Sonoma native hones Hillary Clinton’s image

When Sonoma Valley native Kristina Schake stepped into a history-making political campaign this week, friends and family were not surprised.

They know Hillary Clinton’s new deputy communications director as someone uniquely qualified to recast Clinton as a softer, more accessible candidate during her second bid to be President of the United States.

“She was destined for this greatness,” said Renea Magnani, a classmate who remembers “Kristi” as vibrant, active and popular. “(She was) always strong in political science and related subjects, a leader in school groups and classes, friendly, outgoing, positive, beautiful.”

Now 45 and living in New York City, Schake has achieved success on both coasts, working behind the scenes for some of the most noted campaigns of the times.

Before joining Clinton’s team, she helped Michelle Obama reposition herself as an average, unselfconscious mother who shops at Target and champions children’s health. Political analysts expect Schake to exert a similar influence on Clinton’s campaign, with The New York Times recently describing her as the woman hired to recast Hillary Clinton’s image.

It’s a daunting job that Schake may be uniquely qualified for.

“Kristina is so calm and strategic that she helps teams focus and work well together,” said her sister Kori Schake, a prominent Republican who served on George W. Bush’s National Security Council and is now a fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford.

“She thinks about high-order questions and prioritizes effort to the most important things. And she’s both modest and disciplined enough not to make things about her. It’s a pretty rare combination.”

Schake declined to be interviewed by the Times and finds that kind of personal attention “really contrary” to her public relations role, said her mother, Cecelia Schake. “She has spent her life to be behind the scenes.”

Local friends and family members say she has shown the makings of a leader since childhood. She grew up in the hills west of Sonoma with her parents, Cecelia and Wayne Schake, and two talented older siblings, Kurt and Kori.

She began swimming with the Sonoma Sea Dragons at 5 while attending El Verano Elementary School, and she continued to swim competitively for another decade. At Altimira Middle School, she became a cheerleader and joined a dance troupe, getting an early taste of leadership as its social chairman.

Schake and her parents moved to Germany for two years while her father piloted commercial Pan Am routes into and out of a divided Berlin. They returned to the family home in time for Kristina’s last two years at Sonoma Valley High School.

As a senior, she served as student body president and was named the class of 1988’s “most likely to succeed.”

After graduating from Johns Hopkins University with a degree in creative writing, Schake got her first high-profile job when actor/director Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, hired her to help them pass a 1998 ballot initiative to add a 50-cent California cigarette tax to fund early childhood education. It passed despite a well-financed tobacco lobby campaign.

The Reiners introduced her to Chad Griffin, a former aide in the Clinton White House and soon her business partner in the Los Angeles-based public affairs consulting firm Griffin-Schake. California’s First Lady Maria Shriver was among their clients, but their role in the battle for gay rights took them to the national stage.

Their firm joined the legal case against Proposition 8, the ballot initiative that barred same-sex couples from marrying. Schake’s role was preparing the plaintiffs for national publicity while introducing them to the public as ordinary couples. The law was ruled unconstitutional in 2010.

That year, Shriver recommended her to Michelle Obama. As communications chief, Schake worked behind the scenes on the first lady’s “Let’s Move!” initiative and encouraged her to make guest TV appearances.

A video of Obama’s Mom Dance, filmed on “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon,” has garnered more than 22 million views on YouTube.

Insiders told the Times that Hillary Clinton does not need a “life coach,” but will need Schake’s help softening the strong, experienced image Clinton developed as secretary of state.

“It’s terribly exciting for Sonoma to be represented this way,” said Magnani, her high school friend. “She will do well for the campaign.”

Read the New York Times story at http://nyti.ms/1E78tYY.