Glenn W. Smith (born September 30, 1953 in
Houston
Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...
,
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
) is an author, activist and political consultant.
Biography
Smith was a journalist for the ''
Houston Chronicle
The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Texas, United States. , it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. With i ...
'' from 1979 to 1985 and the ''
Houston Post
The ''Houston Post'' was a newspaper that had its headquarters in Houston, Texas, United States. In 1995, the newspaper shut down, and its assets were purchased by the '' Houston Chronicle''.
History
Gail Borden Johnson founded the ''Houston ...
'' from 1985 to 1988. He covered state and national political affairs before leaving journalism to work for then-Texas Lt. Gov.
Bill Hobby in early 1988. He subsequently worked for the late U.S. Senator
Lloyd Bentsen, and managed
Ann Richards
Dorothy Ann Richards (née Willis; September 1, 1933 – September 13, 2006) was an American politician who served as the 45th governor of Texas from 1991 to 1995. A Democrat, she first came to national attention as the Texas State Treasurer, w ...
' 1990 primary victory in her successful campaign for Governor of Texas.
Throughout the 1990s Smith designed public affairs campaigns for a variety of state and national clients. A managing director of Public Strategies, Inc., he wrote and produced award-winning communications for broadcast and direct mail, and designed communications strategies for business, universities, activist groups, and progressive candidates.
Smith left Public Strategies in 2001 and launched his own company, Affinity Dynamics, Inc. ADI provides strategic media, advertising and communications consulting to a variety of non-governmental organizations, businesses, political campaigns and advocacy groups. In 2003 Smith managed
MoveOn.org
MoveOn (formerly known as MoveOn.org) is a progressive public policy advocacy group and political action committee. Formed in 1998 around one of the first massively viral email petitions, MoveOn has since grown into one of the largest grassroot ...
's campaign against
Tom DeLay
Thomas Dale DeLay (; born April 8, 1947) is an American author and retired politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Texas's 22nd congressional district from 1985 until 2006. He was Republic ...
's mid-decade congressional redistricting.
Smith has taught "religion and politics" at the
Starr King School for the Ministry
Starr King School for the Ministry is a Unitarian Universalist seminary in Oakland, California. The seminary was formed in 1904 to educate leaders for the growing number of progressive religious communities in the western part of the US. The scho ...
in
Berkeley
Berkeley most often refers to:
*Berkeley, California, a city in the United States
**University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California
* George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher
Berkeley may also refer ...
,
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
. He sponsored and organized national events with progressive religious leaders, including events challenging the Right Wing's "
Justice Sunday" rallies in 2005, a celebration of
Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...
at
Riverside Church
Riverside Church is an interdenominational church in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, on the block bounded by Riverside Drive, Claremont Avenue, 120th Street and 122nd Street near Columbia University's Mornin ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
, and "Freedom and Faith" bus tours throughout the northeast and mid-west.
Smith is the author of ''The Politics of Deceit'' (2004) and ''Unfit Commander'' (2004). He is director of the Texas Progress Council, a progressive think tank in Austin, and was a senior fellow at
George Lakoff's
Rockridge Institute
The Rockridge Institute was an American non-profit research and progressive think tank founded in 1997 and located in Berkeley, California from 2003 until April 30, 2008. Its stated goal was to strengthen democracy by providing intellectual suppo ...
in Berkeley.
Works
* ''The Politics of Deceit'' (2004, Wiley)
External links
Texas Progress Council.orgDriveDemocracy.orgMoveOn.org*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Glenn W.
1953 births
Living people
People from Houston
American political consultants
American male journalists