Wednesday, May 10, 2000
Chiquita's Hagin joins Bush staff
He'll be deputy campaign manager
By Howard Wilkinson
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Cincinnatian Joe Hagin has been named deputy campaign manager of George W. Bush's presidential campaign, putting him in the inner circle of Bush campaign operatives.
Joe Hagin
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Mr. Hagin is taking a leave of absence from his job as vice president of corporate affairs at Chiquita Brands In ternational Inc. to be in charge of scheduling for the Texas governor, deciding where the GOP presidential nominee will spend his time in what is expected to be a close and hard-fought presidential campaign.
“The candidate's time is the most valuable commodity you have in a campaign,” said Mr. Hagin, who has been at the Austin headquarters of the Bush campaign for the past two weeks. “My job will be managing it.”
Mr. Hagin, appointments secretary to Mr. Bush's father, President Bush, also will be managing advance preparations for campaign events and staff operations. But his primary impact will be on what kinds of events the candidate will do, and where those events will be.
“We had a sign on the wall of the scheduling office in the White House that said, "Accomplishment, not activity,'” Mr. Hagin said.
“That will be the philosophy on this campaign — not just sending the candidate places, but accomplishing something while we're there.”
Mr. Hagin's job puts him just outside the so-called “Iron Triangle” of Bush campaign operatives that includes chief strategist Karl Rove, communications director Karen Hughes and campaign manager Joe Allbaugh. Mr. Hagin will report to Mr. Allbaugh.
The 44-year-old Cincinnatian has long and deep ties to the Bush family since working for the Texas governor's father in his unsuccessful bid for the 1980 GOP presidential nomination.
And it was the Bush family, Mr. Hagin said, who asked that he join this year's campaign.
When the elder Bush became President Reagan's vice president, Mr. Hagin worked as the vice president's personal assistant and later as head of the legislative affairs office.
When Mr. Bush was elected president in 1988, Mr. Hagin went to the White House as the president's appointments secretary, a job that gave him more Oval Office access to the president than anyone other than the White House chief of staff.
Mr. Hagin worked in the Reagan-Bush re-election campaign in 1988 and in the Bush presidential campaigns of 1988 and 1992.
“Joe is going to be a tremendous asset to the campaign because he is one of the few in the inner circle with substantial presidential campaign experience,” said U.S. Rep. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, a Hagin friend who also worked in the Bush White House. “It was a great move on their part.”
After leaving the White House in 1990, Mr. Hagin went to work at Chiquita. And, he said, he will return to the Cincinnati company once the campaign is over.
“I've worked in the White House; I've had that experience,” Mr. Hagin said. “After this election, I'll go home.”
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