Veteran New Jersey GOP strategist Chris Russell is kicking off 2018 with a new endeavor, Save Jerseyans: a new political consulting firm called “Checkmate Strategies.”
New York operative Michael Lawler is Russell’s partner for Checkmate, and the Tuesday morning roll out for the new organization, with offices in New Jersey and New York, included an announcement that former Tom MacArthur campaign manager and right-hand man for NJ Senate Republican Leader Tom Kean, Jr., Harrison Neely, would serve as a senior vice-president.
“Tough races aren’t won with cookie cutter campaigns, and challenging environments aren’t overcome with paint-by-numbers strategies,” said Russell and Lawler in a joint statement obtained by Save Jersey.
Russell’s extensive New Jersey client list includes Congressman MacArthur (R, NJ-03), outgoing Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli’s 2017 gubernatorial primary campaign, and a host of other local, county-level and legislative campaigns throughout the state.
Lawler is the former Executive Director of the New York Republican State Committee and the political professional who managed Rob Astorino’s 2014 gubernatorial campaign, the candidate who had a very public spat with Chris Christie while the latter led the RGA.
The pair’s joint enterprise comes at a time when Republicans in both Northeastern “blue” states have fallen on hard times and are anticipating a challenging 2018 Midterm cycle.
“Whether it’s winning on Election Day, advancing public policy initiatives, or managing crisis communications, our objective will be to put clients in the best position to succeed by identifying key constituencies and stakeholders, and then developing and delivering messages that move and motivate them into action. We look forward to the challenges and opportunities that await our new firm, and are excited to bring Harrison on board to help us tackle them,” the co-founders added.
