Daniel Schnur

Daniel Schnur is the Director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of Southern California. He has served as Chairman of the California Fair Political Practices Commission, and is a visiting instructor at the University of California, Berkeley. He has also been a Republican political strategist best known for his work as Senator John McCain's Communications Director in his 2000 presidential primary campaign against George W. Bush.

Born in Shorewood, Wisconsin, Dan Schnur was raised in a proudly Democratic household. After attending local schools, Schnur left Shorewood for Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, where he was a pupil of the late U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone.

Schnur started work in politics as a media assistant for the Ronald Reagan / George H. W. Bush campaign for the election of 1984. Bush campaign strategist Lee Atwater encouraged Schnur to finish college after the campaign had ended. He did so, at American University in Washington, D.C.

He later was a spokesman for the George H. W. Bush / Dan Quayle campaign of 1988, before he moved to California to work as the Communications Director of the California Republican Party. He joined Governor Pete Wilson's staff in 1990 as Press Secretary and Communications Director.

After Wilson's successful 1994 re-election campaign, Schnur moved into education, teaching campaign politics at University of California, Berkeley's Institute of Governmental Studies. He then went to work for McCain's campaign, where he worked as the campaign's chief media spokesperson and oversaw the communications operation.

Following McCain's withdrawal from the 2000 race, Schnur returned to UC Berkeley and also began teaching political communication at the University of Southern California.

Dan Schnur currently teaches the undergraduate course "Campaign Strategy: Media and Message" at the University of California, Berkeley. In addition to teaching courses on campaign communication and strategy at both USC and UC Berkeley, Schnur is a founder and principal at Command-Focus, a Sacramento-based political strategy and communications firm with offices both in Sacramento and Los Angeles. Schnur joined Edelman public relations in December 2007 as executive vice president and director to lead its California Public Affairs practice. He can also be found as a regular political commentator on Fleischman's "FlashReport" Blog--a staple in the daily news diet of conservatives and moderates in the California political scene. Schnur also writes for the New York Times blog "Campaign Stops" and is currently the Director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of Southern California.