Press Release: Bay Area Council To Hold “Battle Of The Pundits” Discussion On November Elections With Garry South and Jon Fleischman
The Bay Area Council is holding a discussion on the November elections this Thursday, September 23, 2010, with widely respected Democratic political strategist Garry South and famous California conservative commentator Jon Fleischman. The “Battle of the Pundits” discussion will be moderated by Joe Garofoli, the San Francisco Chronicle’s politics and media reporter.
“Garry and Jon are known for three things: politics, punditry and pugnaciousness,” said Jim Wunderman, President & CEO of the Bay Area Council. “They are also two of California’s most respected and sought after political consultants and commentators. It will definitely be an afternoon filled with fireworks.”
WHO: Jim Wunderman, President & CEO, Bay Area Council
Garry South, Democratic Political Strategist, Principal of The Garry South Group
Jon Fleischman, Founder and Publisher of FlashReport.org, President of the Fleischman Consulting Group
Joe Garofoli, San Francisco Chronicle Politics and Media Reporter (Moderator)
WHAT: Discussion on the November elections
WHERE: Wells Fargo Boardroom
420 Montgomery St., Penthouse
San Francisco, CA 94104
WHEN: 4pm – 5pm
Thursday, September 23, 2010###
*** All media planning to attend should RSVP to jarellano@bayareacouncil.org, (415) 946-8725 ***
About the speakers:
Jon Fleischman is the founder and publisher of FlashReport.org, which was formerly the FlashReport e-mail newsletter on California Politics. FlashReport.org. The primary mission of the website is to advance the conservative cause here in the Golden State. Dubbed the “Matt Drudge of California” by Congressman Darrell Issa, Fleischman’s commentary and insights are read by over 25,000 unique visitors each day. to the website.
Professionally, Jon is the President of the Fleischman Consulting Group, a consulting firm which specializes in governmental, public and political affairs at the local, state, and national levels.
Jon was elected in February of 2007 to the position of Vice Chairman, South, of the California Republican Party. In this post, he serves on the party’s Board of Directors, and is a liaison between the CRP and the counties of Orange, Riverside, San Diego and Imperial.
Garry South, Principal of The Garry South Group, has been called the “Carville of California” by The New York Times, and “one of the top political strategists in the Democratic Party” by DailyKos.net, one of the nation’s most influential political blogs. Newsweek described him as “a one-man brain trust on the battlements of Fort California.” The National Journal finds him “shrewd and widely feared.” The Hotline labeled South the “über California Democratic strategist.”
South has 37 years’ experience at very high levels in government, politics and business consulting. He has worked for both the federal government and state governments in three different states, including as Special Assistant to a U.S. Cabinet Secretary, Senior Political Advisor to a Governor, Communications Director to another Governor, Chief of Staff to a Lieutenant Governor and Public Information Director of a State Legislature.
In addition, he has managed or played leading roles in campaigns for President, U.S. Senate, Governor, Lieutenant Governor, State Legislature, County Executive, County Supervisor, Mayor and City Council, and served as Midwest Regional Finance Director of the Democratic National Committee.
Joe Garofoli writes about politics for the Chronicle. Over his two-decade career in the Bay Area, he has also written about media and culture, the “culture” portion being a ridiculously large umbrella under which huddle his stories about SM dominatrixes, the Raider Nation, and former California gubernatorial candidate Mary Carey.
A native Pittsburgher and obsessive Steelers fan, his family offers a different window into the political system. During Prohibition, a couple of his (now deceased) elderly cousins cut a hole in the bottom of wooden ballot boxes, then when the ballots dropped to a floor below, the then-teens invalidated them to favor the candidate preferred by the local mob boss. God bless America. (His mother hates this story, insists they were not from her side of the family and NOT blood relatives.)
He is a Northwestern University graduate who has written extensively about the peace movement, made up a beat called “Red-and-Blue” to examine the nation’s divisions, been personally mocked on-air by both Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly, and traveled to swing states during the 2004 and 2008 election. And won a bunch of regional and national awards.
As a sign of either his versatility, ineptitude or short attention span, he has covered two Olympic games, Seventh Avenue fashion shows, national political conventions, the Jeffrey Dahmer serial killings and his own vasectomy — which he discussed on NPR’s “Talk of the Nation” after being told he couldn’t say the word “balls” on the air. He can be found on Twitter @joegarofoli and Facebook and at The Chronicle’s Politics Blog, where he is one half of the production crew of its infamous video crew called Shaky Hand Productions.
