Tim Walz’s secret weapon

An interview with Campaign Manager Kerry Greeley

by Leigh Pomeroy

Though Tim Walz had been campaigning for Minnesota’s 1st Congressional District (MN1) seat since early 2005, he didn’t hire an official campaign manager till March of 2006, when he settled on Kerry Greeley, a former high level staffer on the John Kerry presidential campaign.

It was a bit of a stretch. In the two previous congressional campaigns in MN1, no DFLer had achieved more than 36% of the vote, nor had raised more than $125,000. So how did Ms. Greeley hook up with Walz? What did she see in him and the potential of the district? And what are her overall views on the campaign?

In the final week of 2006, she shared her insights with me via email.

Leigh Pomeroy: Tim Walz scored a stunning upset in Minnesota’s 1st Congressional District against 12-year incumbent Gil Gutknecht. You were Tim Walz’s campaign manager. You’re an East Coaster and a graduate of the Harvard School of Public Policy. How did you get involved with a campaign that seemed to have little chance in rural Minnesota?

Kerry Greeley: Tim and I found each other through an organization called Democratic GAIN. GAIN is a resource for candidates and campaign staff to post jobs and resumes. I was looking for a race that was not on everyone’s hot list. This was my first time as a Campaign Manager, and it was important to me to find a race that was winnable, a race that should be won, and one that I would be permitted to run on my own. In the hottest races, the DCCC or powerful consultants run the race, and often a campaign manager is a figurehead who carries out orders from others.

I interviewed candidates all over the country. I chose MN1 because the numbers showed that this was a truly 50-50 district