Arthur Jay Finkelstein (May 18, 1945 – August 18, 2017) was a New York state–based Republican Party (GOP) consultant who worked for conservative and right-wing candidates in the United States, Canada, Israel, Central Europe, and Eastern Europe over four decades.
Finkelstein and his brother Ronald ran a political consulting firm in Irvington, New York, where he focused on polling, strategy, messaging, media, and campaign management.
Early life and education Finkelstein grew up in a lower-middle-class Jewish family, living in Brooklyn's East New York section until age 11, then in Levittown, New York, and later Queens. He and his two brothers attended local public schools; Finkelstein ultimately graduated from Forest Hills High School. Their parents were immigrants from Eastern Europe, and the father worked as a cabdriver and did various jobs in the garment trade. While a student at Columbia University, Finkelstein interviewed and helped produce radio programs for author/philosopher Ayn Rand, and was a volunteer at the New York headquarters of the Draft Goldwater Committee in 1963–64 (the famous "Suite 3505"). He eventually earned a bachelor's degree in economics and political science from Queens College in 1967.Schudel, Matt, "Arthur Finkelstein, quietly influential GOP campaign mastermind, dies at 72", The Washington Post, August 19, 2017.
Career 1968–76: Buckley, Nixon, Helms, and Reagan In 1968, Finkelstein did behind-the-scenes election analysis for NBC News, part of the network's team working under former Census director Richard M. Scammon and exit-polling pioneer Irwin A. "Bud" Lewis.
In 1969–70, he worked as a computer programmer in the Data Processing department of the New York Stock Exchange at its offices on 11 Wall Street in lower Manhattan. During this period, he was a familiar face in Greenwich Village, where he often argued politics from a street-corner soapbox. In his spare time, he aided State Senator John Marchi in his unsuccessful Republican-Conservative campaign for Mayor of New York City in 1969.Lynn, Frank, "A Political Pollster for Conservatives", The New York Times, December 16, 1979.
F. Clifton White, mastermind of the Draft Goldwater Committee, was Finkelstein's political patron and consulting partner in the early 1970s in the firm, DirAction Services. The young pollster's first electoral success came at age 25 in 1970, with the independent Conservative campaign of James L. Buckley for senator from New York. This was one of several New York statewide contests where he was able to maneuver his clients to victory in three-way scenarios. Buckley won a plurality upset victory over GOP incumbent Charles Goodell and favored Democrat Richard Ottinger. Of that election night, Buckley later wrote, "By 10 pm, ... Finkelstein (my volunteer analyst who called the final results within one-tenth of one percent based on a Sunday-night telephone survey) assured me that I had won."Buckley, James L., If Men Were Angels: A View From the Senate (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1976), p. 25 Finkelstein encapsulated Buckley's message in the catchphrase, "Isn't it about time we had a Senator?"
Finkelstein's work in New York led to his serving in 1971-72 as one of several pollsters for President Richard M. Nixon's re-election campaign developing sophisticated demographic analysis.Evidence of Finkelstein's polling work for Nixon is cited in Catholic Historical Review, Jan 2012 issue, Vol 98, No. 1, "Catholic Cacophony: Richard Nixon, The Church and Welfare Reform", specifically "Letter from Arthur Finkelstein to Robert Marik, December 16, 1971, attached to Memorandum from Roy Morey to John Ehrlichman, September 24, 1971, White House Central Files, Subject File – Religious Matters, Box 18, Folder: RM 3-1 Catholic 1/1/71-12/72, RMNPP"
In 1972, Finkelstein led the first of three successful campaigns to elect Jesse Helms as a U.S. senator from North Carolina. After the election, Finkelstein worked with Helms political aides Tom Ellis and Carter Wrenn to establish a permanent conservative organization, the National Congressional Club,Taylor, Paul, The Washington Post, October 15, 1982, "Helms Modernizes GOP Political Machine for the Electronic Age" which lasted until 1995.Christensen, Rob, Raleigh News & Observer, September 8, 2017, "He was the man behind the curtain in NC politics"
Finkelstein and White went their separate ways in the mid-1970s, and he founded his own firm, Arthur J. Finkelstein & Associates (often later shortened to AJF & Associates). In the 1976 presidential primaries, White supported Gerald Ford,Los Angeles Times, January 11, 1993, "OBIT: F. Clifton White; Architect of '64 Goldwater Campaign" while Finkelstein worked for Ronald Reagan's insurgent campaign.
He helped Helms's Congressional Club turn around the faltering Reagan effort with a victory in the April North Carolina primary. His work continued in the subsequent Texas primary. "Finkelstein had been a key figure in 1976, when he helped orchestrate Reagan's campaign-saving comeback in North Carolina" which was crucial in Reagan's further political advancement.
At Finkelstein's urging, Reagan made a major issue of the impending Panama Canal Treaties, which Gerald Ford was negotiating and which infuriated conservative voters. (This proved to be Reagan's signature issue throughout the late 1970s.) As Jules Witcover later reported, "Tens of thousands of Wallace voters were gradually cut adrift during his slide [in the primaries] ... and Reagan media man Arthur Finkelstein recruited a Wallaceite from Fort Worth to radio and television spots for Reagan ... It was dynamite."Witcover, Jules, Marathon (New York: Viking Press, 1977), p. 419 The Associated Press's Mike Robinson wrote Finkelstein was "viewed by many as instrumental in Gov. Reagan's 1976 primary successes in North Carolina and Texas."Robinson, Mike, Washington Dateline, Associated Press, May 5, 1979
1975–80: NCPAC, Senate, and Reagan Passage of the post-Watergate Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) amendments, and the subsequent 1976 Supreme Court decision in Buckley v. Valeo, drastically altered the rules by which Presidential and Congressional contests were waged. Finkelstein was among the first to sense an opportunity, and pioneered the concept and execution of independent expenditure campaigns, which would operate as a third force in an election beyond the control of candidate or party officials.
