GOP strategist at center of 2 big campaigns

Romney and Brown rely on Fehrnstrom

October 06, 2011|By Mark Arsenault, Globe Staff

In January 2010, he was the golden boy, the political operative who helped Scott Brown pull off what many had thought impossible: wresting Edward M. Kennedy’s old US Senate seat from the Democrats.

Since then, however, victories have been elusive for Republican strategist Eric Fehrnstrom, whose consulting group has lost its last six races.

Fehrnstrom is now trying to return to reprise his victorious ways as he juggles two of the most prominent campaigns in the country: Mitt Romney’s effort to turn his on-again, off-again front-runner status into a term in the White House, and Brown’s effort to fend off a suddenly strong challenge for his seat.

Winning both would not only emphatically end the losing streak, but would also make Fehrnstrom one of the few former ink-stained denizens of the news business to become a winning operative in the stratosphere of American politics. The most famous is probably David Axelrod, who transitioned from Chicago Tribune scribe to trusted voice in Barack Obama’s ear.

The Boston-born Fehrnstrom was schooled in politics as a reporter for the Boston Herald and then as a spokesman on Beacon Hill.

“He’s the best operative on the Romney campaign,’’ said Mike Murphy, the strategist who directed Romney’s 2002 run for Massachusetts governor. “I think he’s the secret weapon.’’

Fehrnstrom, 50, who declined to be interviewed, is the iron hand behind his candidates’ standoffish relationships with reporters. He enforces tight discipline on the campaign to never stray from message, while limiting unscripted encounters between the candidate and the press. He is known to lash out personally at reporters he feels are too critical of his clients.

He is also known for breaking the golden rule of political operatives: never let the story be about you.

In August, Fehrnstrom inadvertently unmasked himself as the author of CrazyKhazei, a Twitter account that mocked Democratic US Senate candidate Alan Khazei. The disclosure, made when Fehrnstrom apparently sent a tweet from the wrong account, forced Brown to publicly promise that his campaign would refrain from similar shenanigans in the future.

The Twitter snafu “shows that Eric doesn’t take off his warrior uniform,’’ said Charles Baker III, a former campaign adviser to Senator Edward M. Kennedy and the Kerry-Edwards 2004 presidential campaign. “But I assume that’s why Scott Brown said he’s keeping him. They view him as an essential part of their team. You dance with the one who brought you.’’

Fehrnstrom, of Brookline, and his political consulting firm, The Shawmut Group, were hot property after they guided Brown to his astonishing victory. Even political opponents developed a healthy respect for Fehrnstrom’s tactical skills.