Karl Frisch

Karl Frisch has worked for 15 years at the intersection of technology, media, and politics. He has earned a national reputation for creative strategies and effective execution of both advocacy and electoral communications campaigns. Frisch is a partner in Bullfight Strategies, a Washington-based communications firm that leverages new and traditional media with strategic research, aggressive outreach and state of the art technology platforms on behalf of progressive causes, candidates, leaders, and select businesses. Karl is also a fixture on the progressive talk radio circuit. He co-hosts a weekly segment on the Stephanie Miller Show and frequently guest hosts for the likes of Bill Press and Leslie Marshall, all nationally syndicated. Frisch is widely quoted in print, regularly interviewed on network and cable outlets like MSNBC and Current, and writes a weekly syndicated opinion column on political issues of the day. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Karl landed his first political job after his high school graduation, working for Republicans first at the local level and later on the national stage. In 2000, he traveled across the country doing press advance and field work for Senator John McCain's first presidential campaign. Afterwards, Frisch came out of two closets at once as a gay man and a progressive Democrat. Doubly liberated, he served as field director for Jim Hahn's 2001 come-from-behind victory as Mayor of Los Angeles, and in 2002 as deputy communications director of the California Democratic Party when Democrats swept every statewide office for the first time in nearly a century. Karl next joined the renowned new media team of Howard Dean's 2004 presidential campaign as multimedia communications director. That campaign revolutionized the use of the Internet as an organizing, public relations, and political fund raising tool. In 2005, Frisch was named press secretary to Congresswoman Louise M. Slaughter on the House Rules Committee. He was instrumental that year in helping to expose corruption and a pattern of ethics abuses by Congressional Republicans. Frisch next served as communications director for Iraq war veteran Paul Hackett in his short-lived bid for U.S. Senate in Ohio. Shortly after, he was hired as national press secretary for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in the 2006 election cycle that saw Democrats regain the Senate majority. Most recently, Karl worked for nearly five years as communications director and then as a senior fellow at Media Matters for America, the nations premier progressive media watchdog. Frisch was instrumental in building the backbone behind the organization's rapid response communications structure, establishing a state of the art operation that has since become a model of best practices for progressive organizations throughout the country. Frisch resides in Washington, DC with his wheaten terrier mix Dexter Von Frisch. [Interesting Factoid: Karl was the 3,365th user on Twitter. There are now more than 200 million registered accounts.]