Fred Davis is no political spring chicken. He鈥檚 perhaps most famous for the 鈥渄emon sheep鈥� ad he produced in 2010 for US Senate candidate Carly Fiorina in California 鈥� you know, the one that featured a 鈥渨olf in sheep鈥檚 clothing鈥� with glowing red eyes.
But Mr. Davis apparently didn鈥檛 think about how explosive it would be for his Jeremiah Wright proposal to fall into the wrong hands. Someone gave the glossy 54-page proposal 颅鈥� professionally bound and illustrated with color photos 鈥� to the Times, and the story was on its way. Of course, Davis apparently thought the Wright ad campaign was a good idea, so we鈥檙e supposing that he might have thought having it leaked to the media wouldn鈥檛 be embarrassing. Maybe now Davis will lay off the whole Wright idea.
Brian Baker, the head of the Ricketts super PAC, is one political pro who for sure is rethinking how he handled the situation.
In the original Times story, Mr. Baker had said in an interview that no decision had been made on the Wright proposal. On Friday, he said he should have been more definitive.
鈥淚 meant we would not be doing it,鈥� said Baker on MSNBC. 鈥淚 could have been clearer, yes. When I said no decision had been made, that meant we are not moving forward."
Two other high-profile Republican strategists got roped into the mess: GOP pollster Whit Ayres and Becki Donatelli, who was the McCain campaign鈥檚 Internet strategist. The Times story said Davis had included them on his 鈥淩ecommended Team of Pirates鈥� who would carry out the ad campaign. But both said Thursday they had no upfront involvement with the proposal.
鈥淚 will tell you that the NYT assertion that I was involved in developing the proposal is flat wrong, and neither reporter called to verify that before printing it,鈥� Mr. Ayres said in an e-mail to the Los Angeles Times.
On Friday, Ayres deferred followup questions to Davis鈥檚 firm, Strategic Perception.
