Mary Matalin | |
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 Matalin in 2011 | |
| Born | Mary Joe Matalin (1953-08-19)August 19, 1953 (age 71) Burnham, Illinois, U.S. |
| Education | |
| Occupation | Political consultant |
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| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
Mary Joe Matalin (born August 19, 1953) is an Americanpolitical consultant well known for her work with theRepublican Party. She served underPresidentRonald Reagan, was campaign director forGeorge H. W. Bush, an assistant to PresidentGeorge W. Bush, and until 2003 counselor toVice PresidentDick Cheney. Matalin has been chief editor ofThreshold Editions, aconservative publishing imprint atSimon & Schuster, since March 2005. She is married to Democratic political consultantJames Carville. She appears in the award-winning documentary filmBoogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story and played herself, opposite her husband James Carville,John Slattery, andMary McCormack in the short-livedHBO seriesK Street.
On May 5, 2016, Matalin announced she changed her party registration toLibertarian.[1]
Matalin grew up in theChicago suburb ofBurnham, the daughter of Eileen (née Emerson), who ran beauty salons, and Steven Matalin, a steel mill worker.[2][3] Her paternal grandparents wereCroatian immigrants and her mother was of Irish descent.[4][5] Matalin originally intended to follow her mother into the beauty salon profession, and briefly considered becoming a model.[6] Instead, Matalin attendedThornton Fractional North High School and attendedWestern Illinois University for college and Hofstra University School of Law, where she dropped out after one year.
Matalin's first campaign wasIllinois Lieutenant GovernorDave O'Neal's bid for theU.S. Senate in 1980, a race O'Neal lost toAlan Dixon.[citation needed] After O'Neal's loss, Matalin began her career with theRepublican National Committee, where she would remain for nearly two decades as a key Republican strategist. Leaving briefly to attend Hofstra University School of Law, Matalin dropped out after just one year, and in 1984 returned to the RNC. She rose quickly, as an aide toRichard Bond and Chief of Staff to RNC co-Chairperson Betty Heitman in 1985. A year later, Matalin gained national attention when she joinedGeorge H. W. Bush's 1988 presidential campaign, working as both Deputy Political Director andMidwest Regional Political Director in the primaries. After the election, Matalin was appointed Chief of Staff to then RNC ChairmanLee Atwater. In that capacity, she would in effect run the RNC for nearly a year, as Atwater—his health declining due to an inoperable brain tumor—spent 170 days in the hospital between his diagnosis in early March 1990 and eventual death on March 29, 1991.[7]
In 1992, Matalin served as the deputy campaign manager for political operations onBush's reelection campaign. Ironically, she served in this role while dating her future husband, James Carville, who was chief strategist for theClinton campaign.[8]
Matalin was a host ofCNN'sCrossfire political debate show, and in 1993, she co-hostedEqual Time, which aired on theCNBC business television channel.[citation needed] Matalin was also the host of her owntalk radio show in the 1990s,The Mary Matalin Show, which was carried on theCBS Radio Network.[9] She is currently on the nationally syndicated radio programBoth Sides Now w/ Huffington & Matalin, hosted byMark Green and aired weekends on 120 stations.
Matalin worked in various roles in theGeorge W. Bush administration. She resigned on December 31, 2002.[10]
Matalin also appeared alongside her husband James Carville inHBO's 2003 television showK Street where she and her husband played versions of themselves as they lobbied real and fictional politicians. The show was directed byAcademy Award winnerSteven Soderbergh and featured a cast of fictional and real characters working in the political sphere.
In March 2005, Matalin was hired as chief editor of a new conservative publishing imprint,Threshold Editions, forCBS-ownedSimon & Schuster.[11][12] On August 1, 2008, this division releasedThe Obama Nation, written byJerome Corsi, who co-authoredUnfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry.[13] Other notable titles published by Threshold Editions includesDick Cheney'sIn My Time,Karl Rove'sCourage and Consequence and a number ofGlenn Beck books includingCowards, andBroke.[14]
In April 2006, she was appointed Treasurer of VirginiaRepublican SenatorGeorge Allen's re-election committee.[citation needed] She worked on the presidential campaign ofFred Thompson until January 2008, when Thompson dropped out of the race.[citation needed]
In 2008, Matalin joined the Board of Directors atThe George Washington University'sCheney Cardiovascular Institute.[15] Matalin also serves on numerous other boards including The Water Institute of the Gulf (TWIG), Conscience Cause, The New Orleans Jazz Orchestra (NOJO) and the Tulane President's Council.
Matalin appears in the 2008 award-winning documentary onLee Atwater,Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story. Speaking about Lee, she says, "They had to kill the messenger because they couldn't kill the message. They had to turn him into the Boogie Man. Satan incarnate."[citation needed]
On April 26, 2009, Matalin returned to CNN as a political contributor, joining her husband, James Carville on a special "First 100 Days" edition ofState of the Union with John King.[16][17]
In 2010, Matalin and husband James Carville were named co-chairs ofSuper Bowl XLVII Host Committee, held in 2013 in New Orleans.[18][19]
In 2012, Matalin and husband Carville began appearing together in "Cocktail Party" commercials forMaker's Mark Kentucky Straight Bourbon.
Believing that farm animals should be treated humanely, Matalin teamed up withPETA to produce a video in 2013, encouraging Indiana lawmakers to vote against "ag-gag" bills that would ban unapproved videotaping on farms and businesses.[20]
On May 5, 2016, Matalin announced she has changed her party registration toLibertarian, as that party represents her "Jeffersonian,Madisonian [...] constitutional principles" better than the Republican Party, after the GOP lost two successive presidential elections and was "falling apart."[21] While maintaining the change was not because ofDonald Trump becoming the presumptive Republican nominee,[21] she criticized Trump for "his high school boy antics with women."[1] She endorsedAustin Petersen for president in May 2016.[22]
She was namedPETA's "Person of the Year" in December 2016. The organization cited her willingness to fight for the humane treatment of monkeys and farm animals, and "for setting a tremendous example of compassion that all Americans can follow."[23]
On November 25, 1993 (Thanksgiving Day), Matalin marriedJames Carville, a political strategist for candidates of the Democratic Party, in New Orleans. They have two daughters.[24]
Matalin and Carville have gone on record saying they do not talk politics at home.[25] The best example of contention between the two, aside from appearances on talk shows, is the portrayal of their relationship in the 1993 movieThe War Room. In the 1992 political campaign, Matalin and Carville were staffing opposing campaigns. Matalin wrote the best-selling bookAll's Fair: Love, War and Running for President with Carville and co-authorPeter Knobler. In April 2004, she published the bookLetters to My Daughters.[26] In 2008, Carville and Matalin moved their family toNew Orleans.[27] On April 26, 2009,The Times-Picayune carried a joint op-ed "Point of View" by Matalin and Carville on their reasons for settling in New Orleans.[28] Matalin and Carville are profiled in the Politics chapter of the bookThe Compatibility Matrix.[29]
In the 2018 filmVice, Matalin is portrayed by Camille Harman.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)And joining us now from New Orleans, our newest CNN political contributor, Republican Mary Matalin, alongside our longtime contributor Democrat James Carville.
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