‘Morning Drive’: Radio host’s path to punditry

In his book “Morning Drive,” radio talk show host and pundit Michael Smerconish writes about how he fell in love with politics and shares his opinion on hot-button issues. While in college, Smerconish worked on behalf of George H.W. Bush. In this excerpt, he shares some of the humorous and challenging dilemmas he faced as he delved into politics. An excerpt.

The doorman at the casino welcomed me, opened the door, and directed me to the second floor, which did indeed house a small casino with maybe a half-dozen blackjack tables. I took a seat and started to play next to an Asian guy. I had a drink when a cocktail waitress offered some booze. Not bad. I caught a good shoe, meaning lots of face cards that increased my odds, and I was enjoying the entire experience. Here I was, a college student, a frat guy, traveling with the vice president’s staff in Europe and playing some blackjack while sipping a White Russian. A White Russian. That cracks me up now just to think about it. I think I had no knowledge of liquor beyond beer, hence my strange order.

Anyway, I was soon making conversation with the dealer, and after replaying in my mind the speedy way in which I was shown the staircase to the casino, I asked the dealer what was downstairs. “A champagne bar,” was his reply. That sounded pretty nice. Before too long I was up $200. Why not a glass of champagne to finish a nice evening, I thought? Wait until the frat guys hear I polished off some Cold Duck or whatever, to boot. I cashed in my chips and headed for the stairs. The same doorman now pulled back another curtain to reveal the “champagne bar.” Once inside, it took a few seconds for my eyes to adjust to the dark. When I could see, I saw that I was the lone male in a room of about twenty women. Their clothing, or lack of it, left no doubt as to their employment. Oh, the guys at Zeta Psi were never going to believe this! Wait a minute. Was prostitution even legal in Brussels? (Yes, was the answer.) Panic quickly set in. I saw my work with the vice president pass before my eyes, so I asked somebody if there was a rear exit. There was and I took it. The last thing I recall about that night is jogging down an alley behind the casino/whorehouse, feeling like I was in a James Bond movie and hoping I didn’t get lost heading back to my hotel.

For a time, I was simultaneously maintaining my responsibilities in college, doing advance work for Vice President Bush, and increasing my political involvement at home in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. In our suburban community I was named the political equivalent of a city Ward Leader. Many a night I would drive one hour from campus to Bucks County to attend committeeperson meetings for the Republican Party, and then return to school. This involvement led to my being elected county-wide as an alternate delegate to the 1984 Republican National Convention. That summer’s convention was held in Dallas, and I was one of the youngest elected representatives at the national gathering.

After Lehigh, it was off to the University of Pennsylvania for law school, where my political involvement only increased. In my first year, I attended class and was a serious student. But in my second year of law school at Penn, I got diverted. The very seat that Dad had sought in the state legislature became open, and I decided to run for it myself, hoping to avenge my father’s loss. Despite my opening a full-time campaign office, raising more than $50,000, and running a pretty polished campaign, I lost by 419 votes. Though the campaign was unsuccessful, I’m still proud of my run for state legislature at the age of twenty-four.

When my own race ended, there was no way I could focus on just law school, so in my third and final year I played a significant role in two campaigns: Arlen Specter’s reelection to the U.S. Senate and the mayoral campaign of Frank L. Rizzo. In the fall of my third year at Penn Law, Senator Specter asked me to manage the city of Philadelphia portion of his campaign, and I said yes. His son Shanin and I were now close friends, and Shanin had been supportive of my run for the legislature. He told his father I had run a well-organized effort and that led his dad, Senator Specter, to invite me to join his campaign.

That 1986 Specter race is worthy of some mention. This was Arlen Specter’s first reelection campaign for the U.S. Senate and he was running against congressman Bob Edgar. Having lost his fair share of elections, Specter was determined to run hard. He had done a fine job raising money during his first term and was far better focused and financed than his opponent. That money enabled Specter to supplement the activities of the Republican Party where it had no presence — the minority wards of the city of Philadelphia. That’s where I came in. Gordon R. Woodrow Jr. was then Specter’s chief political strategist (and a great one), and “Whiskers,” as Specter called Gordon because of his beard, had asked me to try to build a street organization for Specter. We did, and were successful. At the top of the ticket that year was a hotly contested race for governor: Democrat Robert P. Casey (the now deceased father of the current U.S. senator of the same name) vs. Republican William Scranton III. On election day, Specter beat Bob Edgar but Bob Casey beat William Scranton. Why? Partly due to the fact that, while Specter lost the city to Edgar by 60,566 votes, Scranton lost the city vote to Casey by 134,515 votes. By holding down Specter’s loss in the city, we ensured his election statewide. Here’s how we did it.

Specter wanted to supplement the Republican apparatus where it existed and to field a street organization in the minority wards — and he was prepared to pay to get it done. I was charged with making it happen. We appointed a coordinator for each of a dozen regions and identified every single polling place in those areas. Next, we recruited poll workers for every one of those polling places where there was no Republican committee person; each would be paid $100 for manning a station from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Intercepting voters as they arrived to vote, our recruits would make a special pitch for Arlen Specter. It’s pretty basic stuff but not the norm when it comes to Republicans working the minority community. I developed a time-card system in which poll workers would have an identification card that would identify them and their polling place and have three lines for signatures from a supervisor who had checked on them during the day to make sure they were appropriately manning their polls. At the end of the day, they were to present their cards with three signatures to the same person who had signed them, and then they would get the $100 in cash. Simple enough, or so I thought.

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Our objective was to minimize Specter’s overall loss within the city of Philadelphia. Democrats outnumbered Republicans in the city at that time by a margin of four to one. The thinking was, if Specter could lose the city by a relatively small margin, he would win reelection, because the minimized city losses would be offset by gains in the remaining Republican portions of Pennsylvania. The program seemed like a great success; we covered the polls in the minority wards where the Republican Party had no committee people. There was, however, a relatively major glitch on election night. That afternoon, I had received a telephone call from Channel 10, then the Philadelphia CBS affiliate, asking me if I would be legendary anchor Larry Kane’s guest at 8:00 p.m., just as the polls closed. (Funny thing — I had met Larry Kane when I was working as a patio-furniture deliveryman for Mt. Lake Pool and Patio during high school. More on that later.)

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