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American political consultant (1945–2017)

Arthur Jay Finkelstein (May 18, 1945 – August 18, 2017) was a New York state based Republican Party (GOP) consultant who worked for conservative and right wing candidates in the United States, Canada, Israel, Central Europe, and Eastern Europe over four decades. With his brother, Ronald, Finkelstein ran a political consulting and survey research firm based in Irvington, New York. His specialties were polling, strategy, message, media, ad placement, and advising on general campaign management.

Finkelstein grew up in a lower middle class Jewish family, living in Brooklyn's East New York section until age 11, then in Levittown, New York, and later Queens. He and his two brothers attended local public schools; Finkelstein ultimately graduated from Forest Hills High School. Their parents were immigrants from Eastern Europe, and the father worked as a cabdriver and did various jobs in the garment trade. While a student at Columbia University, Finkelstein interviewed and helped produce radio programs for author/philosopher Ayn Rand, and was a volunteer at the New York headquarters of the Draft Goldwater Committee in 1963–64 (the famous "Suite 3505").

In 1968, Finkelstein did behind the scenes election analysis for NBC News, part of the network's team working under former Census director Richard M. Scammon and exit polling pioneer Irwin A. "Bud" Lewis. F. Clifton White, mastermind of the Draft Goldwater Committee, was Finkelstein's political patron and consulting partner in the early 1970s in the firm, DirAction Services. The young pollster's first electoral success came at age 25 in 1970, with the independent Conservative campaign of James L. Buckley for senator from New York. This was one of several New York statewide contests where he was able to maneuver his clients to victory in three way scenarios. Buckley won a plurality upset victory over GOP incumbent Charles Goodell and favored Democrat Richard Ottinger. Of that election night, Buckley later wrote, "By 10 pm, Finkelstein (my volunteer analyst who called the final results within one tenth of one percent based on a Sunday night telephone survey) assured me that I had won." Finkelstein encapsulated Buckley's message in the catchphrase, "Isn't it about time we had a Senator?" The 1972 election also saw the first of his three victorious campaigns to elect Jesse Helms as U. S. senator from North Carolina. After the election, Finkelstein worked with Helms political aides Tom Ellis and Carter Wrenn to establish a permanent conservative organization, the National Congressional Club, which lasted until 1995. Finkelstein and White went their separate ways in the mid 1970s, while Finkelstein worked for Ronald Reagan's insurgent campaign. He helped Helms's Congressional Club turn around the faltering Reagan effort with a victory in the April North Carolina primary. At Finkelstein's urging, Reagan made a major issue of the impending Panama Canal Treaties, which Gerald Ford was negotiating and which infuriated conservative voters. (This proved to be Reagan's signature issue throughout the late 1970s.) As Jules Witcover later reported, "Tens of thousands of Wallace voters were gradually cut adrift during his slide [in the primaries] and Reagan media man Arthur Finkelstein recruited a Wallaceite from Fort Worth to radio and television spots for Reagan It was dynamite." The Associated Press's Mike Robinson wrote Finkelstein was "viewed by many as instrumental in Gov. Reagan's 1976 primary successes in North Carolina and Texas."

