Betsey Wright

Betsey Wright is an American political consultant who worked more than a decade for Bill Clinton in Arkansas. She was Chief of Staff to Governor Clinton for seven years. In the 1990s, she was Senior Director of The Wexler Group, a government relations firm in Washington, DC. As Deputy Chair of the 1992 Clinton/Gore campaign, Wright established the rapid response system that was responsible for defending Clinton’s record in Arkansas and promptly answering all personal attacks on the candidate. She coined the term "bimbo eruptions" to describe the series of women claiming they had had affairs with Clinton.

Wright moved to Arkansas following Clinton’s defeat after his first term in the Governor's office. She organized and ran the Clinton comeback campaign in 1982, and then ran his re-election campaigns in 1984 and 1986. Her accomplishments in the Governor’s office include managing public support for Clinton's controversial education reforms.

In 1990, Wright was elected chair of the Democratic Party of Arkansas and was hired as its Executive Director.

While serving as a 1992 fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, Wright led a seminar of “High Tech Politics.” She resigned to return to Arkansas to join the Clinton presidential campaign.

Among her previous positions, Wright was Executive Director of the National Women’s Education Fund in Washington, DC. While there, she designed, organized and conducted training programs throughout the country for women candidates, campaign managers, and officeholders.

The character of Libby Holden in "Primary Colors" is partially based on her.

External links

[http://www.stennis.gov/swips/betseywright.htm Betsey Wright Biography] at Stennis Center for Public Service