toledano/south/8″/mike1st/mark2nd

Garry South

Campaign Director

Gray Davis for California Governor

As campaign director for Lt. Gov. Gray Davis’ gubernatorial campaign, and with less than a month to Election Day, South describes his job as non-stop chaos. “When you are running a campaign it is a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week job,” said South. “The demands are immense.”

So immense, in fact, that when South took a few days off last month to visit his parents in Montana his first vacation in years he wound up being hospitalized with a bleeding ulcer.

His average day starts at 8 a.m. with strategy meetings at campaign headquarters and goes full-speed until late in the evening with fund raisers. The regimen will get even more intense during the last 10 days of the campaign, when he plans to work around the clock.

“Every campaign is a gamble, that’s what makes it so exciting,” said South. “You take a lot of risks and there is a certain amount of excitement attached to that.”

South is no stranger to the campaign grind. His family has been involved in politics since the 1860s, with both his father and brother having held political office in Montana. He ran his first campaign in 1972 and has been at it ever since.

During his 26 years in politics, South was special assistant to former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Bob Bergland during Jimmy Carter’s administration, and he was communications director for former Ohio Gov. Richard Celeste. He also ran Mike Woo’s unsuccessful campaign for L.A. mayor as well as Gray Davis’ successful campaign for lieutenant governor.

South admits that the demands of politics are starting to wear on him. And if Davis wins in November, South has no intentions of taking a position in the statehouse. Instead, he plans to write a book about the campaign.

Jessica Toledano