Passage of the post Watergate Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) amendments, and the subsequent 1976 Supreme Court decision in Buckley v. Valeo, drastically altered the rules by which Presidential and Congressional contests were waged. Finkelstein was among the first to sense an opportunity, and pioneered the concept and execution of independent expenditure campaigns, which would operate as a third force in an election beyond the control of candidate or party officials. Its Executive Director was Finkelstein protégé Terry Dolan. In 1981 New Right activist Richard Viguerie wrote, "NCPAC relies heavily on research and polling, a reflection of one of its founders, conservative pollster Arthur Finkelstein." In 1978, NCPAC was instrumental in the defeat of Democrats Dick Clark in Iowa and Thomas J. McIntyre in New Hampshire. Both liberal senators were replaced by committed conservatives. NCPAC ran hard hitting ads for television, radio and newspapers, crafted by Finkelstein. A central idea behind the strategy was to expose the liberal words and actions in Washington of elected officials, usually senators, whose moderate or conservative public image at home was at odds with their actual voting record. NCPAC hit its peak in 1980, operating IEs in six states, its ads and organizing efforts helping to topple liberal Democrats in Iowa (John Culver), Indiana (Birch Bayh), Idaho (Frank Church) and South Dakota (George McGovern). Less well known were NCPAC's TV ads in the presidential contest, both negative (one featuring Jimmy Carter in a 1976 debate, another with Edward Kennedy shouting "And no more Jimmy Carter!") and positive (footage of Ronald Reagan speaking on values); Finkelstein concentrated these ad buys in closely contested Southern states (e. g., Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama), all of which switched from Carter to Reagan in 1980. Finkelstein believed in the usefulness of third forces to help conservatives win elections, but not a conservative third party (a much discussed option in the mid 1970s). At a February 1977 conference, he told activists, "The development of a third party may very well hurt conservative options in the future by diluting them," warning that traditional and emotional ties to party labels would keep many conservatives in their present parties. He said the Watergate scandal had cost the GOP the one clear advantage it had over the Democrats – the perception by voters that it was the more honest of the two parties. Nevertheless, he counseled against third party option, saying this would succeed only in drawing conservatives out of both parties, creating a weak satellite party and leaving the major parties more liberal. Besides NCPAC, Finkelstein found particular success during this period in guiding individual Senate and House campaigns. Reagan backer and political unknown Orrin Hatch won a resounding 56% victory in Utah in 1976 against a three term Democratic incumbent. In 1978, he was consultant to the successful re election campaigns of Jesse Helms in North Carolina and Strom Thurmond in South Carolina — the latter being Thurmond's last seriously contested race (he served until 2002, age 100). That same year, Finkelstein shepherded Carroll Campbell to his first win in South Carolina's Greenville area 4th Congressional District. After a brief interlude early in 1979 as adviser to conservative Congressman Phil Crane, Finkelstein returned as one of the pollsters advising Ronald Reagan's primary campaign. His services were also reportedly sought by the George H. W. Bush campaign. the improbable Senate victory of Long Island supervisor Alfonse D'Amato over incumbent Jacob Javits, another three way contest where the Democrat (Congresswoman Liz Holtzman) was favored. Most unlikely was the victory (aided by National Congressional Club allies) of John East in the North Carolina Senate contest; East was a little known professor who used a wheelchair, recruited for the race by Jesse Helms and elected through the efforts of Ellis, Wrenn, Finkelstein and the Helms organization. and 1980, Connecticut), and with Avi Nelson (1978, Massachusetts). Finkelstein was also pollster strategist for Maryland Congressman Robert Bauman, who narrowly lost his seat after he was charged in DC with homosexual solicitation, one month before the November election.

