#hunter walker

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http://twitter.com/#!/hunterw/status/514189998208593920

  Cops turned on headlights on their police vans, which are behind the protesters. pic.twitter.com/8wSiG0X9FY

— Hunter Walker (@hunterw) September 22, 2014

The NYPD bus is backing up toward the protesters pic.twitter.com/XnlueYzdaX

— Hunter Walker (@hunterw) September 22, 2014

Crowd now chanting "The whole world is watching."

— Hunter Walker…

A new Post has been published on http://www.dailybrian.com/2014/06/06/anthony-weiner-to-write-hockey-column-for-business-insider/

Anthony Weiner To Write Hockey Column For Business Insider

By Hunter Walker, Talking Points Memo (November 6, 2013)

It was a make or break moment for John Del Cecato.

It was early August, and the Democratic strategist had just convinced his client, New York City mayoral hopeful Bill de Blasio, to pay for and air a television ad he believed could turn the tide for a struggling campaign.

The ad featured the white candidate's biracial, teenage son, Dante, sporting a large Afro hairdo and praising his father's progressive policies. The campaign hoped it would convey the message that de Blasio's family looked like New York. Critics would later grumble the ad was a sly way of injecting race into the campaign.

But it was clear to Del Cecato that something dramatic needed to be done. Recent polling had showed de Blasio in third place in the Democratic primary. He would need to finish in at least the top two to qualify for a potential runoff.

Then the news came. The ad had only been on air a short time when Del Cecato found out the respected pollsters at Quinnipiac University would be coming out that day with a new survey of the primary. He knew he had to tamp down the de Blasio team's expectations.

"I sent an email out when they said we've got a Q poll coming out today," Del Cecato recalled in a recent interview with TPM, "and I said, 'I just want to preface this by saying that, you know, we've only had this spot up a couple of days, so don't call me and say our ads aren't working.'"

Hours later, Del Cecato changed his tune. The poll had showed de Blasio was out in front. He was polling at 30 percent of the likely vote, six points ahead of any other Democrat.

Del Cecato fired off another email.

"As soon as it came back, I was like, 'I would now like to claim credit for getting us to 30 percent,'" Del Cecato said with a laugh.

It was the most crucial moment in de Blasio's campaign, and one that catapulted him to a primary victory on Sept. 10 and eventually a win in the general election on Tuesday.

In a pair of interviews conducted in recent weeks, Del Cecato gave TPM an extensive glimpse behind the scenes at the messaging operation that sent de Blasio to City Hall by branding him as a "true progressive populist" and putting the spotlight on his diverse family.

It campaign was also a high water mark for Del Cecato, a former protege of President Obama's senior strategist David Axelrod, and one that could set him up to become a major player in next year's midterms and beyond.