Ace Smith

Ace is a 40-year veteran of state and national politics and has directed winning campaigns from District Attorney to President. With deep experience on the West Coast, he specializes in high-stakes political, governmental and public affairs campaigns. Over the years, Ace has worked with a roster of clients including Virginia Governor Doug Wilder, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, Texas Governor Ann Richards, U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, California Governor Jerry Brown, LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, SF Mayor Ed Lee and Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf. In recent years, Ace and his partners were instrumental in the historic election of Kamala Harris as California Attorney General and Senator and Gavin Newsom as California Lieutenant Governor and Governor. Ace ran San Francisco Mayor Lee’s victorious campaign and led the historic Proposition 30 effort for Governor Brown. He served as State Director for U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton’s campaigns in California, Texas and North Carolina during the 2008 Democratic Presidential Primary. Ace also has extensive experience winning complex initiative campaigns, including the groundbreaking criminal justice reform of “Three Strikes” (Prop. 36) and sentencing (Prop. 47). The subject of several newspaper profiles, Ace was called “legendary” by the New York Times and political campaign manager “heavyweight champion of the year” in the San Francisco Chronicle. Ace is author of the book “The Pitcher and the Dictator: Satchel Paige’s Unlikely Season in the Dominican Republic” and is writing books on the history of recorded sound and California politics. Ace earned his B.A. in English Literature from the University of California, Berkeley.