Ed Blakely: GOP Media Trailblazer & Trendsetter

Over the course of a career focused on political media, Ed Blakely helped innovate within Republican politics that led to the modernization of the media arms of campaign committees of both parties. After a stint in US Amry intelligence, Ed spent nearly 20 years at the NRCC before joining the GOP media firm of Smith & Harroff. In this conversation, Ed talks his efforts to modernize political media at the NRCC, his favorite story of filming President Reagan in the Oval Office, memories from John McCain’s first US Senate race in 1986, and much more across an incredibly interesting and influential career in politics.

IN THIS EPISODE

Ed grows up in Hawaii after his father dies in WWII…

The somewhat famous (if confidential) film that Ed produced after being drafted into the US Army…

Ed’s brush with fame as the youngest disc jockey in Hawaii…

How Ed’s path led to political media at the NRCC…

Some of Ed’s favorite stories of filming ads with President Reagan in the Oval Office…

Ed talks the media innovations he brought to the NRCC that ultimately helped modernize the operations of both parties…

Why Ed came back to the NRCC after being at a private agency for over a decade…

Ed’s memories of Newt Gingrich’s ascent in the House GOP…

Why Ed left the NRCC after more than a decade in the mid 80s & where he landed…

Ed helps elect John McCain in 1986 in his first race for US Senate…

Ed gives an impromptu history lesson of jingles in political TV ads…

Ed talks his approach to fostering new Republican media talent that paid dividends…

Ed’s stints in the public sector…

AND Creighton Abrams, Roger Ailes, Army Intelligence, Bailey-Deardorff, Baltimore, Katja Bullock, Jay Bryant, Edward Butler, Tom Delay, Bob Ehrlich, the fickle finger of fate, Gerald Ford, Barry Goldwater, Bobby Goodman, Peter Hannaford, Denny Hastert, Humphrey Browning MacDougall, Jim Innocenzi, LBJ, JFK, kinescope, The Lincoln Memorial, Bob Livingston, Robin Luke, Robert McNamara, Morning in America, Chris Mottola, Oahu, the Pentagon, Chip Pickering, radio actualities, Hal Riney, Santa Monica, slow boats, Smith & Harroff,  Olympia Snowe, The Sound of Music, speech modules, Steven Spielberg, John Sununu, The Tuesday Team, USC, Guy Vander Jagt, The Washington Post, Watergate, Henry Waxman, whistlestops, Don Young … & more!