How local farm boy grew up to become campaign manager in high-profile U.S. Senate race.
Reiff
By Tom Murse
Published Apr 01, 2006 14:30
“I would ride my bike to school early to go through the newspapers,” recalls Reiff, now 38.
His teacher, a Plain woman, greeted him enthusiastically every morning.
“We would have a friendly debate about current events,” he said. “She was a big Democrat, and at the time I was a big fan of Ronald Reagan. She would challenge me and take a different perspective, and I’d have to go research facts and come back with another argument, a better argument.”
Those spirited, early-morning give-and-takes with his teacher 25 years ago ago played an important role in who Reiff is today — a successful Democratic political strategist now overseeing Bob Casey Jr.’s U.S. Senate campaign.
“She instilled a passion in me, got me interested and focused, and challenged me to get my facts straight and do my research,” said Reiff, a 1986 graduate of Lancaster Mennonite High School.
With Casey’s endorsement by the Democratic Committee of Pennsylvania one week ago, Reiff now finds himself in the midst of one of the most high-profile election contests in the nation.
Casey is trying to unseat U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, a two-term Republican, in November. And if the Democrat can survey his party’s three-way primary on May 16, statewide polls forecast an upset victory for the challenger.
For Reiff, serving as the top strategist for the apparent front-runner in such a high-profile race is indeed a world away from the Elizabeth Township farm on which he grew up.
And transition from Mennonite farm boy to political strategist was not an easy one.
As the only son among the family’s four children, Reiff was expected to eventually to take over the family farm. But despite his early success in agriculture — in 1984 he won a three-county beef show, and a year later was named the “Outstanding 4-H’er” here — it was not to be.
Reiff’s passion for politics and world affairs was too intense. “I grew up without a TV. I always had my nose in a book as a result. My favorite subjects were history, current events, biographies,” he said.
His interest in farming waned.
“I have great respect and admiration for farmers,” Reiff says now, “but if you’ve had the opportunity of cleaning out chicken houses in the middle of an August day, you can understand why my thoughts went to other vocational opportunities.
“My passion kept going back to current events and politics,” he remembers.
Reiff eventually broke the news to his father. He didn’t want to farm.
“It was a tough call. Something I struggled with for a while,” Reiff recalls. “Every father wants their son to follow in their footsteps. I have a great respect for what he did. He taught me a lot of very good lessons.
“My family has been farming in Lancaster County for generations, and I didn’t break that chain without a certain amount of hesitation,” he said.
Reiff headed off to college, first to the University of Delaware and then American University in Washington, D.C., and his father eventually sold the farm and moved. The elder Reiff, a widower, now lives in Akron, and his three daughters remain in the county.
The young college student got his first taste of politics in 1988, volunteering for Michael Dukakis’ campaign for president. After that, he says, he was hooked on politics.
After graduation, he landed in Richmond, Va., and was hired to manage a Democratic campaign for clerk of courts there, in 1995. He later worked on state legislative races there and was successful in connecting with voters.
“I found that textile workers in southwest Virginia had a lot in common with the Mennonite farmers from Lancaster — in the values they hold: family and hard work, a handshake is a handshake,” Reiff says.
“That’s how a lot of people in Lancaster County operate. Your word is your word.”
Later, Reiff moved to Raleigh, N.C., and went on to manage Gov. Mike Easley’s successful campaigns in 2000 and 2004. In between, he handled South Carolina Gov. James H. Hodges’ unsuccessful re-election campaign in 2002.
“That one pains me today,” Reiff says. “I hate losing. History will prove (Hodges) was a good governor.”
Being a campaign manager, Reiff says, “isn’t everybody’s cup of tea. But the one thing I like about campaigns is that there is such a clear marker as to your success or failure — on Election Day.”
After the 2004 Easley race, Reiff was traveling in New Zealand when he got an e-mail saying Casey had announced he was running for U.S. Senate and was looking for a campaign manager.
“Bob called me when I got back and asked me to come to Pennsylvania and sit down and chat,” Reiff says. “We had long conversations, just about everything, where we’re from, what our values are.”
In April of 2005, Casey announced he had picked the county native to manage his campaign. At the time Reiff was working as an aide to North Carolina State Treasurer Richard Moore, a potential 2008 gubernatorial candidate.
But he took an official leave and moved, temporarily, to Philadelphia, where Casey’s campaign headquarters is based. Reiff visits his family here often.
“My three older sisters keep me grounded,” he says. “They’re not shy about sharing their opinions with me. I call them my focus group. They let me know when they think things are bad.”
The funny thing is, most of his relatives are Republicans.
“It makes for interesting dinner-table conversations,” Reiff laughs. “Growing up you would hear, ‘Vote Republican. They’ll balance the budget and keep us out of war.’ But look what happened. We’re given record deficits and a war with no apparent end.”
Reiff doesn’t find it unusual that he is a Democrat who was raised in a household of conservative Republicans. “If you’re into Anabaptist history, government wasn’t such a good thing,” he says.
Reiff now oversees more than 20 campaign staffers working on the Casey campaign. He role is much like that of his sixth-grade teacher at Lititz Mennonite a quarter century ago.
“When they come in and say, ‘What if we do this?’ I always challenge them and say, ‘Can you explain in one sentence how this will help get Bob Casey elected?’” Reiff says.
“Sometimes they can,” he says. “Sometimes they scratch their heads and have to come back with a better answer.”
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