Robb Austin - Swindall Campaign

Swindall Campaign

In The Political Report of the Free Congress Foundation: "September turned out to be a crucial month for the (Swindall) campaign since an experienced manager, Robb Austin, was hired. Austin shook up the organization and the campaign embarked on a strategy designed to 'smoke out' Levitas by presenting him as a big spender and too liberal for the district." Austin developed an attack-oriented strategy and began tying Levitas' liberal votes to those of New York Democratic Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro (Vice Presidential running mate of Walter Mondale). Austin produced and created the campaign's newspaper and radio advertising with media consultant Roger Ailes, currently President of the Fox News Channel, producing the campaign’s television spots.

One Austin-created ad featured the Brooklyn Bridge in the background, along with a picture of Levitas under the heading, "Elliott Levitas: The Best Congressman Queens, New York, has ever had."

Another Austin newspaper ad attacked Levitas for taking 19 foreign trips at the taxpayers' expense. These trips were listed in an ad amid a backdrop of Levitas' picture, a snow-covered mountain labeled "somewhere in Europe", and a jet flying high in the sky. The ad reads, "Elliott Levitas. Our man in Washington. And France. And Switzerland. And Belgium. And England. And Spain. And Austria. And Luxemburg. And Iceland. And Finland. And The Netherlands. And Norway. And Portugal. And Germany. And Hungary. And... the list goes on."

Swindall won the election with 53% of the vote in what was a major upset victory for the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) in the 1984 elections. Levitas however blamed his defeat on "the lies and distortions and hooliganism of my opponent's campaign."

In a post-election book Oustings the Ins by the Institute for Government and Politics, Stuart Rothenberg wrote, “{Austin} admitted that his plan was to 'gut' incumbent Levitas to 1) get media coverage and increase the saliency of the race and 2) shake up Levitas in the hope of forcing him to confront Swindall and possibly make a mistake. Had Swindall kept his gloves on and run what many would have called a "proper" and "positive" campaign, Levitas almost certainly would have been re-elected – and re-elected by a substantial margin."

Conservative weekly Human Events said Swindall's election was "one of the genuine Cinderella stories of 1984" and called Austin "campaign manager par excellence, a former Democratic state legislator whose specialty is wooing conservative Democrats to the GOP fold." On the night of Swindall's election, he named Austin as his new Chief of Staff in Washington.