http://xuk.biz/UKLR/Landslide/excalibur/Guardian/Guardian%20Unlimited%20Politics%20%20Election%202001%20%20Comment%20putting%20the%20dirt%20back%20into%20politics.htmPutting the dirt back into politics
US Democrat Bob Mulholland introduced Labour to the Excalibur computer system, and they haven't looked back since
Ed Harriman
Thursday May 31, 2001
The Guardian
Bob Mulholland is the US Democrats' leading dirty trickster. He's been an informal adviser to Millbank for years. Mulholland is widely hated by American Republicans, especially in his home state of California."That guy's brought political discourse down to a new low level," Mike Madrid, former political director of California's Republican party recently told me. He thinks that Mulholland is totally cynical, destroying opponents personally and driving down voter turnout. "Total scumbag," said one of his colleagues.
You might say that with Republicans carping like that, Mulholland must be doing something right. But no, Labour wants him kept in the closet.
Which is a pity. Because Mulholland has played a key role as Labour has remodelled itself on cut-throat US politics. He's also shown them the black arts of how to rubbish opponents with their powerful Excalibur com puter, about which Millbank is so secretive.
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http://www.newsreview.com/chico/Content?oid=oid%3A26661Bob Mulholland
Clever consultant plays party politics
Political columnists have dubbed Bob Mulholland a "bad boy" and recounted his push-the-envelope attempts to forge wins for the Democratic Party, for which he is a strategist and spokesman.
In recent years, he's helped make Tony Blair's Labor Party more "cutthroat," as the industry journal Political Professional described it, quoting Mulholland as saying, "People don't remember the good things about your guy. They remember the bad things about the other guy. That's what sticks. You gotta go negative to win."
Mulholland is known for his penchant for so-called dirty tricks. In a well-known incident that got him temporarily suspended by the party, he showed up at a campaign event (in Chico) and hollered out that Sen. Barbara Boxer's Republican opponent liked to go to nudie bars. The story got picked up statewide, and five days later Boxer narrowly won.
Republican consultant Dan Schnur called Mulholland "the troll under the bridge of California politics," but in Chico circles Mulholland is considered funny and personable.
The Vietnam veteran has been on Larry King Live and served as a delegate to the Democratic National Committee.
Locally, though, Mulholland's wife, longtime Butte County Supervisor and former A.S. President Jane Dolan, is arguably better known.
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