It'd be easy to blame Brost's candor on her margarita, but I've seen Brost's sober handiwork too, and it's equally off-leash. During the brief period when Dino Rossi was the state's governor elect, for example, Brost took to calling the Republican a "thief" and the "accidental governor elect"; and in her finest moment, she published a simple five-line statement (something of a limerick) in late December titled "Putting the Rossi in Hypocrossi" that juxtaposed Rossi's contradictory "Before and After" statements, as he went from proud governor-elect to sore loser.
What makes Brost's trash talk so refreshing is that it's published on official Washington State Democrat letterhead. Brost--who was James Carville's political assistant and house-sitter when she was just 21, and subsequently headed up rapid response for the U.S. Congressional Dems under Democratic Assistant Leader U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) in 2001--has been the spokeswoman and communications director for the Washington State Democrats since arriving in Washington State in 2003. In that role, she's made a habit of bombarding reporters with opposition research packaged in comedic, low-key press releases that typically undercut Republican bombast with a dose of pithy truth-squading. "FYI," her official releases can begin slyly, before delivering a list of blistering facts that savage Republican speaking points. "I get bored writing boring press releases," she says.
Brost, a tall and traditionally pretty Wisconsin woman (she resembles a younger Maria Cantwell), says her Midwestern roots are all you need to know to understand her MO. "I love cheese. I love sausage. And I'm not afraid to be the only girl in a roomful of guys." She describes her family as Midwest progressives who believe in FDR.
And she's got some salt-of-the-earth wisdom for Democrats: "We worry so much: 'Are we too far left or too far right?' Those discussions get us nowhere. What we need is leadership. Someone that makes you pay attention."
Brost's gig with the Washington State Democrats is up in two weeks. The job was actually supposed to be over on November 3, but she's stayed onboard cleaning up the mess that Christine Gregoire's clumsy gubernatorial campaign handed off. She's shined in that emergency role. ("They don't have a case," she says of the Republicans. "They need to prove that illegal votes cost Rossi the election, but they don't have that. What they have is PR and BS.") Brost even won special notice from the New York Times for ruffling Washington State's tradition for polite politics when they covered the recount story.
I met with Brost because I wanted to know what she was planning to do next. It'd be a shame if local Democrats lost her talent. (She's a skilled message maven who says she was inspired by Carville's ability to come up with an idea at the office in the morning and then "at five o'clock, we'd see people repeating it on TV.") Brost says simply that after a much-needed vacation, she'll come back to Washington to find political work "with smart people, aggressive people, people who aren't afraid to shake things up."
Hmmm, sounds like a dare to me. Hopefully, for the Democrats' sake, the typically tepid Party will meet Brost's challenge. I, for one, hope the Gregoire camp in particular recognizes how talented Brost is and hires her as the governor's spokeswoman. Hiring Brost, in fact, would satisfy another dare that Brost laid down over drinks at the Five Point. Asked what the Gregoire administration needs to do to erase the asterisk that comes with its unconvincing 129-vote victory, Brost smiled: "Governor Gregoire cannot be overly cautious." Hiring Brost would be a promising start toward fulfilling that advice.
