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