During the 1980 campaign Finkelstein was a Reagan pollster and had been "aboard the Reagan campaign" since mid 1979. from the early primary days all the way through November. Having ridden (and driven) the Republican wave of 1977–80, he found the 1980s a period of consolidation, helping clients grow their base and win re election. In 1981, Finkelstein was one of four pollsters designated to do work on behalf of the Reagan White House, paid by the Republican National Committee. (The others were Richard Wirthlin, Robert Teeter and Tully Plesser). Newsweek reported in 1982 that "each of the President's top three advisers has his own numbers man: "Wirthlin became Edwin Meese's pollster, Teeter became James Baker's and now Finkelstein has become Michael Deaver's." Throughout Reagan's first term and into the 1984 re election campaign, Finkelstein advised Deaver, conducting polls and planning events and visuals (e. g. Reagan's trip to France for the 40th anniversary of D Day). As The Washington Post reported: "For the White House, Finkelstein is more of an idea man than a pollster, specializing in media events such as the president's "spontaneous" drop ins on disadvantaged individuals and institutions." He also began dabbling in gubernatorial contests—in New Jersey (1981), for Jim Wallwork (defeated by Tom Kean in the GOP primary); and in New York (1982), for Paul Curran (defeated by Lewis Lehrman for the nomination). In 1982, Finkelstein client Orrin Hatch sailed to re election in Utah, while in Florida, banker Connie Mack III won his first campaign for the House. But his efforts on behalf of Democrat turned Republican Congressman Eugene Atkinson of Pennsylvania ended in defeat, as did the Congressional campaign in Westchester County of John Fossel, chairman of Oppenheimer Funds. and thereafter declined in influence. The pitfalls of running IEs and campaigns at the same time were illustrated when NCPAC was sued for running ads in early 1982 against New York Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan—around the same time as Finkelstein was working for GOP Senate candidate Bruce Caputo. In 1986, a federal court ruled against NCPAC, and The Washington Post editorialized, "Both NCPAC and the Caputo campaign used the same pollster, Arthur Finkelstein. They could hardly be said to be independent unless the Caputo side of Mr. Finkelstein's brain refrained from communicating with the NCPAC side." (Finkelstein himself was not sued or charged; ironically, Caputo's campaign had imploded after revelations he'd lied about serving in the military, and Moynihan was never seriously challenged.) As late as 1987, Finkelstein was doing surveys for NCPAC (e. g. in New Mexico). During the early 1980s, Finkelstein became involved in international polling, for groups such as Canada's National Citizens Coalition and (in 1986) the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario after losing their majority in the Ontario Legislature following the 1985 elections. The 1984 election cycle saw him involved in three pitched battles for the Senate, the most heralded being the challenge of Democratic Governor Jim Hunt to Helms in North Carolina. The Ellis Wrenn Finkelstein team used the permanent assets of the National Congressional Club to wage a three year campaign to undermine Hunt, However, this was the last Helms campaign on which Finkelstein would serve as pollster. Before Helms' 1990 re election campaign, Finkelstein told the North Carolina team he couldn't work for the Senator any more. According to Carter Wrenn the New Yorker was polite about it, didn't offer a reason and recommended one of his proteges, John McLaughlin, handle the survey and strategy work. At the time, Helms was becoming one of the leading critics of the gay rights movement. "I took it that Arthur wasn't comfortable with Jesse's stand on the social issues," Wrenn said, and chalked it up to Finkelstein's libertarian views. in overcoming a tough challenge from long time Democratic Congressman Norman D'Amours. But in Massachusetts, after winning a contested primary against Elliot Richardson, businessman Ray Shamie lost a close uphill battle to Lt. Gov. John Kerry for the Senate seat vacated by Paul Tsongas. Another client, Congressman Tom Corcoran, failed to dislodge incumbent Charles Percy from the Senate nomination in Illinois, despite tough ads (attributed to Finkelstein) suggesting Percy was personally close to PLO leader Yasser Arafat. His Congressional clients in 1984 included three New Yorkers – Joseph DioGuardi (who won election in Westchester County), Robert Quinn (who lost in Nassau County) and Serphin Maltese (who lost a close race for Geraldine Ferraro's seat in Queens). He helped guide Bill Cobey to an upset victory for Congress in North Carolina against incumbent Ike Andrews. In 1985, Finkelstein polled for the gubernatorial campaign of Virginia Attorney General Marshall Coleman, losing the nomination to Wyatt Durrette (who was then defeated by Democrat Gerald Baliles). Republicans lost their Senate majority in the November 1986 midterm elections. Nevertheless, Finkelstein's leading clients won re election — Alfonse D'Amato in New York, and Don Nickles in Oklahoma. However, his candidate to succeed John East in North Carolina, David Funderburk, lost his primary, and he fared no better in Ohio, where Congressman Tom Kindness made little headway against incumbent Sen. John Glenn as well as in Illinois, where state legislator Judy Koehler failed to dislodge Senator Alan Dixon. but failed to push State Sen. Ed Davis to victory in the California U. S. Senate primary. In 1985–87, Finkelstein was part of the team advising former U. N. Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick for a possible campaign for the Presidency. Kirkpatrick ultimately declined to run. The Florida Senate contest of 1988 — closest in the country that year — was among Finkelstein's signature efforts. Congressman Connie Mack III won a tougher than expected primary, but his campaign did not wait for the results of the early October Democratic runoff. Finkelstein determined (correctly) that Congressman Buddy MacKay would emerge from the bitter face off, and began running TV and radio ads re defining MacKay through his liberal voting record, with the tagline, "Hey Buddy, You're a Liberal." MacKay's primary and runoff campaign had focused on ethics — appropriate for defeating Democrat Bill Gunter, but useless against Mack — and he failed to blunt the ideological attack. Still, the "Hey Buddy" ads were unpopular with the press, and 22 of 23 Florida daily newspapers endorsed MacKay. Mack continued to press the liberal vs. conservative contrast in debates and ads, closing with endorsements by the highly popular Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, plus footage of MacKay endorsing various tax increases. A slight majority of voters casting ballots on Election Day backed MacKay, but an aggressive GOP absentee voter program had already banked a margin of tens of thousands of votes, and Mack was elected senator by a total of 34,512 votes out of 4 million cast. Finkelstein also advised Joe Malone in his campaign against Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy; Malone lost with 34%, but gained enough positive recognition that, in 1990, he was elected Treasurer in the overwhelmingly Democratic state. Another client, Joseph DioGuardi, lost his congressional re election contest in New York, 48% to 50%, to Nita Lowey. But, in another tight contest decided by absentee voters, Denny Smith won re election to Congress in Oregon.

Brooklyn native Finkelstein had long advised local and state party organizations in New York (e. g., the powerful GOP committees of Westchester, Nassau and Suffolk Counties, then dominant in all three suburban areas). In 1989, he dove into the contentious world of New York City politics. Rudolph Giuliani's initial candidacy for Mayor was met with a primary challenge by cosmetics billionaire Ronald Lauder, backed by Sen. D'Amato and guided by Finkelstein. The Giuliani D'Amato feud had begun in 1988 over the selection of Rudy's successor as U. S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York; it colored Republican politics in the Empire State for the next several years. In this first skirmish, Lauder's millions of dollars' worth of hard hitting advertising failed to prevent Giuliani's winning the GOP nomination. (Giuliani later blamed Lauder's primary ads for his narrow loss to David Dinkins that November.) A year later, in the disastrous 1990 gubernatorial election, GOP nominee Pierre Rinfret nearly finished in third place (behind Conservative Party of New York State upstart Herbert London). D'Amato, and by extension Finkelstein, assumed dominance over the moribund state party apparatus. Long time Rensselaer County activist William Powers, a staunch D'Amato ally, was named chairman, and began the rebuilding process. (D'Amato allies had started their own state PAC in 1989, the Committee for New York, in order to aid Republicans independent of the decaying party team.) At this time, the Reaganite Finkelstein was not a fan of the current Administration of George H. W. Bush. In a rare public appearance in February 1991, after the GOP's poor national showing in the November 1990 elections, he reminded a conservative audience that Reagan prospered through unabashed ideological appeals that drew crossover votes from sympathetic Democrats. But Bush and other GOP candidates "kicked that away" in 1990 by raising taxes, sidestepping abortion and other social issues, and soft pedaling their anti communism while rooting for Mikhail Gorbachev to succeed. "We are going to have to go back to the things that got us here," Finkelstein said. Meanwhile, D'Amato faced mounting ethical problems, and these occupied much of Finkelstein's time in 1990 and 1991. Though the New York senator was ultimately cleared by the Senate Ethics Committee in 1991, he was the subject of ceaseless negative news stories and editorials. When CBS's 60 Minutes ran a highly damaging story on D'Amato, Finkelstein produced a response program that refuted many of its charges and misstatements. All the while, D'Amato's aggressive casework program and advocacy for New York interests was emphasized in paid and earned media. Nevertheless, going into his 1992 re election campaign, D'Amato was shown in surveys