Mike DuHaime Analyzes the NJ Gubernatorial Race

Mike DuHaime, Republican Strategist and Partner at Mercury, shares how he believes gubernatorial candidates, Phil Murphy and Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno, will run their campaigns. DuHaime also provides analysis on President Trump’s discourse during the presidential primary, and how The Apprentice helped him win his seat in the oval office.

7/1/17 #112

Excerpt:

"Welcome to State of Affairs I'm Steve Adubato coming to you from the Agnes Varis NJTV Studio in Newark New Jersey It is our pleasure to welcome Mike Duhaime Republican strategist and partner at Mercury Mercury is? A public affairs firm... High stakes public strategy. We do things like polling, advertising, crisis management PR, that type of work People have crisis? Mike also was one of the key political strategists for Governor Chris Christie and has worked on presidential campaigns as well? Rudy Giuliani, no? Back in the day?I managed Rudy's race. I worked on President George W. Bush's race as well and Senator McCain as well. So, a handful of them As young as you are, you've had incredible experiences on state and national political issues. The tone of our political discourse today Mike, as toxic as it appears? Yeah. It is. It's bad. I think you can talk about the reasons why, but it's not something new either. I think there's so much heightened anxiety now, we act as if it's new. The last election cycle. Now, maybe it was worse than usual, but it's certainly not new. Certainly, there's been time over I think the last 20 years where this has ebbed and flowed a little bit. It's at a peak now, but it's certainly not new. And quite frankly, it goes all the way back to the founding. I mean Thomas Jefferson and John Adams went at it in 1800 like people have never done before. They didn't have cable TV then, so it wasn't seen. And they also didn't have Twitter. Twitter. No, they had no Twitter at the time. So, let's do this. The impact that you see president Trump having A: on the discourse in our country and B: his ability to potentially get things done that matter in peoples lives which is how he got elected Yeah. Well, I'll take the second part first. I think the ability to get things done right now is being strangled by the day to day controversy. The more we talk about whether it's the Russia investigation or any controversy that comes up, the less we're talking about a bill on infrastructure. The less we're talking about tax reform. The less we're debating the merits of healthcare reform. Those are big weighty issues, but they're all sidetracked right now. Ultimately, he'll be judged and congress will be judged on whether or not they get things done and without the ability to have any kind of public discourse or debate, makes that all a lot harder If you were advising the president, how would you tell him..."