Beginning in 1975, Finkelstein was the chief strategist behind the most successful IE operation of this period, the National Conservative Political Action Committee (NCPAC).Sinclair, Ward, The Washington Post, October 8, 1982, "Is Politics Threatening to Become Poll-itics?; The Electorate and the Art of Pulse-Taking" Its Executive Director was Finkelstein protégé Terry Dolan. In 1981 New Right activist Richard Viguerie wrote, "NCPAC relies heavily on research and polling, a reflection of one of its founders, conservative pollster Arthur Finkelstein."Viguerie, Richard, The New Right: We're Ready to Lead (Falls Church, Va.: Viguerie Co., rev. ed. 1981), p. 57; and Edwards, Lee, The Conservative Revolution, (New York: Free Press, 1999), p. 186
In 1978, NCPAC was instrumental in the defeat of Democrats Dick Clark in Iowa and Thomas J. McIntyre in New Hampshire. Both liberal senators were replaced by committed conservatives.The Washington Post, December 13, 1982, "Latest Mixers Of Politics, Religion Scrutinized" NCPAC ran hard-hitting ads for television, radio and newspapers, crafted by Finkelstein. A central idea behind the strategy was to expose the liberal words and actions in Washington of elected officials, usually senators, whose moderate or conservative public image at home was at odds with their actual voting record.Martin, Lawrence, Toronto Globe and Mail, December 28, 1978, "U.S. veers toward New Right on anti-Government wave"
NCPAC hit its peak in 1980, operating IEs in six states, its ads and organizing efforts helping to topple liberal Democrats in Iowa (John Culver), Indiana (Birch Bayh), Idaho (Frank Church) and South Dakota (George McGovern).Andersen, Tena, Associated Press, October 3, 1980, "National Conservative Group Drops out of Anti-McGovern Campaign" Less well-known were NCPAC's TV ads in the presidential contest, both negative (one featuring Jimmy Carter in a 1976 debate, another with Edward Kennedy shouting "And no more Jimmy Carter!") and positive (footage of Ronald Reagan speaking on values); Finkelstein concentrated these ad buys in closely contested Southern states (e.g., Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama), all of which switched from Carter to Reagan in 1980.Alexander, Herbert, Financing the 1980 Election (Rowman & Littlefield, 1983)
Finkelstein believed in the usefulness of third forces to help conservatives win elections, but not a conservative third party (a much-discussed option in the mid-1970s). At a February 1977 conference, he told activists, "The development of a third party may very well hurt conservative options in the future by diluting them," warning that traditional and emotional ties to party labels would keep many conservatives in their present parties.Don McLeod, Associated Press, February 4, 1977 He said the Watergate scandal had cost the GOP the one clear advantage it had over the Democrats – the perception by voters that it was the more honest of the two parties. Nevertheless, he counseled against third-party option, saying this would succeed only in drawing conservatives out of both parties, creating a weak satellite party and leaving the major parties more liberal.Cannon, Lou, "Conservatives Are Cool To Forming Third Party", The Washington Post, February 5, 1977.
Besides NCPAC, Finkelstein found particular success during this period in guiding individual Senate and House campaigns. Reagan backer and political unknown Orrin Hatch won a resounding 56% victory in Utah in 1976 against a three-term Democratic incumbent. In 1978, he was consultant to the successful re-election campaigns of Jesse Helms in North Carolina and Strom Thurmond in South CarolinaThe Washington Post, May 29, 1978 — the latter being Thurmond's last seriously contested race (he served until 2002, age 100). That same year, Finkelstein shepherded Carroll Campbell to his first win in South Carolina's Greenville-area 4th Congressional District.Gailey, Phil, The New York Times, September 24, 1986, "Bigotry Issue in Carolina Campaign"
After a brief interlude early in 1979 as adviser to conservative Congressman Phil Crane,Robinson, Mike, Associated Press March 6, 1979 Finkelstein returned as one of the pollsters advising Ronald Reagan's primary campaign.Lynn, Frank, The New York Times, December 16, 1979, Sec. 22, p. 1 His services were also reportedly sought by the George H. W. Bush campaign.
In 1980, he engineeredHerman, Robin, The New York Times, August 23, 1980, "A Persistent D'Amato Focuses on Javits's Record and Health" the improbable Senate victory of Long Island supervisor Alfonse D'Amato over incumbent Jacob Javits, another three-way contest where the Democrat (Congresswoman Liz Holtzman) was favored. He advised the successful campaign of 31-year-old State Senator Don Nickles for U.S. Senate from Oklahoma. Most unlikely was the victory (aided by National Congressional Club allies) of John East in the North Carolina Senate contest;Allen, Kenneth S., St. Petersburg Times, April 11, 1988, "'Attack politics' specialist to lead Mack campaign" East was a little-known professor who used a wheelchair, recruited for the race by Jesse Helms and elected through the efforts of Ellis, Wrenn, Finkelstein and the Helms organization.