to be a near certain loser to most prospective challengers. The indictment of his brother, Armand D'Amato, on two dozen counts of mail fraud in March 1992 darkened the clouds further. When the Democrats nominated Attorney General Robert Abrams in September, Finkelstein's polls showed D'Amato down 25 points, just seven weeks before the election. With the huge lead enjoyed by Democratic presidential nominee Bill Clinton in New York, the Bush Quayle ticket was a positive drag on D'Amato. As with the Mack MacKay race in 1988, Finkelstein moved to define Abrams by his liberal positions on issues. Support for a single payer national health scheme was translated into "a 6% tax on every job in America"—a contention never challenged. His backing for other tax increases was documented and publicized in TV and radio ads, with the tagline, "Bob Abrams: Hopelessly liberal". On Election Day 1992, as Bill Clinton was winning New York State by 16 points, D'Amato won re election by 1.2 points, a margin of 80,794 votes — with a wave of Clinton D'Amato split ticket voting in Brooklyn, Queens and Buffalo the deciding factor. Finkelstein had several other results that day. In North Carolina, he helped the Ellis Wrenn Congressional Club team guide businessman and former Democrat Lauch Faircloth to victory over incumbent Sen. Terry Sanford. and (especially) Jewish voters angered by Democratic leaders' handling of the Crown Heights violence and subsequent incidents. The senator's ticket splitting performance had the effect of shielding downticket candidates from the Bush debacle, and Republicans actually made Congressional gains in strong D'Amato areas — e. g., working class Buffalo (Jack Quinn), and suburban Long Island (Rick Lazio) — while holding the majority in the powerful State Senate, which strengthened the hand of D'Amato, Finkelstein and Powers going into 1993 and 1994. Giuliani's second Mayoral campaign in 1993 benefited from the resurgent New York GOP. He had made a point of endorsing the Senator for re election, and D'Amato and Finkelstein did not again back a primary challenger. This time, Giuliani ran a more effective race, riding to victory on a wave of discontent with incumbent David Dinkins, with even stronger turnout among ethnic Catholics and Jewish voters than in 1989, and in the same areas where D'Amato had done well a year earlier. In New York City in November 1993, Finkelstein and Ronald Lauder also guided to victory a measure limiting the terms of elected city officials. The New York Times called this vote "a terrific defeat for the city's mostly Democratic political establishment, which had fought in court throughout the summer to kill the referendum, only to have the state's highest court order it on the ballot just two weeks [before the election]." They guided him through the State Convention in May, and to a smashing 3 to 1 primary victory in September over Nelson Rockefeller's longtime political wheelhorse Richard Rosenbaum. The main challenge was defining the race against Cuomo. Finkelstein's first ad radiated disappointment and sowed seeds of disbelief: "Desperate candidates do desperate things Mario Cuomo could have been senator or President " Subsequent spots, often as brief as 10 seconds, highlighted Cuomo era failures (e. g. snarled traffic and record high utility rates in Long Island), and especially the litany of tax increases over his 12 years. The persistent tagline: "Mario Cuomo: Too liberal for too long." Pataki introduced himself in ads first as a gentle reformer, then angry in responding to Cuomo attacks, and finally enthusiastic (in excerpts from rally speeches at campaign's close). Cuomo defended his record and played up D'Amato's sponsorship of Pataki's campaign (to the tune of Paul Simon's "You Can Call Me Al"), but had trouble overcoming the anti incumbent tide. Poll numbers fluctuated wildly, with Finkelstein's own tracking survey showing a Cuomo lead ballooning to 13 points within days. It required a swift response. He elected to attack Giuliani's endorsement as a corrupt deal with Cuomo, the ad using headlines citing suspiciously timed New York State grants to the City to suggest the Governor had used taxpayer money to buy the Mayor's backing. The pendulum swung back, with negative reaction to Giuliani especially strong Upstate and in the Metro North and Long Island suburbs. (GOP protestors even chased the Mayor's plane on an airport tarmac during a statewide flyaround for Cuomo.) Pataki closed the sale with an energetic tour of the state, appearing alone on a WCBS TV Election Eve program when Cuomo refused a one on one debate. The final result: Pataki defeated Cuomo by 4 points. In an historic Republican landslide year, Mario Cuomo was the most prominent Democrat to fall. As Todd Purdum of The New York Times wrote that November, "For good or ill, Mr. Pataki's campaign [wa]s almost entirely a creation of Mr. Finkelstein."