Arthur Finkelstein, a Republican campaign strategist who helped get presidents Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon elected, and was involved in many crucial GOP campaigns, died Saturday at 72.
Finkelstein died at his home in Ipswich, Massachusetts from metastasized lung cancer, his family said in a statement, according to The Washington Post.
Finkelstein also was connected with the successful New York campaigns of former U.S. Sen Al D'Amato and former Gov. George Pataki, along with working for North Carolina U. S. Sen Jesse Helms, Politico said.
"Without Arthur Finkelstein, Ronald Reagan might never have become president of the United States," the Post quoted Craig Shirley, a historian and Reagan biographer, who made the comment on the website of National Review magazine in January 2017.
The Post said Finkelstein, Roger Ailes, Lee Atwater, and Charlie Black were viewed as instrumental in shaping what became known as the Reagan Revolution.
He was 25 years old when he helped James Buckley, a registered member of New York's Conservative Party, win a six-person race for the Senate in 1970, the Post said. He helped Helms become the first Republican elected to the Senate from North Carolina since the 19th century two years later, the Post said.
Politico said he also was involved in Nixon's 1972 campaign as well. Finkelstein was credited with bringing the word "liberal" into the political narrative against his opponents.
"Essentially he has dictated the message strategy for the Republican Party," Mandy Grunwald, a Democratic consultant told the Post in 1996. "I don't know a Senate race in the country where the Republican message isn't charging liberal, liberal, liberal."
The Post said Finkelstein helped mold "liberal" attacks that helped Florida Sen. Connie Mack beat Democrat Buddy MacKay in 1988, assisted D'Amato win reelection to Congress in 1992 and Pataki unseat Mario Cuomo, father of current governor Andrew Cuomo, in 1994.