`Nonstop Spin' Propels Mainer to Top ; Chris Lehane, Spokesman for Wesley Clark, has a National Reputation for His Work.

Summary

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As a student at Kennebunk High School in the mid-1980s, one of Chris Lehane's favorite sayings was "In your face!" Today it's an apt description for the confrontational politics Lehane wages. A spokesman and strategist for Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark, who is crisscrossing New Hampshire campaigning for Tuesday's primary, the 36-year-old Maine native has developed a national reputation as a practitioner of political warfare.

A front-page profile Jan. 16 in The New York Times described him as "frenetic, colorful and, some contend, devious" for subterfuge such as distributing documents several days earlier that were unflattering to Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, for whom Lehane worked until joining Clark's campaign last fall.

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Extract

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`Nonstop Spin' Propels Mainer to Top ; Chris Lehane, Spokesman for Wesley Clark, has a National Reputation for His Work.

"Other campaigns are terrified of Lehane because he's so effective at nonstop spin," said Kevin Mattson, a former executive director of the Maine Democratic Party. "Chris has an ability that I've never seen in a...

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